PlantFiles: Blue Dawnflower, Oceanblue Morning Glory, Island Morning Glory, Purperwinde
Ipomoea indica

Well, I am hopeful my MG will bloom. I planted it this spring and has beautifully green vines however no blooms............what am I doing wrong ???? Quickly after planting and it sprouting, I had a couple of blooms, but nothing more.
Oh and some of the leaves have bites like some insect is at it. This is all new to me.I would love any tips.
Thanks , Jill

I live just south of Denton, Tx (8a) and Oceanblue overwintered just great. In spite of snow and temps in the low 20's, it never died back completely - still had a few green vines snaking along the foundation. By mid-March, it was already climbing the porch column. It grows very aggressively in full sun and the blue blooms (beginning in late summer) are just gorgeous. I plan this spring to plant it as a large groundcover, instead of my usual sweet potato vine as I am tired of replanting the potato vine every year. Also, with the aggressive habit of the Oceanblue Morning Glory, it will probably spread even faster and have beautiful flowers, too!

This is my second year growing this MG.
It dies back in the winter here and pops up around the last of June.
The first blooms were in the first week of Sept this year,
so it took mine a while to take off here in TN, but once it dose its full of blooms.
I never water it so it just gets rain,... that might be the reason it takes so long for it to do anything.
Robbie

I live in Satellite beach Fla, and brought a specimen back from Moreno valley Ca about ten years ago. It continues to grow wild in my back yard and along my chain link link fence around my garden. It requires very little attention, other than keeping it under control. It is a vigorous grower that puts roots down any where it touches soil. If anyone cares for one send me an e-mail at [e-mail:actoon@yahoo.com]. I have plenty to share. It is also everblooming and does not die back like other Ipomoeas do in the winter time. It is truly beautiful when in full bloom along a fence or trellis.

Photo links

Ipomoea indica
[HYPERLINK@www.zimbabweflora.co.zw]
[HYPERLINK@www.zimbabweflora.co.zw]

Ipomoea indica developing maturing seedpods
[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]
[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]

Ipomoea indica sepals closeup
[HYPERLINK@www.cs.umb.edu]
sepals at base of flower
[HYPERLINK@www.hoseito.com]
[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]
[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]
[HYPERLINK@protist.i.hosei.ac.jp]
White outside base of corolla showing sepals
[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]

light blue quasi-separate petaloid form

[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]

[HYPERLINK@www.hear.org]

BEWARE!! This spreads by incredibly long runners. It will cover a house in no time.

I grow it in a pot, trained as a standard with support and it actually sent runners out of the back side of the pot over concrete till it found dirt then sent the runners for many, many feet. It was so sneaky!! I had no clue it was doing this.

It is dangerous in areas where it does not die every year. Almost impossible to get rid of it if you let it get a hold. It will smother huge trees and cover huge ravines.

I have added pictures to show you how invasive this plant is.

This one can easily become invasive here in Texas, running amok and covering everything like kudzu. The strain here in Texas is sterile, but produces tons of runners that can easily be transplanted to a new location. It will freeze back totally in zone 8b, but will reappear from the roots in the spring.

I do not have this plant either, but I would love to have one! I saw a Morning Glory plant that looked just like this one growing at a produce stand in Huntsville TX which is very close to where I live. The blooms were huge and a deep blue. The leaves were a dark evergreen. Most Morning Glory plants around here have small light pink blooms in the morning and then they are gone by mid morning, but this one was in full bloom in the middle of the day. The beautiful color caught my eye as I approached the produce stand. It was absolutely gorgeous! Now that I know the name of this plant I will inquire about it early next spring. I doubt that this plant can survive the Tx winters.

I haven't planted one yet, but a couple of blocks away it turns my head everytime, and I always slow down, sure is a eye catcher with these large showy flowers. I will have to check our great nurseries around, is a mush have!!!

This plant can produce hundreds a fragile flowers everyday and since it works on a 24 hour cycle it can leave a messy carpet below. The flowers are dark blue in the morning to purple/magenta at noon and pink in the evening. The next night they will curl fuchsia-shaped and fall to the ground the next day or two.
The plant is also very aggressive, but I have no problem keeping it under control. It expands by running rather than seeds that never seem to grow for me. I guess it could take over an entire neighborhood and, being so seductive, it probably has. Just rip it out from time to time and keep it TOTALLY way from anything that you don't want it to climb as it will bury it.
By attaching small wires around a drain spout I have one growing up the corner of my townhome. It is not like ivy that will rip things away and dig into surfaces. It is a very gentile plant that grows amazingly fast, is beautiful and for some strange reason has kept the ants away from the kitchen directly near it for the first year ever.

In the end, it is a plant that will own you....you won't own it. But chances are you will welcome it. It is a pet, not a pest.

It's a very beautiful plant and in bloom year round. Folks never fail to ask about it or for it. It was a trade years ago that takes over major areas and has to be fought off constantly. Because of its beauty I never have the heart to totally destroy it, but I should. I have not had anything more invasive in my yard. Beware of it in Florida unless you can very determinedly grow it in a pot and never let it touch the ground. DR

What a wonderful vine! I call it the Avis's Glory since my friend Avis gave me a small cutting but boy! it's a rapid grower although it usually takes 3 years for this beauty to really show off. I have it growing on a dying tree that a lot of woodpeckers call home. Since the tree is in front of my home this breathtaking vine takes care of the view and no one seems to mind the old tree.

This is my favorite morning glory. Its fabulous huge blooms stay open all day. I have a large plant in a very large container - because it propagates by runners, I am afraid to put it in the ground. It stays green year-round for me, but blooms only once the weather warms - mid-July 'til fall. You see it all over in N. CA - along freeways, over fences ... the blooms are stunning. The color change is fun to watch.

Fast grower, infectious color, irridescent blue, turning to pinky fuschia by day's end. A real asset that brightens the garden.

Big, brazilian morning glory - in our area, it's perennial. The leaves and thinner vines frost off in the winter, but new ones emerge in late March or early April. Really gets going on the flowers in mid- to late summer. Ours is growing on a trellis on a nine-foot redwood fence, and has also sneaked throught the fence into the neighbor's yard, up a nearby tree, etc. The vines will also root in place if they're allowed to rest on the ground for too long. (I suppose that's "invasive" - since we love the plant, we generally just think of it as "enthusiastic.")

Hummingbirds seem to like it, although interestingly enough they don't poke their beaks into the trumpet, they poke them into the outside base of the trumpet. I don't know if the nectar leaks there on the older flowers, or perhaps they're puncturing them.

Flowers begin purple in the early morning light, turn bright blue by midmorning, then fade to pink and wilt by the end of the day - unless it's cloudy, in which case they change a little more slowly.

2006 update: I still love it, but you REALLY have to keep after this thing or it'll Eat The Yard. And the neighbor's yard. Our next door neighbor has a big cypress in their back yard and I was astonished to see it covered in glorious blue flowers last year - the vines had crawled under the fence, wandered through their shrubbery undetected, and climbed two stories up the tree. Fortunately, they found the effect quite striking. This year, I've been yanking up armloads of vines on a regular basis. If the phone company could figure out how to steer this stuff and make it carry cable components, they'd make a mint.