I love this plant! Not only is it pretty, but it also smells wonderful. It is fun to sit and watch it open up. Had one that was almost open and when I went to sniff, it "exploded" in my face...way cool.
While the leaves are okay, I could never see the flowers. They hid inside the foliage.
Some seed packets for this plant contain the mix colors while others contain the red flowers only. While I prefer the red flowers the hummingbirds are very attracted to this vine and don't care about the flower color. A short, annual vine with lovely lacy folliage that is never overpowering.
This tropical vine is a perennial in its native range in Mexico and Central America, but it is used as an "annual" in northern climates. I bought one in a pot at a large garden center-nursery that carries a large selection of woody and herbaceous plants in May of 2013, and grew it on a support next to my garage. It grew fast to about 8 feet long and did well in the moist, well-drained good quality, slightly acid soil. It is not well-known and I have only seen a few in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic USA.
The small red flowers of this annual vine are extremely attractive to hummingbirds. Makes a good substitute for Morning Glory vines as it doesn't grow nearly as quickly or as large. Looks especially nice grown on a small obelisk.
Started from seed, the plant grew beautifully large, but did not have time to bloom before frost.
The original Scarlett O'Hara morning glory was a solid-colored magenta flower. Rare to see it today. Most seed companies sell what is known as Wine and Roses, a dark pink flower with a white throat. If you are lucky enough to grow a true one, save the seeds and grow it again and again. Most of the pictures you see on line of the dark red flower are either copied or, unfortunately, photo-shopped to look much redder than they actually are.
Range: California to Texas. Habitat: fields, lots, and roadsides.
This is a marketing name for a mixture of the flaked purpurea colors originally out of Japan as echoed on the JLHudson site here
Ipomoea nil is a New World species and was growing in South America long before it was ever brought to Japan , i.e., according to the pollen dna fossil records.
