MG's are just starting to bloom down here.

oh cool. It's my first time growing them. So most likely in a week or two, I'll see them blooming?

I have another question. I planted morning glory and moonflower on the same pot. One vine has tons of small thorn like spikes. Is it morning glory?

When they get ready, they'll bloom, impossible to say exactly when unfortunately.

Can you take and add a pic of the other vine? I don't know of any Ipomoeas that have thorns. Most likely suspect would be some kind of berry vine.

I'm sure it's either Morning glory or moonflower because I bought them and planted them all mixed. I really wanted to see how they will look like when mix. I also read that morning glory's flower appear in the morning while moonflower in the evening.

Here are the pics. I'll also take advantage of this post so I can share how my pergola looks like now. :)

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The leaves of the vine that has thorns.
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The other vine that doesn't have thorns.
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v1rtu0s1ty - There are quite a few different Morning Glories that have soft tubercles (usually) on the lower stems but also extending up onto the upper sections of the plant.

The leaves you posted could belong to any of the 3 species I will mention below.

I think the plant that you have with the protuberances is likely Ipomoea alba (even though many I.alba don't produce these structures , many strains do)...

The other MG species that have similar 'soft thorns' are Ipomoea muricata and sometimes Ipomoea tricolor , although if you had I.tricolor it would likely have been blooming already.

There are other Ipomoea species that produce soft thorns but you aren't likely to acquire them at your local commercial outlets...

Ipomoea alba frequently blooms very late in the season , so it is not unusual at all for you not to see any flowers yet , especially if you are in a zone 5a...
The I.alba have started blooming for some people in the warmer zones in the lower latitudes but that is related to the red (bloom stimulating) frequencies they receive by the sunlight being filtered through a larger portion of the atmosphere...

The phosphorus based bloom boosters may help (and will definitely hurt if you apply more than just a little) although you're probably best being patient and waiting until Nature takes it's course...

Hope that helps...

Ron

ah, so it's the morning glory that has the thorns. :)

I forgot which variety I planted. I have a packet here of Heavenly Blue and Blue Star.

Anyways, which vine variety blooms early? Also, I remember someone posting a morning glory whose flowers look like a rose. I want that so badly! :) What variety is it and where can I buy it?

Thanks for the information about Morning Glories! :)

Thanks, Ron! I had no idea. The volunteers, the 'heavenly blue', moonflower vine, and the 3 colors of sweet potato vine (all commercial varieties/weeds,) I've had have never had any thorns. Not sure how I'd feel about having all of that thorny material to remove from CL fence. This is good info to have, not some thing I want to end up cussing at at some point.

I would like to add an additional clarification and that is that I used the adjective "soft" several times to describe the pseudo-thorns or protuberances...

I used the descriptor soft in the sense of 'you can't cause any of them to pierce your skin'.

The protuberances do not dry any harder than the regular stem tissue and do not categorically cling to chain-link fencing or any other types of fencing whether the pseudo-thorns are alive or dried after the plant completes it's life cycle.

The soft protuberance do help the plants to scramble through grass and brush that the encounter in the wild by very gently creating a small amount of friction and thereby gently 'grasping' the grass stems helping to prevent the vine from slipping downward.

The people (including myself) who are interested in the various natural species usually find the soft protuberances (which remain soft upon drying) to be thought provoking and visually interesting.

Hoping my additional comments sufficiently clarify that the soft protuberances do not make removing the vine stems any more difficult than vines that do not have the soft protuberances.

I would be glad to conceptually assist anyone who may still have any lingering misconceptions regarding the soft (i.e., which remain relatively soft upon drying) type of protuberances that appear on some Ipomoea alba and Ipomoea tricolor strains and are a consistent feature of Ipomoea muricata.

Thanks for taking the time to share that, Ron! Great info, who knows what I might encounter in trade at some point. I would probably have turned down seeds of the kinds you mentioned that have 'thorns' until I read the additional info. But now I see why I've never heard of 'morning glory thorns' before, they're harmless.

V1rtu0s1ty, your yard looks awesome, BTW! Did you do the stone work?

Yup purpleinopp, I built both the patio and pergola. :)

I actually have a thread for it. See below. However, the images are missing. I asked the GardenWeb admin if I can edit those old post but he said there is no way I can edit it.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0802193616658.html

This post was edited by v1rtu0s1ty on Wed, Jul 31, 13 at 17:27

I corrected the link above. Since the pictures are missing on that thread, you can see the pictures on the link below

Patio Pergola Project pics