Hi. this is my first message on this site. I've been in love with morning glories ever since I saw them growing on my fence when I was little, and I've been growing some for about 2 years now. If anyone has any neat information on tendencies of morning glories growing in tropical environments, I'd appreciate it! Attached is a photo I took of my Grandpa Ott morning glory bloom that I uploaded to the Grandpa Ott tab to hopefully get it as the display picture.

Hi Rowyts.
You will learn a lot on this site. Joseph has a wealth of knowledge . I have learned so much. My limited experience with morning glories also started as a child watching them grow up a backyard fence

Gerris2 said: Here a a bloom from today - cultivar number Q1093, Japanese morning glory (Ipomoea nil) showing a nicely formed Botan flower.

Woah, those are so cool! Why are they so different? I know little to nothing about botany, and just have a passion for morning glory varieties and the ipomoea Genus.

quietyard said: Hi Rowyts.
You will learn a lot on this site. Joseph has a wealth of knowledge . I have learned so much. My limited experience with morning glories also started as a child watching them grow up a backyard fence

I was just wondering if there were any quirks to them I hadn't known about. I appreciate the warm welcome!

Joseph will answer when he is on, Rowyts. I do grow Grandpa Otts as well. They do well in my hot Arizona climate.

Rowyts said: Hi. this is my first message on this site. I've been in love with morning glories ever since I saw them growing on my fence when I was little, and I've been growing some for about 2 years now. If anyone has any neat information on tendencies of morning glories growing in tropical environments, I'd appreciate it! Attached is a photo I took of my Grandpa Ott morning glory bloom that I uploaded to the Grandpa Ott tab to hopefully get it as the display picture.

• Tall Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea 'Grandpa Ott')
• Uploaded by Rowyts

Welcome to the forum and the website, Rowyts! You have a healthy looking plant there. Good growing!

Where in the tropics are you?

Growing annual morning glories is relatively easy. My experience is in growing them in containers in northern Delaware so your growing environment is considerably different than where you live.

I find that if you provide the plant with a soil that is alive with beneficial microbes the plants do very well. Use worm castings or fresh good quality compost for helping the soil biology out. I take it you grow vines in the ground instead of containers?

The fluffy flower you asked about is the phenotype of a genetic mutation, and the flower form is called Botan - translated as peony flower. I kinda like the mutants.

Gerris2 said: Welcome to the forum and the website, Rowyts! You have a healthy looking plant there. Good growing!

Where in the tropics are you?

Growing annual morning glories is relatively easy. My experience is in growing them in containers in northern Delaware so your growing environment is considerably different than where you live.

I find that if you provide the plant with a soil that is alive with beneficial microbes the plants do very well. Use worm castings or fresh good quality compost for helping the soil biology out. I take it you grow vines in the ground instead of containers?

The fluffy flower you asked about is the phenotype of a genetic mutation, and the flower form is called Botan - translated as peony flower. I kinda like the mutants.

I'm in Puerto Rico. If I were to water them regularly, I'm sure they'd live annually, but atm I'm fine with them dying every winter season since I have soooo many seeds now. too many seeds lol. I grow them in a pot with a trellis. I took that picture a while ago, right now it's dead =/ but I wanted to wait until I got some hanging flower pots to grow them in so I'd have one for each variety I own at them moment. I have 5 varieties of seeds now. The one that grew on my fence when I was little that made me love them was the milky way variety. I planted that one along with the grandpa ott in a pot together, but for some reason it struggled compared to the grandpa ott, only put out a few blooms and no seeds while the grandpa ott flourished, any idea why? And about the picutre, I don't know anything about technical botany stuff, but how do mutants work? how do I get them? Are they different species? I'm very curious to learn more.

I want to know all there is to know about the ipomoea genus! =)

Gerris2 said: Welcome to the forum and the website, Rowyts! You have a healthy looking plant there. Good growing!

Where in the tropics are you?

Growing annual morning glories is relatively easy. My experience is in growing them in containers in northern Delaware so your growing environment is considerably different than where you live.

I find that if you provide the plant with a soil that is alive with beneficial microbes the plants do very well. Use worm castings or fresh good quality compost for helping the soil biology out. I take it you grow vines in the ground instead of containers?

The fluffy flower you asked about is the phenotype of a genetic mutation, and the flower form is called Botan - translated as peony flower. I kinda like the mutants.

Joseph I love that beautiful blue bloom!

@Rowyts Beautiful bloom! Welcome

@Rowyts
Lots of knowledgeable people here who love morning glories too!
A good thing about this group is everyone is welcome no matter their level of growing morning glories

Amen Ronnie!

Here is a mutant Japanese morning glory from my indoor garden this morning. Ipomoea nil species.

Gerris2 said: Amen Ronnie!

Here is a mutant Japanese morning glory from my indoor garden this morning. Ipomoea nil species.

how do mutants work?

Rowyts said: how do mutants work?

I don't fully understand the genetics of Ipomoea nil and Ipomoea purpurea. I try to read the publications and they speak the language of geneticists and not for non-gene-jockeys like me.

The different flower forms present a phenotype depending on how the genes combine at fertilization. This cultivar had 3 different flower forms. Only one was fertile; the others are not fertile. The non-fertile flower forms show petals that are transformed male and female organs. It's all very bizzaro but very interesting to me.

This is the fertile seed maker form. It made flowers with reverse tube.



These are the other two flower forms I got.

This is the Botan form, resembling a peony.



I was lucky to get the ultra-rare form, which combined the reverse tube and botan traits. Knocked my socks off.

@Rowyts Puerto Rico has some beautiful native morning glory species. I was in PR for two weeks for specialized training a number of years ago, before the big hurricanes changed the landscape. I was able to find Ipomoea setifera, Camonea (syn. Merremia) umbellata, and Merremia quincquefolia growing along the Route 3 highway that leads to El Yunque National Forest. I really liked Ipomoea setifera with its saturated pink flowers and Camonea umbellata with its super-bright yellow flowers.

Gerris2 said: @Rowyts Puerto Rico has some beautiful native morning glory species. I was in PR for two weeks for specialized training a number of years ago, before the big hurricanes changed the landscape. I was able to find Ipomoea setifera, Camonea (syn. Merremia) umbellata, and Merremia quincquefolia growing along the Route 3 highway that leads to El Yunque National Forest. I really liked Ipomoea setifera with its saturated pink flowers and Camonea umbellata with its super-bright yellow flowers.

Ah, yeah! I remember seeing those when I went hiking one day. I wonder if Ipomoea Pes-Caprae grows here, but I haven't found anything in my limited searching

Gerris2 said: I don't fully understand the genetics of Ipomoea nil and Ipomoea purpurea. I try to read the publications and they speak the language of geneticists and not for non-gene-jockeys like me.

The different flower forms present a phenotype depending on how the genes combine at fertilization. This cultivar had 3 different flower forms. Only one was fertile; the others are not fertile. The non-fertile flower forms show petals that are transformed male and female organs. It's all very bizzaro but very interesting to me.

This is the fertile seed maker form. It made flowers with reverse tube.



These are the other two flower forms I got.

This is the Botan form, resembling a peony.



I was lucky to get the ultra-rare form, which combined the reverse tube and botan traits. Knocked my socks off.

• Japanese Morning Glory (Ipomoea nil)
• Uploaded by Gerris2

Woah, that's cool! thanks for the info. I'll ask my, more educated in this respect ,friend more about the details. If anyone knows any publications about botany and morning glories or basically anything that would help get my knowledge up about morning glories or plants i'd appreciate it. like, any good beginner technical botany videos maybe?

Professor Google may help you out. 😁

More flowers from today. I am excited to see their continued blooming period. I have a couple of other plants with buds so hopefully there will be new types of flowers soon.

Gerris2 said: Professor Google may help you out. 😁

More flowers from today. I am excited to see their continued blooming period. I have a couple of other plants with buds so hopefully there will be new types of flowers soon.

oh, yeah. I've already started reading up on things, but if someone knew something good is all. great flowers btw!

Alright, well it's been a while and I'll be getting new seeds hopefully soon, so what's the first thing I should do? Should I score the seeds, soak them in water, something better than just putting them in the dirt? I'll ask more questions every step of the way to become more confident with things. Thanks, y'all!

Rowyts said: Alright, well it's been a while and I'll be getting new seeds hopefully soon, so what's the first thing I should do? Should I score the seeds, soak them in water, something better than just putting them in the dirt? I'll ask more questions every step of the way to become more confident with things. Thanks, y'all!

It depends on what species you're trying to grow.

Here is some good guidance on growing Ipomoea nil and information would be applicable to Ipomoea purpurea and some other species.

http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/A...