Hi,

After 3 years in my 2nd story garage apt., I finally decided to spring for a couple of flowerboxes for the landing at the top of the stairs.

In March, looking forward to getting an early start via indoor seed pots, I browsed the seed display at my hardware store, and ended up with, along with morning glories, basil, tarragon, daisies and jalapenos, a packet of Burpees Giant White Moonflowers.

I really didnt know much about them, but, as per the seed packet description, the thought of giant, fragrant, bright white flowers following the moon across my landing sounded quite lovely.

So, following the packet instructions, I meticulously chipped each of the 20 or so seeds I got (didnt seem like much for $1.69, but what did I know?), and got them going towards the end of March, in little peat pots. Took a couple of weeks, but I was delighted when they came up.

So tended them faithfully for the month and a half, until towards the beginning of May, and set them out into the set of 3 flower boxes, (along with the morning glories, daisies, a couple of clumps of blue fescue), a couple basil plants. I set them in potting soil mixed with some commercial top soil, fertilized with blood meal and some little time-released fertilizer granules.

All went well, fought off a couple of attacks of squirrels foraging for buried treasure, and when the weather started warming, everything took off. A week or two ago the "moonflowers" started to flower, but something didnt quite seem right. The packet said that the plants would be vines, mine were still clearly forming sizeable upright stems. I thought, well, maybe the stem gets big and thick and then laters starts to meader... (?!).

The first bloom came out quite rapidly, it was large and looked "like it should" (little spirally edges on the flower margins, all bunched up) and I followed its progress over a couple of days, until I could catch it doing its thing at night.

I was quite disappointed to come home one night to find it still just as tightly wrapped up as it had been for the preceding couple of days. A very heavy rain that night actually damaged the flower which dropped, leaving a now rapidly enlarging spiny fruiting body of some kind...Which (finally) brings me to my point....

Looking much closer at the now 12-15 plants that have made it this far, at their leaf shapes flower arrays and, most confusing to me, clear thick, upright, stemmed shape, I started poking around on the Web. If I didnt "know" better, I could swear that I have common Jimson week (Datura stramonium), (mine looks *exactly* like: http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/600max/html/starr_020120_0029_datura_stramonium.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DaturaStramonium-plant-sm.jpg

versus the Ipomoea alba type of plant that the seed packet and most supporting documentation has suggested that I would have received ("Huge flowers cover this climbing vine and open in evening and close the following noon. Vigorous vine dazzles with pure white fragrant flowers measureing up to 6" across".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea (mine are clearly not in this genus...)

My flowers never seem to open, the have no noticable aroma and they are clearly not borne on vines. The leaves are largely dentate (not complete, smooth-margined, heart shaped like common references suggest). And most pictures I see of common Jimson weed (which still bearning a common name of moonflower) nearly all very closely match the plants in my box. (though mine are still young and small)

I've been very careful to monitor volunteers that might have arrived in the seedbank of the topsoil I mixed in with the potting mix (not much save for a few grass sprouts), and I planted the MFs in such a particular pattern that there is not doubting that what I am looking at are the plants I transfered.

Now the seeds that I planted look much closer to the Ipomoea alba kind (common Jimson supposed has much smaller, blacker seeds), so I guess I could allow for some hydridization, but I have to admit to being stumped (and, given the effort I've invested to get them along to this stage, more than a little disappointed.).

Has anyone else had unexpected results using Burpees "moonflower" seeds?

-jgm