Mystery vine...same trellis as Moonvine.

Tracey,

I don't think it is silly at all. I love being outside and watching the moonvine flowers open in the evening. You've certainly had to wait a long time for blooms. I'd be excited too.

I've told this story before, but probably long before you joined the forum, so I'll tell it again.

About a decade ago or maybe even further back than that, I read a story in a southern magazine, probably "Southern Living" magazine, about moonflower vines and one man's love for his bride-to-be.

He owned family land and I don't think it had any structures on it at that point in time, and they wanted an outdoor wedding. He had an open-air chapel built for their wedding. What it looked like was the framing of a big structure like a tall barn, but with no walls or ceilings....just the open framework. Then he planted moonflower vines so they would grow up over the structure and cover it. They planned their wedding so that she would be walking down the aisle at exactly the same time the moonflowers were opening up that evening so they could have a double wow factor--the bride and the opening of the flowers. They said it was quite spectacular. Can you imagine it? I can.

I have no idea what became of them or if they have lived "happily ever after" or not, but I hope they have. A man who would do that for his future wife sounds like a keeper to me.

Dawn

What a lovely story, I can imagine it also. It will hang in my head as I go to sleep tonight.

My little Moonflower was open but seems to be deformed...I think its just bc its the first. I still think its great!

Yay! At least you finally got to see one. Hopefully you'll have lots more now that the weather is supposed to be cooling down.

Tracey, mine started blooming a couple days ago, too.

The trifoliate leaves on your other climber, could be an Ipomoea nill (Japanese Morning Glory), or another species, but definitely not an I. purpurea.

My JMG 'Dusty Mauve' finally put out its first bloom yesterday, and I'll try to get some more photos posted of other MGs soon. Oh, and 'Kanoko Red Speckled' is blooming now, too. I'm not impressed by it as much as the others.

Congrats on your blooming Moonvine, Tracey!

Susan

Finally a great show. My Moonflower had one beautifully formed flower last night. I watched it open as I cooked a late dinner on the grill. Then tonight I worked late and came home to find 3 Moonflowers. I have never grown anything that has such large blooms. Stunning, I cant wait to show my Mom. I did notice that each bloom had one bug in it.

I thought they were cucumber bugs, but I have seen them on everything from tomatos to zinnias. I always grab them and squish them. They look like yellow ladybugs. I should really research them some more.

Mystery vine has still not bloomed...but I really think it will tomorrow. DH would say that Ive been saying that for a week. LOL I just would like to know what color it is!

The bugs do sound like Spotted Cucumber Beetles, and they do attack most any flower and chew them to bits. I, too, grab and squish. I bet I squished dozens and dozens yesterday cuz they are out in full force right now. They especially love the Sunflowers. Here's a photo attached. They look kind of yellow-green to me. There is another one that is striped (hence the name Striped Cucumber Beetle), and I saw only one in the garden this year. I seem to get the Spotted ones. I don't know if that's a regional thing or what.

Congrats on your beautiful blooms!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Spotted Cucumber Beetle

Tracey, Isn't it fun to be able to enjoy them so much after waiting so long for them to bloom?

One year I grew moonflower vines on my veggie garden fence on a strip of the fence about 50' long. I had them mixed with Heavenly Blue Morning Glory on the east garden fence that faces the roadway. During the early morning hours the fence was so heavily covered in blue flowers that it stopped traffic. At night, when there was less traffic, it was covered in moonflowers which I thought were even more lovely than the morning glories even if folks driving by didn't seem to notice them as well (the fence is a long way back from the road, and there's not an outdoor light there). I would go outside in the evening before they opened so I could stand there and watch them open up. That is a pretty spectacular thing to watch whether you're watching one flower open or a dozen or more. I think that was in either 2002 or 2004 when we had enough rain all summer long that the vines grew so heavily I had to keep pruning them back because I was worried their weight would bring the fence down. We haven't had that kind of a nice, moist summer in quite a while now.

Susan, Maybe it is a regional thing because I rarely see a striped cucumber beetle either, but do see the spotted ones. This was a great cucumber beetle year here. I didn't see a single one until a couple of weeks ago. They are here now, but not in the numbers you're seeing there. However, since we got that 3" of rain, which I think was in latest August or earliest September, the fields have become more filled with blooming wildflowers so it might just be that there's enough flowers in bloom out there to keep all the cucumber beetles busy and out of my garden.

Dawn

Ya know, Dawn, I didn't see them either until recently. I mean, I saw a few here and there, but not enough that they became a problem, and if you recall, I was worried that planting my squash and cukes would bring them in droves. But, it didn't.

I seem to always, always get them in fall now. And, I never got them, or at least not many, until I started planting Sunflowers. Don't know whether that ties in or not, but it's true. They are still eating the Sunflowers in large numbers, and a few are on the Golden Crownbeard, the Hibiscus, Zinnias, but NOTHING like the Sunflowers, which are actually dripping shredded petals, or totally lacking petals.

I found a lot of "unknown" eggs - or, at least, I knew they weren't butterfly eggs or Ladybug eggs (which have cleaned off the milkweed entirely), so I destroyed them, in fear of growing up some more SCBs. Not a chance, if I can help it!

The Lavender Moonvine flowers are stunning and I think you will like them. They are smaller than the Moonvine flowers, but oh, so pretty. I got mine from EmmaGrace, and I highly recommend her seeds. They are such a gorgeous purple lavender color, with very long tubes holding up the open flowers. I can see why the moths love them! This is funny, too, the stems are dotted with thorns that are very soft. Weird, but true. I really love this vine and will continue to grow it if I can.

Susan

Yep, my bugs are definately Spotted Cucumber beetles. I've had them all summer, but kept them under control with squishing. I did have sunflowers for the first half of the summer, but I had to take them out. My cucumbers didnt last long, the Squash bugs did them in early.

I have to tell ya'll, we went to the Fair yesterday and I really enjoyed the students bugs exhibits. I saw the SCB, Cicada Killer, and alot of bugs, butterflys and moths I have seen in my garden and wondered what they were.

Susan, there was a vendor selling butterflys framed in a dblsided glass frames. They were beautiful, but I wonder if they are a good thing. I dont know if it is a new thing or not, but I havent seen them done like this before. (you can see the front and back) Of course the vendor says they died naturally and are "farm raised".

My Moonflower is still blooming beautifully. I am hoping tomorrow is the day the "Mystery Vine" opens to tell me what color it is!

Tracey

It is a personal thing whether one wants to buy butterfly carcasses under glass, pinned, or otherwise mounted. Personally, I wouldn't do it. I always question if a butterfly that is undamaged by either old age (faded) or insect/bird/etc., truly died a "natural death". There are a lot of unscrupulous vendors around. I would not even purchase butterflies for release at weddings or other events because I doubt they have been treated well.

I feel the same way about all animals, insects, fish, amphibians, and so on and so forth. I cannot, in good conscience, support a for-profit venture at the expense of cruelty or neglect. I really feel strongly about puppy mills, and things of that nature.

I'd rather see my butterflies enjoying their God-given freedom, in natural settings, etc. And this point has been argued before on the Butterfly Forum with folks who collect specimens and euthanize them for "pinning". In today's modern tech world, there is no longer a need for that. Photos do a much better job of displaying their colors and attributes. Pinned specimens, IMHO, are not as vivid.

Susan

Susan,

We always, except for this year, have spotted cucumber beetles from about March through October or even into November if the weather stays warm. We're rural, though, so have lots of everything that exists in the pest world. I think last year's drought knocked back all the beetles a lot, because we didn't have a whole lot of lady bugs until fall, and while we had blister beetles, we didn't have as many here as NE OK did this summer. I think all those months in Exceptional Drought last year nearly wiped out a lot of the bugs and it took months and months and months for them to recover.

The lavender moonvine sound beautiful and I look forward to being able to plant my seeds next spring. The last two summers have been relatively flower-challenged because of the prolonged drought.

The rain in August kind of revived a lot of the native wildflowers, so we have about a dozen kinds of wildflowers in bloom in the pastures now. The majority of the blooms are liatris and helenium, but there's smaller numbers of other summer and autumn wildflowers, including asters and swamp mallow. In the flower beds, everything has perked up a lot and there's tons of new zinnia seedlings/volunteers that popped up out of the ground in August and now have their first flowers about to bloomp. I'm ready for a bit more beauty after a tough summer.

There's a house near the Wal-mart in Gainesville that has these vines spilling over the brick wall that Wal-Mart put up between that row of houses and the parking lot when the store was built. The vines have been there all summer and looked vaguely familiar, but I hadn't paid a lot of attention to them. Now they are blooming and the flowers are tiny. I took a good look at them as we drove by yesterday and decided they are.....bindweed. That's not exactly what I would have planted to spill over a brick wall, but then maybe they didn't plant them. Maybe the bindweed planted itself.

Dawn

I planted more Zinnia seeds in August to have some "fresh" blooms and plants this fall. They just started blooming, and it's like one of those deals where you get a plant or cut flower arrangement every month for the year? Except in this instance, it is a different flower every day or so. The mix is Whirligig, which has been around for awhile. I'd just never planted them before. Carnivale is another name for similar blooms. I feel like a little kid in the mornings now when I go outside because I'll have a "surprise" Zinnia waiting on me! Yippee!

Here's one of the new blooms. So pretty!

Susan

Susan this is my first year to plant zinnias and I am really enjoying them. Your picture is great, I love the colors. I didnt directseed mine and some are very gangly, but many have reseeded, they are tidy and blooming.

I like your take on butterfly "pinning", it is a personal thing. Pictures have become my way of preserving all my garden experiences.

Blooming vines are one of my favorites. I need to go order from EmmaGrace. I broused her site a few weeks ago and intend to get an order together.

The mystery vine finally did bloom....it was white! I think maybe it is a Moonvine. The cloudy days we had over the weekend made it hard to tell if it was blooming in the evening or morning. Oh yes...the big section of MG on my back fence bloomed yesterday! Woohoo! I didnt even see the buds before they bloomed. I almost gave up on it ever blooming...lol.

Susan, I love zinnias and have grown them every year for as long as I can remember....dating back to early childhood. My dad always planted them in our flowerbed when I was a kid, and it was my job to deadhead them. My first flowerbed at this house, which I actually built in the future back yard in the spring of 1998 (six months before the builder started building the house) had zinnias and hollyhocks in it.

I love Whirligig. When you plant it, you never know what you're going to get. I have planted some of the newer hybrids like the Profusion, Magellan and Zahara series, but prefer the old OP varieties because the butterflies seem to like them more. This year I grew Lilliput as a border plant around the raised beds of tomatoes and now have volunteers everywhere because I wasn't deadheading them regularly in the July and August heat. My all-tie favorites are the cactus-flowered types and Benary's Giants, and the green zinnias like Envy. I deliberately let all my zinnias reseed at the end of the season and it is fascinating what kind of flowers you get year after year from the flowers cross-pollinating one another. Sometimes I get bi-colored blooms which is always pretty cool to see.

Out in the front pasture some spring-blooming wildflowers like Indian Blanket and Pink Evening Primrose are blooming. They have come out of heat- and drought-induced summer dormancy and burst into bloom just as they normally would burst into bloom in spring after winter dormancy. It is sort of bizarre, but we have some of that after every extreme summer drought.

Tracey, I've never seen moonvine with the same kind of trilobed foliage as your mystery vine. I'm not saying it never could happen, but it would be more normal for a vine with that foliage to be I. nil or something else. Moonflower vine has heart-shaped leaves. When you have different vines mixed together on a fence or trellis sometimes it is hard to tell which flowers go with which leaves. There is something about your trilobed foliage that looks very familiar but I can't remember what I've grown with leaves that look just like that.

To me, morning glory and moonvine flowers are more spectacular in fall than in summer. The summer heat can fade the color some, but once fall's cooler temperatures arrive, the colors become much more vivid, and that includes the white of the moonflowers---it is just a dazzling white in cooler temperatures. Even the green of the foliage looks so much better once the heat has diminished somewhat. I've noticed the butterflies visit the fall vining bloomers nonstop all day long in my garden. You'll also notice as the weather cools that both moonvine and morning glory flowers stay open more hours per day.

Susan, I agree with you on the misuse/abuse of animals, including the pinning of butterflies and the operation of puppy mills too.

Dawn

Tracy, I agree with Dawn on the issue of a trilobed, white flowering Ipomoea, unless it is a nil sport or hybrid, which would produce a diurnal bloom. That's not to say there aren't species out there with white blooms and tri-lobed foliage, because there are. They are just so rare that I doubt they would ever show up inadvertently in a pack of more common MGs. Off tbe top of my head, Ipomoea cordatotriloba alba' is a white blooming MG with trifoliate leaves, blooming during the day, perhaps longer similar to some nils, or Asagaos, as the Japanese call them.

I'll be curious to see what further observation of this vine reveals.

Dawn, I've grown quite a few Zinnias over the years, too, but mostly the Cut & Come Again, which always draw the butterflies, the Magellans, Benaries, Lilliputs, Swizzle series, etc. I haven't tried the Zaharas yet, but they are very pretty. The Zaharas and Profusions are a bit pricier than the others, as they are relatively new on the market, as well as the even newer Queen Lime, Red Queen Lime, and Zowie Yellow Flame. Zowie is an F1 hybrid that won't come true from collected or dropped seed, and I can't justify the cost because of that. I'd have to buy new seed every year. The butterflies really do love it, tho.

I prefer to stick to the singles and semi-double flowering blooms since the nectaries are more available to the butterflies. Whirligig does this job just fine, and the Cut & Come Again mix produces many single flowers as well.

That is another reason I prefer the older varieties, too, Dawn. Some newer hybrids have had the nectaries less prominent and also reduced in size by so many successive hybridizations that the butterflies just overlook them. Same with the fully double blooms. They have to work so much harder to extract the nectar that is nearly hidden or less available that they just often give up and move from flower to flower until they find one that is easier to access.

The Whirligigs also have shorter, perhaps stronger stems and don't seem to topple over as easily as the taller ones do. They are a kind of "medium" height - about 20-24". In our wind and torrential rains (well, some years), the taller Zinnias really suffer.

My MGs are getting smaller blooms now, with the cooler spell we had recently (and today). I am mourning the loss of my big Japanese MG blooms right now......wah.......

But the Zinnias are glorious.

Susan

The mystery vine is definately white and a night bloomer. Tonight it came out slowly through the evening and now, 9 pm, it is fully open. I know I planted at least 2 different packets of Moonvines here, maybe 3. When they didnt come up I had trouble finding more. I kept only 1 empty packet, and it says: Moonflower (Evening Glory) Ipomoea ... Thats where I tore open the packet, I cant read anything else. lol The picture on the packet doesnt show the leaves very clear, but they dont look trilobed.

Tomorrow I will try to get a picture of the bloom before it fades.

I tried to visit EmmaGrace's Ebay site, but she didnt have anything listed today. I will wait a couple days to check again.

Tracey :-)

Tracy, she also has a website and I'll give you the link here. She is probably waiting to collect seed and then redo her eBay site. She sells a lot of other interesting seed, too, and always sends free packets with each order. Can you believe she grows 800+ morning glories each year? Her seeds are very reasonably priced compared to some JMG sellers.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Morning Glory USA

Thanks Susan...I am going to check it out.

The "Mystery Vine" is most certainly a Moonvine. I get those triangular leaves on my Moonvine every year, not just heart shaped one. They are very prominent towards the bottom vines. So it is indeed a moonvine. Mine FINALLY bloomed. Took forever this year