Ipomoea and Tropaeolum

Dennis Kramb dkramb@badbear.com
Thu, 25 Aug 2005 09:45:34 PDT
At 11:13 AM 8/25/2005, you wrote:
>Nice work, Dennis. If that stunning photo of the flower of Ipomoea pandurata
>does not get potential growers' attention, nothing will!

White flowers are extremely difficult for me to photograph, but this one 
turned out wonderful.  I love the star shaped texture in the petals.  I 
found it growing up a dead tree on an open hillside (under some electric 
power lines).  It was enjoying itself, for sure!  There were dozens of 
blooms and you could see it for what seemed like miles away.

The I.p. growing in my neighbors yard always suffer that affliction of 
insect damage to the seeds.  I collected some seeds from a nearby high 
school, but strangely they did not have the fuzzy robes on them.  (Could 
some smart person please tell me the scientific name for that "fuzzy robe", 
LOL.)  The flowers were almost certainly I.p. but the seeds look like 
regular morning glory seeds.  Anyway, I'm growing them on to see what 
blooms they produce.

My neighbors patch of I.p. seems to grow larger each year.  I suppose it's 
propagating vegetatively rather than re-seeding.  But I'm not really 
familiar enough with this species to know for sure.  I keep checking for 
seed pods but none have formed yet this season.  (My spell checker insists 
that reseeding should be receding.)  LOL.

I would love to see someone selectively propagate this species to get a 
pure purple flower.

Ooohh... I just had an idea.  How cool would it be to grow Ipomoea 
pandurata at the base of a Hibiscus moscheutos!  :-)

Dennis in Cincinnati (where the wildflower seed collecting has begun)


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