Moonflower Watch

[pameladean]

This post is a result of a discussion in someone else's journal. I have a moonflower vine (thanks to biblio_tech), and because of the unseasonably warm weather, it may actually flower. It has six buds that, if they were morning-glory buds, would have opened already. I am informed, by various sources, that they open at dusk, that they open so quickly that one can watch it happen, and that they stay open all night and sometimes into the next day; also that if pollinated with a phoenix feather, they will ripen and in seventeen months shoot little moons out into the solar system.

I figure I'll deal with that in seventeen months.

In the meantime, does anybody know what the buds look like when they are actually ready to open, as opposed to dinking around and snickering behind their leaves every time I come to check their progress?

Pamela

Comments

[momomom.livejournal.com]

They look much like morning glory buds only larger and white.

[pameladean]

The plot thickens! Because that is JUST what they do look like, and yet they do not bloom.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

My experience with morning glories is that they bloom long after you expect them to. The bloom is THERE, but it takes forever to actually open. I hope it stays warm long enough.

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

I believe the moonflower came from biblio_tech, because I've omitted the underscore myself.

[pameladean]

Eeek, thank you. I have fixed it.

P.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I have no information, but I do want to know where you buy your phoenix feathers. White Flower Farms?

[pameladean]

Well, you'd think so, but phoenix feathers are rather like Madonna lilies for me. By the time I realize that I want some, White Flower Farm is out of them.

I have to collect them in parks, if I'm lucky.

P.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

You can still get lilium regale.

Note that those people also have English bluebells. Ordering now.

[pameladean]

Aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhh. I don't have time to plant them.

But it's only a few little holes.

Aaaaaaagggggghhhhhh.

P.

[raanve]

I had some moonflower climbing a trellis and looking really nice & big, and then something happened and now they are half-dead. :( I got no blooms... I just keep hoping they'll come back next year and will flower then! The aroma of them is amazing.

[pameladean]

Aw, I hate it when that happens. One gets so hopeful, and then ... fizzle. I hope yours does come back. Mine isn't going to unless it self-seeds -- it's much too cold for it to overwinter.

Mine may be going to behave like yours, who knows.

P.

fizzling

[(Anonymous)]

It may just be thirsty. They are very sensitive to drought. Try giving it lots of water and see if that helps. They don't self-seed, even though they typically form huge seeds after flowering. Gotta buy the new seed packets every year. And they can't survive winter. I have no idea where the seeds come from, but the ones that form on the vines don't work at all.

Re: fizzling

[raanve]

Thank you for the tips! It may be that the seeds don't work because white moonflower is some sort of sterile hybrid.

Hopefully, if I replant next year, things will go better during late summer - we have had drought conditions here all summer long, and I try to keep up with the watering, but it's not always easy, and over the weekend we were away & now the poor thing looks worse than ever!

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Hooray moonflower! I will have to plant those again next year. I had them two years ago and I keep forgetting to order the seeds :/

I ~think~ the buds start to open at the very tip and the diagonal swirls get more noticeable right before they open fully, but I'm very much not positive. :/

[pameladean]

Aha. There are two that look misshapen because the tips are larger. I'll keep a special eye on them. They didn't open this evening, though.

The vine is quite pretty. I think I'd put mine in more sun next time, though.

P.

Lucky You

[biblio-tech.livejournal.com]

My vines have not produced any buds. I hope yours finish opening before frost. I interplanted mine with hyacinth beans--they finally started flowering about 3 weeks ago (and look gorgeous). I think I need more sun, but they're in the sunniest spot I have.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I am more interested in where to get a phoenix feather, and how to get Mr Ollivander to put it at the core of a wand....

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I want to come see them.

[blueoxmn.livejournal.com]

We have moonflowers in our garden that fully bloomed this year, they look like big Ol' morning glories on steroids, and they define the color WHITE. I'll try and get some nice pics and post em, best of luck on yours.

[tanac.livejournal.com]

I planted both moonflowers and morning glory vines about a month or so ago - the morning glories have taken off and we've had blooms for around a week, but the moonflowers just gave up. Prima donnas. I guess they get their own buckets next year.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We shall stand by tonight and every night until the thing blooms or until it obviously can't.

K. [I have 2 or 3 morning glory flowers at the moment, from self-sown seeds going on 5 or 6 years now. Every year there are fewer, and this might be the last of them]

[pameladean]

That's until frost, I guess. Which should be any minute, but I don't even see any in the long-range forecast.

Do your volunteer morning-glories come out blue? We get lots, but almost all of them have purple flowers. I think we've had one self-seeded one that was actually blue. Luckily, we like the purple ones too.

Lydy puts in morning glories every year. Ours grew up a thistle that i planned to cut down after the first few thistle flowers had gladdened the goldfinches, but I couldn't do that when it had morning glories all over it. I suppose I'll be sorry later.

P.

[alphapersei.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am sorry, this has nothing at all to do with moonflowers, but... (imagine a lot of embarassed shuffling) I am an avid fan of Tam Lin and after having read it three or four times I am STILL puzzled as to the exact significance of the bunk beds! The other things I understand, but the bunk beds, oh, the bunk beds...

Josefin

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

When I was maybe 7, we lived across from a house with a moonflower vine.

In the evenings, you could hear the cry go up: "They're opening!"

Followed, of course, by the thunder of running feet. My mother still remembers this with a kind of glow, the same look she gets when she tells me how she saw a fairy when she was young or about her favorite pieces of jewelry.

I did save some moonflower seeds in a little jar and around four years later I planted them in a different state, where they grew until they hit the electric wire in the fence. Ooops.

[pameladean]

What a great story of your mom's.

I bet the moons that came from the electrified moonflower vine would really have been something, too.

Mine has gradually given up and shrivelled. I'm going to plant some seeds in several different locations next year, and try to do it earlier (unfortunately, this will probably be possible because winter is ending earlier as a rule).

P.