Morning Glory

Morning Glories are twining climbers that can add a lot of color to your garden. With so many hybrids and shades available it is difficult to choose which one to plant. It grows profusely, flowers generously and is very hard to control once let loose. In fact certain hybrids will start blooming within a week - with hardly 4-6 leaves to show.

The one shown here is a particularly wild grower. I half-heartedly planted a couple of seeds near the compound wall expecting results maybe after a month - and was pleasantly surprised to see the extremely bright flowers within the second week.

It would have been spectacular if the flowers remained open through the day. Unfortunately they open at sunrise and close within a couple of hours. But those couple of hours are really a fireworks display.

Most flowers generate seeds which can then be used for propagation.

The plants are prone to severe aphid attacks. They seem to draw them like magnets. A daily checking is required to ensure that the aphid-army does not take over the entire plant.

The Glow Vine

Hardy climbers with a woody stem and beautiful, oval, dark green leaves that are papery but thick, these vines are relatively slow growers. Flowering is seasonal in Chennai – Dec to Feb – but well worth the wait. The flowers are trumpet shaped and are a delicate violet in color with a creamy throat. There is spurt of growth just before the flowering starts and the flowers appear in bunches that tend to bloom in progression. Propagation is by cuttings and the plant is not fussy and can tolerate short gaps without watering. I have had occasional aphid attacks on new emerging leaf nodes – but the plant is not a favorite with caterpillars.

Since they do not grow profusely and do not smother nearby plants, they can be made to climb onto other shrubs that are slow growers too. They flower even when they have only 3-4 hours of direct sunlight a day.