Thursday, August 7, 2008

morning glories

A little update on the morning glory seeds I planted this season. You may remember that the plants are from the seeds that I harvested by hand from last year's plants.

I had never used seeds that were harvested by hand. For that matter, I had never harvested seeds before. I had no idea if they would grow at all. I kept the seeds in a white number 10 envelope tacked to the bulletin board in the office through the winter. When spring rolled around I sorted them into several smaller packets of seeds. I sent out seed packets to four different people in addition to a large pile of seeds that I kept for myself. I'm not sure if any of them had any success with their packets. I think the heat was too much for a couple of them. But here in Toledo growing conditions are perfect.

Let's have a looksy shall we?

May 23, 2008: The little seedlings are transplanted around a small iron trellis. You can see two out of three pieces of twine tied to the trellis that lead up to a small hook at the peak of the garage roof. They give the vines something to grow along in addition to the trellis. Along with the morning glories are a few moon flowers that I grew for evening blooms.


August 3, 2008: The same area from a slightly different angle. You can see the vines trailing up the twine now. The peak is just out of the frame above the wind chime (one of my favorite wedding gifts. It has a beautiful sound and is hand tuned to the Key of E). The two large pots hold lettuce at three different stages of growth (sown every few weeks or so to extend the growing season).


June 5, 2008: To the right of G-tot are a few of the seedlings that I planted along the perimeter of the fence. JQ has some mad trimming skills because not one of these babies were hacked down to little nubs.



July 11, 2008: They climbed the fence nicely but not as fully as I expected them to. When they hit the top of the fence the vines would use each other to climb and get completely jumbled together. I've spent hours unwinding the vines and redirecting them down and back up the fence. It's almost meditative and once you start it's hard to stop.



August 3, 2008: Overflowing and flowering like crazy.

10 comments:

Christina said...

Your morning glories are beautiful! Ours haven't bloomed but they are very tall. I asked a guy at a local nursery and he said around here they bloom the second year (?), so I'm hoping next year ours will look like yours.

P.S. WOW JQ is good with a trimmer. I mean, seriously, I am impressed.

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

christina—The second year? That can't be right, they're annuals. Why wouldn't they bloom this year. Hmmm…

Anonymous said...

Yes, the heat got to mine... but yours are GORGEOUS! and everything I pretended mine would be!

Tim said...

Have you seen The Ruins? Vines freak me out.

Fantastagirl said...

They are beautiful - you have got such a green thumb!

Brandy said...

Those are absolutely gorgeous!!

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

shades—You were the one I was thinking of. I meant to link to each of you but forgot. That's what happens when it takes forever to compose a post because you can only write it in little bits.

tim—Never heard of it.

fantastagirl—Thanks. I'd like to think my thumb is a bit on the green side.

brandy—Thanks!

Kelwhy said...

those are really beautiful - well done!

Lisa Armsweat said...

Great job. They're gorgeous! You're fortunate to have actual weather in your part of the country, so that green things can actually, how you say..."grow"?! :)

Cupcake Blonde said...

I am so sad the Vegas sun burnt mine to a crsip. Yours are so fun and pretty!