Ron, some strange blooming MG in my yard

15 years ago

H Ron,

I finally have a real flying saucer morning glory bloom. The critters finally left the vine alone and I have one,

BUT, ITS A SQUARE FLOWER. HONEST, TAKE A LOOK. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

This bloom came from a packet common morning glory mix. A neighbor gave me one of the vines that germinated and I potted the vine in a pot. All of hers are the common, pink and lavender, small flower. This one is different. Any idea what it might be?

This is from my arbor. 4 vines all heavenly blue and been blooming heavenly blue until today.

Yesterday I noticed that when the blooms close up, they have been pink ,but where the normal blue during the day and as the temps have cooled, the blooms are staying open most of the day now.

We've had crazy cold temps, down in the 40's and night and 60's during the day. A couple of days it warmed up and now it was cool, damp, raw and cloudy most of today.

This is what greeted me Monday morning. 3 flowers looked like this, the rest where a normal heavenly blue

And you can see in this pic that a bud that is ready to open in the morning will be partly pink as well, you can see the pink in the bud.

And this is a pic of the blooms on the black seeds that developed from last years "sydney" MG that bloomed half pink and half blue flowers.

Most of the flowers are a normal flower like the one I posted a while ago and look like this.

But some of them are blooming normally in appearance if you look at them head on, but if you look at the side or the back of the flower this is what you see, any ideas what is going on with them?

Fran

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Comments (5)

ron_convolvulaceae
15 years ago
Hey Fran - The Flying Saucers (as most Ipomoea tricolor) usually have 5 ribs supporting the corolla,but if the bloom only produces 4 ribs,the blooms take on the square look...I think it's an interesting look,although I haven't seen any that will produce square blooms consistently...yet...

The Ipomoea purpurea that you posted is what I have been calling a 'solid' flaked...
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/95591/
the background is mostly solid coloration with darker streaks in it...

The Ipomoea tricolor Heavenly Blue can often show signs of impaired pigmentation along with some possible tissue damage to the delicate corolla membrane when the temperatures drop...the corolla can have difficulty opening and the bloom tips usually get the 'frostbite' an result in the usual blue pigmentation being replaced by the look of the 'frostbitten' fuchsia...the same color can appear if the tissue has the upper layer 'torn' during difficult openings or otherwise sustains any damage...I see it as part of the general color changes that Autumn brings...

The Ipomoea purpurea in the last photo has hige genes...these can often show entire corollas with various degrees of extra corolla tissue becoming shredded to create the frills that spice up the rear of the bloom...the hige gene can also skip a generation...

Thanks for sharing your blooms...

Ron
littleonefb
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Ron,

There are at least 6 more buds on the flying saucer, still fairly small. Will keep an eye on them to see if they produce another square bloom

The "solid flaked" is a real pretty bloom, nice size but not huge. I hope I will get a few pods of it to grow out next year.

The hige gene blooms are marked with a tag so that I can save those seeds separately from the others. Will be interesting to see what it blooms next year, especially since the seeds where supposed to be sidney, looked like sydney seeds but bloomed a half light blue and half pink variations. Didn't look anything like sydeny. The seeds collected from that vine where black seeds instead of the tan like color of sydney.

The temps warmed a bit and after that pinkish bloom opened yesterday on the heavenly blue, all the blooms today have been the normal blue.

Tis fun to see how some MG blooms change as the day light shortens in hours and the temps cool down. Some stay the same, others are a smaller flower or slightly less bright in color.

Keeping an eye on those "pink" blue silk seed pods for you.

Fran
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rosepedal
15 years ago
Hi Ron and Fran,
I have one for you both. It is big like jap mg but no varigated leaves. It has a yellow throat. Temps like frans. Nothing else bloomed like this on the trellis. Fran those are some neat variations Love the square one. That is neat to learn. Do you know what this is...
ron_convolvulaceae
15 years ago
rosepedal - The smaller flower visible in the lower left is an Ipomoea purpurea as are the seedpods to the upper left of the large blue flower...

The large blue flower with the yellow that is visible in the lower tube is an Ipomoea tricolor "Heavenly Blue"

Hope that helps...

Ron
rosepedal
15 years ago
Isnt that something. I didnt have heavenly blue seeds. These are from trades. So Heavenly blue was placed into the seeds. I am happy about that. I am going to tag the vine. I love how large the flowers are and the yellow throat is wonderful too. They are nice due to, you can see them from a distance. Thanks Ron You are wondeful as always...... Barb