Ipomoea

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Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #15 on: June 06, 2018, 07:30:11 AM »
Am growing Ipomea 'Black Knight ' this year and am very disappointed with the health of the plants. They have grown away well and started to flowers very early - beautiful colour, but the leaves are awful, turning yellow with mottling and obviously being eaten by something too- earwigs?
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2018, 07:31:56 AM »
Sorry for the poor quality of the 'photo but I think it shows the problem!
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #17 on: August 30, 2018, 07:32:32 AM »
Have had varying success with the different Ipomoea that I raised from seed this year but one has been a real triumph - Ipomoea ' Alba' - also known as the 'Moon Ipomoea'  I think ....
Several germinated but only one grew away strongly .....and grew and grew with large leaves but no sign of flowers. Then I noticed  large buds that seemed very slow to develop and have to admit I stopped showing much interest in it. The other evening we were returning home late when I was confronted with this huge white flower gleaming through the darkness as we approached our front door - my first flower on the Ipomoea ' Alba'! It was quite spectacular the flower being as large as my cupped hand and  I rushed to get my camera which was fortunate because in the morning it was already well past it's best.
After ' googling' it I discovered it is a night flowering variety and one with a perfume that I have been able to verify as subsequent flowers opened  - last night I had two blooms.
Quite the most exciting and unexpected thing I have grown from seed- I did once have a white flowered Ipomoea given to me by a friend - rather like " Heavenly Blue" in size and form but this one is amazing.
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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Charithea

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #18 on: August 31, 2018, 12:39:58 PM »
Beautiful bloom Carole.  I have tried to grow a large white one from the seeds taken from Cindy Evans's garden in Mallorca. It was the first time that I had seen such large blooms. I was unsuccessful so I bought seeds from England and had the same result. We do have Impmoea such as the common morning glory that rampages every where here in Cyprus.  I have it in a pot to restrict its roots and so far so good. A very successful Ipomoea is Star of Yalta, from the MGS seed bank. It grows any where it finds drops of water. It re seeds and regrows all summer through. It is accompanied by Ipomea quamocli. The quamoclit seeds germinate when the weather is really hot. Both suffer in the midday heat but recover later on in the evening. I am now experimenting with a new cool place for the Star of Yalta.  Under our enormous avocado tree.  I will update if the seeds germinate.
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #19 on: September 01, 2018, 07:24:15 AM »
This is Ipomoea 'Lutea' - a pretty shade of pale yellow and quite prolific flowering happily both in full sun and more shaded positions.
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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Charithea

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #20 on: September 01, 2018, 09:29:58 AM »
Very pretty and soft colour. . I maintain that I don't like yellow or orange and yet there are flowers of both colours in our garden and they are lovely.  Prejudice is not a good trait to have.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2018, 09:40:25 AM by Charithea »
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #21 on: September 02, 2018, 07:04:24 AM »
A lot of gardeners profess to not liking yellow flowers but I love them adding bright splashes of colour. Perhaps the fashion for pale planting schemes involving many shades of pink and purple flowers, not to mention white gardens,  has made yellow difficult to include. Gardening is certainly subject to ' fashion' both regarding colour schemes and
'must have' plants. Since gardening in a Mediterranean climate I am more concerned with the viability of the plants I choose although do appreciate an harmonious result.
 A good topic for discussion I would think............
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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John J

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #22 on: September 02, 2018, 09:08:39 AM »
Good idea, Carole. For me, personally, here in Cyprus yellow means spring as the majority of the first flowers that open on the hillsides are yellow. Maybe that's only because they stand out more, but whatever the reason they are bright and cheerful.
Cyprus Branch Head. Gardens in a field 40 m above sea level with reasonably fertile clay soil.
"Aphrodite emerged from the sea and came ashore and at her feet all manner of plants sprang forth" John Deacon (13thC AD)

David Dickinson

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #23 on: September 02, 2018, 10:00:54 AM »
I find that yellow often enhances blues, purples and whites. And, where would we be in early autumn without Sternbergia?
I have a small garden in Rome, Italy. Some open soil, some concrete, some paved. Temperatures in winter occasionally down to 0°C. Summer temperatures up to 40°C in the shade. There are never watering restrictions but, of course, there is little natural water for much of June, July and August.

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Charithea

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #24 on: September 02, 2018, 04:09:34 PM »
Ok. I give in.   All of you are correct. Yellow is bright  and cheerful and some flowers are amazing in that colour but every year I battle with Oxalis pes-caprae and there is a great dislike for that colour(tint ). And here is another paradox. I love my orange cosmos which is situated under the plum tree.  While it is in flower I check it and enjoy its beauty.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2018, 05:44:24 PM by Charithea »
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #25 on: September 03, 2018, 05:30:03 AM »
It is interesting to consider why we have aversions to certain plants and flowers. Your explanation Charithea re Oxalis as to the reason why you are not fond of yellow flowers being a good example. I have found myself ' disliking' certain plants merely because they featured in every garden that I knew as a child growing up in a row of terraced houses each with a long narrrow garden where Chrysanthemums, Dahlias, Michaelmas Daisies, Anemone japonica etc etc featured. Since  in most cases these  gardens were the domain of the men, who grew vegetables, it would seem likely that such flowers were perhaps grown for cutting.........Anyway I shied away from many of them for a long time - too easy to grow?, snobbery - too common?
I remember suggesting to a friend, whom I was helping to create a garden here in Italy,
to use Cotoneaster as a screen close to his car parking area. He turned his hands up in horror " Oh no " he said "My father planted that everywhere"
With encouragement he relented and we alternated it with Eleagnus ebbingeii. He now has a wonderful evergreen hedge.
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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Charithea

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #26 on: September 04, 2018, 01:12:58 PM »
I bet you have a happy friend Carole. I loved Cotoneasters in the dull winter light of England but here in Cyprus they look washed out. I considered the above topic and it is relavent to why I chose some of our trees and bushes. I associate them with happiness and love . A Morus alba  because I played and had siestas under the shade of one in the long hot dusty summers in my childhood. The adults were working to take us to the near by beach to cool us down so our natural cooler was a very large shade tree.  Eleagnus  angustifolia is associate with the coolest garden I knew. The tree's orange ripe fruit glistened in the sun in early October. The tree was the gate way to Mr Panayis' garden. He had the luxury of water from the village acqua duct that carried it to the Castle and also a well to draw water out in the dried months. He was an old bachelor who used to solder back the legs of  the primus  stoves around the neighbourhood.  I was always willing to run errands there. I was allowed to walk around the garden under the conditions of not stepping on or cutting the flowers. Sadly the garden is no more. It was torn out and holiday homes have been built.  Still when our tree flowers and the garden is awash with its perfume I think of that old man and his garden.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2018, 02:26:10 PM by Charithea »
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.

Umbrian

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #27 on: October 22, 2018, 05:20:49 PM »
Further to my post regarding Ipomea ' Lutea' . Having  some Ipomea plants over and no longer having any idea exactly which variety they were, I planted one at the base of a quite big Salvia lavandufolia that I subsequently trimmed back quite a bit. The Ipomea was rather forgotten until quite late in the summer when I noticed it had begun to weave itself through the Salvia and shortly after produced its first flower - a small yellow one revealing that it was a 'lutea' A few showery days in September saw it flourish and now it is looking really pretty. I am afraid my 'photo does not really do it justice but I shall certainly plant some Ipomea under some early flowering shrubs next year as I think the effect is quite pretty  and gives renewed interest later in the season.
The small flowered varieties seem most suited as their growth is quite delicate. Ipomea
'coccinea' is another that could  look quite stunning with its small bright red flowers.
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

Hilary

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #28 on: October 23, 2018, 06:17:57 AM »
The flowers look like lights on a Christmas tree
Lovely
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Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

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Charithea

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Re: Ipomoea
« Reply #29 on: October 23, 2018, 04:44:17 PM »
Carole , I agree with you. They do complement the host plant.  I have a Ipomoea quamuclit growing over a plant. I will post the photo when we return from the AGM in Spain.
I garden in Cyprus, in a flat old farming field, alt. approx. 30 m asl.