Blue Trader

I grew this morning glory last year. The seeds came from a Japanese seller, and he called it Blue and Blue Shibori. I wonder if anyone has experience with this variety? Here is a picture of one blossom late in the season.

Absolutely stunning color.

Here's one of mine that looks a lot like yours. I sold a lot of JMG while living in Japan but had not the past 3 years.

Dee

sorry my pic is not as good quality... cell phone pic.

That deep blue you see in the picture was not typical of this vine. It was the execption. I only grew one plant from the seeds I obtained from a Japanese seller. Perhaps it was you Dee. I have a few seeds of this variety to trade. I like true blue and deep blue.

Cib, you have to try one called unknown blue. I posted it on one of my adventure threads. I have lots of seeds, it is an I. Nil. Dark Blue. Beautiful.

Doug and Dee - Beautiful blooms!

Doug - The blue and white pattern on yours looks very much like Blue Shibori. That color of blue is stunning indeed! :-) What seeds are you looking for to grow this year? Maybe I can help! I still have your pots to send back to you as well, so I can throw some seeds in the box, too! :-)

Debra - Do you have a link to your bloom photo?

Debra, Thanks for mentioning your dark blue nil. I would like to grow some of them. Is it solid blue or varigated? Please let us see it with a link.
Doug

Last year I received a small shipment of morning glory seeds from a Japanese seller. He sent them to me in a regular white envelope that had a hand cancellation on the attractive stamp. Inside was a single small sheet of bubble wrap and three zip lock bags containing the seeds. I would call this stealth delivery, and it worked quite well.

This year I have just received a smaller order from another Japanese seller. However, this time the shipment arrived in a 6x9 inch brown envelope with bubble wrap walls. Inside was another bubble wrapper with two zipped bags of seeds and a "Hello, Thank you very much from Japan" printed note. This package had no apparent postage. In the upper right was a green customs declaration calling out "flower seeds", a weight and a USD value. There was also a dark blue sticker with lines of Japanese characters and two items indicated (1 and 2 stated twice each). Then there was a hand stamped circular postmark in the lower left. On the back of this package there was a beautiful, large circular stamp which says: "PASSED, Plant Protection Service No. 381- Japanese Government." And there was a plastic pocket that contained a folded Phytosanitary Certificate, all in English, personally signed by H. Watanabe. It was very impressive.

I only purchased one little packet of seeds! And I received a second packet as a gift. You can see it in the photo. Its a pink MG blossom with a white throat and a picotee edge. I likely will not grow this one. Its not my color.

That's what I learned from living and dealing with the Japanese is that they are very kind and will go the extra mile to make sure the transaction is done right. No special efford on their part and its just their way. I call it the spirit of Japan.

I have some better photos to post when I find the disks. Watchin American Idol lol :)

dee

Cibarius, you have peaked my interest....I am waiting on a few orders but one from Japan. My brother lived there off and on for many years and it was a name he remembered so i ordered. Now im waiting. :)

Doug - Glad to hear that you found some good Japanese sellers to purchase seeds from. What colors do you prefer ... blue?

Pixie - Awesome that you, too, are getting seeds from Japan. :-)

I wicked excited....it cost me home made pumpkin bread and blueberry muffins to rattle my brothers memory :)

Pixie - LOL! Glad to see that some good homemade food did the trick! :-)

I'm one of two people w/my Mom's recipes....wonder what else I can fin-naigle out of him? LOL

Fresh berries anyone?

LOL! Get the low down while you can! LOL!

Wow! That looks yummy! Do you grow your own fruit?

Yes, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, apples, so far that we can pick but we have pear tree's, peach, cherry, and plum too . They just haven't matured enough to produce fruit yet.

Cool! Lucky you! :-)

Well ... I guess we hijacked Cibarius's thread. Better get back to the topic ...

SORRY!
Ok, so I came across this the other day and of course it is not labeled so I have no idea what it is.

That's a neat looking MG bloom! Is it an I. purpurea? What time did you take the photo? Early in the day or later in the day. As you know, the blooms change colors as the day goes on. :-)

Hee hee...good question...I married 2 girls in 12 months my head is still spinning. Most likely in the morning as that is my usual time to take pictures.

Yeah, nice looking glory. I agree it looks like an I. purpurea and you're right Becky about the time of day the picture was taken.
Some glories do hold their shape and change some color later in the day. :)

dee, Will you tell us about the physical arrangements and space that you had for growing morning glories in Japan? Did you learn about them only after you moved there?

Thank you MG & Becky

Yes I learned about asagao which is morning glory in Japanese while living there. Here's a link to a setup I used back in 2008 where I grew morning glories in cups.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5838968

I was limited in the growing area that I had and thought about using large cups instead of growing pots. This gave me the ability to grow more in limity space. You can use your imagination or try something new and see how it works for you..

In the first picture you see I had about 100 morning glory plants growing in these small plastic cups. I used containers and boxes to move them outside during the day and back inside at night.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=3378230

The reason I keep the small plants inside was to protect them from insects and cold weather.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=3402690

As the weather improved I came up with this setup and left them outside. You still have to watch out for insects as they love to eat
morning glory seedlings. Mostly slugs. The next step is to transfer to larger pots or put them in the ground. They still can grow in the small pots as shown.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=3467571

Dee

Wow! Thats alot of MG's!!! And work hauling them in and out!!!

Someone just dropped me a note in d-mail that I'd forgotten all about doing.

"Just wanted to tell you too in case you didn't know, you can right click on your picture and go to "properties" it will tell you the date and time the picture was taken. Your MG pic was taken at 5:40 AM on July 22 2006..."

So that MG above is a very old picture but I was right...it was taken early in the morning! LOL

Dee - I use cups to start my MG vines, too. I prefer styrofoam because it acts as an insulator from drastic temps changes. The I. nils are heat lovers. It is also very easy to remove the plants from the cups and transplant them into larger outdoor containers!

Pixie- If you have them all in a large plastic storage container ... like a rubbermaid container, it's not too bad hauling them inside and then outside during the day. You can fit a lot of cups in one of those sweater/blanket storage bins.

This message was edited Mar 2, 2011 2:20 PM

True, that would be easier....do they make them w/wheels? LOL

Not seen any with wheels, but it really isn't too heavy or bulky. I use the bins all the time. The only bad thing is that they deteriorate from the outdoor elements over time and crack. :-(

Dee,
Thank you very much for these pictures. I enjoyed seeing them. Did you germinate the MG seeds in the cups? I use a method where I soak the seeds for 24 hours and then place them between moist paper towels inside a plastic bag and then keep them warm. This works very well. When they sprout and put out rootlets I transfer them to starting mix in a small container under grow lights. This is a very reliable method. It only fails when you are dealing with seedlings that cannot stand to be moved or disturbed (like Torenia). I also noticed that you had parquet flooring in Japan. It looks like American parquet made of oak and hickory. Was that so?
Doug