Winter Morning Glory Variations

The past week has been filled with excitement as the three Japanese Morning Glory varieties I started back in August opened their first flowers! Except for 'Star of India', these are my last remaining plants out of all the ones I had last summer, thanks to the mischievous kitties! To save them, I've been growing them in another building that is heated but still chilly for Ipomoea nil, which is native to tropical America. As a result, the flowers have been somewhat stunted. The first to open was this 'Hanafubuki'. The flowers are supposed to be pink with white blizzard markings and very large, but mine have been tiny (about one-inch diameter) and solid pink. It's pretty but I couldn't help being a little disappointed since this was one I've been most excited about. Thankfully I still have some seeds left so I can try again in warmer weather next summer! 😊

Next to open was 'Blue Silk'  ('Akatsuki no Tsuyu' in Japanese). These flowers are normally blue and white with very pretty markings that remind me of watercolors (click on the links to see pictures of the "correct" colorings for these varieties! 😁). Anyway, this one opened in the evening which was a surprise in itself...and it was bright pink! By morning it had started changing to blue and it stayed open all day, fading back to pink before it closed!

A second flower opened yesterday. It was mostly blue with a few pink streaks, but I was busy all day and didn't get a chance to photograph it until evening. By that time it had changed to a lovely violet color!

'Midnight Illusion' also bloomed yesterday. The flowers were quite twisted and didn't open fully, which I'm also blaming on the cold temps, but at least it was the right color!  😁 I was expecting some kind of pattern instead of a solid color, but I've been told that this variety is quite variable anyway. We'll see what happens with this one next summer too!

But the flower that awaited me on 'Blue Silk' this morning really took my breath away! 💙

I've been watching it closely all day, curious to see whether the color would change to blue or pink this time! Here it is at about 11:30 AM...

And at 3:30 PM...pink! 😁

No wonder growing Japanese Morning Glories is so addicting! The surprises are endless! 😊