Re: Ipomea indica vine (Blue dawn flower)

I would concur with the majority viewpoint, in that you should know what you're dealing with before you plant this one.  It is probably more manageable in your Sunset Zone 14/15 climate, in that it will usually be cut back by frost to the ground each winter.  Most species morning glories really only do well with summer heat climates, but this one will do just as well in a cool, foggy and windy Zone 17 exposure near the beach in San Francisco, where it will bloom virtually year round.  I wouldn't suggest planting it next to anything else unless you have an old dead tree to cover or  a chainlink fence which is surrounded by either paving or a large nonirrigated dry zone, which will usually be sufficient to contain it.

Here in Riyadh, I have been enjoying some other morning glory species which have been blooming all winter and alnost all year here, giving vivid green foliage as well as beautiful blooms.  The Ipomoea cairica and palmata species have both been flowering ever since I arrived here last September,  and both seem capable of growing against the hottest south facing walls in 120 F heat without being fazed by it.  They are used both as large scale ground covers here and as vines, and are best used where they don't have access to overwhelming adjacent/less vigorous plants. This redeems the potentially thuggish qualities of both species for me, and I am only growing it,(I. cairica) in a 5 gallon size container in full sun and with less than an ideal watering regimen and it still grows and blooms in what is already 100 F temps in early April.

On another topic, I have had several local Saudi nursery managers ask me if I knew how to get cuttings of Quisqualis indica vine to take, and had to tell them I didn't know if there was a best time of year or type of cutting to root.  The success rate for getting cuttings to take seems to be less than 20 %.  If you are not familiar with the vine, it is another vine that truly thrives in heat, and will also take winter lows down to freezing if they are of short duration and the temperatures warm back up during the day.  I've seen it growing in southern California, but never in the Bay Area.  The flowers are in clusters similar to Burmese Honeysuckle, starting out white or light pink, then turning red, with all three colors on the vine at the same time.  Worth trying out if you want a very vigorous vine for a very hot spot, and your winters are not too cold and wet, and will tolerate low desert conditions easily, even though it's native to the wet t! ro! ! pics.  If anyone has flowered it in a cooler maritime mediterranean climate and/or knows tricks to get cuttings to  root, I'd be most obliged to hear from you.  Wishing that it hadn't fast forwarded from spring to high summer weather quite so quickly, I'm feeling overly warm here in Riyadh, and am very glad that air conditioning exists!!

D. Feix

Ccopuntia@aol.com wrote:

I would like to learn a little more about this perennial morning glory,
especially about how you may have used it in your Medit gardens -- up a
trellis, over a wall, groundcover, or scrambling up another plant? Also,
what kind of pruning/thinning do you do, if any at all? I understand that
the bloom time can be extremely long, with masses of the purple-blue flowers
well into autumn. If the plant becomes a bit too vigorous for ones space,
can it be successfully maintained to a smaller size, say 8-10 feet instead of
20?

Thank you in advance for all responses! C. Carter, California, Z9


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