Centrosema & the carpenter

hehehe, sounds like a romance novel, heh? LOL
I was out looking at my vine bed today & saw that I had some centrosema blooming. So I ran in & got my camera and snapped a few pics.

So after a few pics I hear a B52 bomber coming at me (carpenter bee, lol) and I held really still. I already had my camera aimed at the flower of her choice, so all I had to do was back up a bit. (yes, I know, but I like them more when they are farther away. :~)
I was really impressed with the way she just flipped up that "nose" on the centrosema & dove right in. I don't know if you can see the pollen on her back that the "nose" is putting on her, but when she came out her back was bright yellow & it was not there when she went in .

those are way cool, I'd love some seed if you ever get a few please...

those are a pretty plant.

Never gotten seed on them before, but this year seems to be a first for alot of things in that vine bed. There is also a white one planted in there, but I have not seed any flowers for it yet. Both colors were in a pot last year & when I transplanted it this spring I split it in 1/2 and put at opposite ends of the bed. One end died and I am wondering if that was my white. This spring I had planted a few more seeds and they never came up. So I planted a few MG seeds in the pot & now that the pot is full of MG's, I see a centrosema stem twining in. LOL So I do have another shot at white since the 2 colors were mixed in the bag.

oh save me some to Donna if it makes any. Did you not get any of the blue clitoria seeds? I sent out 1/2 million of them SASE last year. I found a vine at the Island with the same bloom but it has a very thin delicate stem and long, narrow pointed leaves. Been blooming like crazy but hasn't set any seed.

Hey Donna,
I went back through my trade folder because I remembered that we traded some seeds in November. I did not take any of your clitoria cuz I had so many, but I did send you my mixes of the single/double white & single/double blue. Did you get blooms on them this year? If I don't get any white blooms I may need to mooch some from you. And the variegated pandorea vine cutting you sent is really taking off. I am looking forward to a bloom. We need to do another trade this winter! We have such similar taste.
Donna

p.s.
you should have seen how confused I was going through our trade folder trying to tell if Donna was me or you on all the emails. LOLOLOL

Wow Donna, that is a pretty flower.....is this one aka "Carolina pea"?

Hey Pam,
its proper name is Centrosema virginianum but I have heard it called spurred butterfly pea. Seem to recall some name with Carolina in it too, but am drawing a blank.
Here is a pic I took last year of the 2 colors when it was still in the pot & I had not murdered half of the plant yet. LOL

Brugie just taught me how to do BOLD, UNDERLINE and ITALICS, can you tell? harharhar Now I just need to learn how to make those cool faces that are not used with the normal keys.

Nice pictures, very pretty plant. If you get seeds I too would like a few:-)

LOL Donna...

Excellent flower! The only plant that got to sprout from seeds [received from a trade more than 2 years back] is not doing well at all and I just love this vine. My only seedling gives out a few leaves, remains still and stops growing and it will be like that for months. So, I'm looking for a few seeds . Would you kindly share some seeds with me? I'll send you what all I have.

Hi Dinu,
I have never gotten seeds from my centrosema. :~(
Do you have yours in sun or shade?

Donna none of them made it. Well one each sprouted and I planted them and we got a late freeze. all my clitorias died. I was sick. I didn't keep any of the blue seeds out of the 1/2 millions I gave out except a few that I had planted and lost. Well guess what??? There were enough on the ground from the mother plant under the mulch and they all came up. I was sending out seedlings this spring lol. I'm glad to know that I don't have to worry about them anymore because I know I will have some come up from where I harvest the seeds and they fall. I got a bunch of new vines this year but with this weird weather not much has bloomed. Sure hope they do so I can get some seeds. Maybe able to send you a few cuttings of some other things if they grow enough. I have them planted in pots since I got them so late and want to over winter them in the GH

Here is the one I found on the Island. Look at the long narrow leaves

Hey Donna, it looks just like mine so it is a centrosema virginianum.
My leaf is only slightly chubbier then yours. The leaves you see in the top pic are not leaves to the centrosema. The centrosema leaf is in the top right corner in front of some bigger leaves. Look for a small vine with the 3 leaf cluster & a bud on the end. I have alot of vines in this bed so the delicate centrosema vines are not real visible. Can you see where I mean?
What vines did you do this year? I'm growing a really cool one called canavalia vine and I love it! I have 1 pod forming, hope it does not fall off. LOL but I for sure want to add this to my vine fence next year.
I am glad you did not lose out completely on the clitoria. I really liked them on their own, but this year after adding them in with other vines and actually getting a bloom, I am really liking the look. They are so vivid that they really do stand out. I checked my snail vine stem that I had buried at the beginning of the month and there is a small root on it! YIPPIE! I am going to leave the front of the bed open next year so I can have space to pin down a bunch to share.
Here is a pic of the canavalia:

Donna this year I have snail vine, hawaiian baby woodrose, large hawaiian woodrose, oxen redeye, fuzzybean vine, velvet bean vine, spanish flag, rosary pea vine, desert trumpet vine, ragoon creeper, manettia cordifolia, mexican flame vine, angelwing jasmine vine, black eyed susan vine, 4 different pasiflorias, yellow cats claw vine, yellow butterfly vine, porcelin berry vine, sword jack bean the same as your last pic, thunbergia battsecombi, thunbergia grandiflora, gloriosa lily, blue clitoria, red cypress vine, perennial mg vine, red honeysuckle vine, red trumpet vine, cross vine. Hmmmm wonder if I missed any. I also have permant well established vines of Carolina Jessimine and many of the regular honeysuckle. Most of the above are in pots as I recieved them so late in the year and will plant them in the ground next spring

Very nice variety! You are as addicted to vines as I am! LOL
Have you gotten blooms yet on your hawaiian baby? Mine did not do anything last year while it was in a pot, then I put it in one of my vine beds & the thing has really responded. The leaves on it are huge! But no blooms. And still waiting for some blooms on my bow tie vine too. (Dalechampia)

Have you seen this vine? this is on my "most wanted" list. Stictocardia.
http://www.kartuz.com/f/r/strictocardia-beraviensis.jpg
Bet you want it now too, huh? LOL
Donna

ooops I forgot the Dalechampia and 5 different dutchmans pipe vines. It is beautiful Donna. Need to add that one to my wish list too. I haven't gotten blooms on many of them. Have only had many of them for a couple of months. That's why I put them in pots. Some of the tropicals will have to stay in pots.

DonnaB,
I have a few seeds, more to come..of the one above.. It is the one you found on the island..spurred butterfly pea...They grow wild along the dirt road to our house...I've collected only a few seeds off my plant, but it has made many, I will start saving more..Mine is is full sun and has just outdone itself this year..I have it next to the dark blue clitorias that you sent me seed for last year.. They are very pretty together..The seed to these are not bean-like as the clitorias...It is a very tiny seed, but don't let that fool you.. They can become very invasive...

Larkie

Larkie,
can you go into a bit more detail about the seed? I always assumed it was a bean, maybe mine DID seed last year & I missed it.
Please tell us what to look for.
Thanks!
Donna

On the spurred pea, the pod is a long really skinny pod with tiny tiny bean shaped seeds, at maturity, the pod opens and spirals with the seeds scattering....On the dark blue clitoria that DonnaB sent me, the pod is a slender bean pod with small beans.. Not too good at describing, am I?..The 2 seed pods are nothing alike except mabe the length..Also, the dark blue clitoria
is a good sturdy vine..The wild spurred pea has stems and vine about the size of a thin fishing line.. Tougher than it looks tho..
Larkie

Donna here is my sword jackbean pod. That joker is huge. I have 4 of them right now. Will most certainly grow this one again.

Whew, good. I did not miss any last year then. I know my centrosema did not have anything like that on it. Thanks Larkie, and you did a great job describing. I understood what you were saying.

Donna,
I have had such a problem with ants on my plants, for the second year they have been chewing the buds off my cream colored snail vine. They do not do it to the purple though, and since they are the pollinators of snail vine I have tried to ignore the losses of buds. But when they started bringing aphid I decided enough. So last year AND this year I have been putting down rose food with systemic & then ant granules. It has cut way back on the ants, and when I saw them doing the same thing to the canavalia buds I decided to not mess with them and put down the granules. Well apparently they are the pollinators of this as well, because I only have the one pod that was there before I got rid of the ants, and all the buds since have not produced a pod. I may have to transplant some ants.LOL
Did you see the pics in the database that shoe posted? His beans are laying next to a yard stick & they look to be about 15 inches long!

Donna if you have an aphid problem plant milkweed. They will go to that first before anything else most of the time near or in pots and place them near your problem plants. No I didn't see his. Have to go look. Yep have alot of ant on mine too. Also on the passiflorias

Donna, I just emailed you. ☺

Ours are blooming finally too. I hope the seed pods don't take as long to ripen as the blue ones do. Here's to hoping!!!

MMS are you saying there is a blue centrosema or are you talking about the clitoria? Sorry, I confuse easily & the thought that there may be something that is blue and crawls & I may not have it, well that is just overload on the old brain. LOLOLOL

Interesting note,
after watching the carpenter bees on the centrosema, I see that only the smaller carpenters actually go under the "nose". The larger ones do what they do to the Morning Glories & that is they climb up the outside & stick their something, tongue maybe? through the flower at the very base. I wonder if I will still get pollination on those?

Donna, have you seen any pods on thses yet? I this bee/wasp the pollinator or do you know yet?
Dee

Hey Dee,
well last year I did not see ANY insects at the pot of centrosema but only had a couple of carpenter bees then too. this year I have easy a dozen carpenters & they are the only thing I see interested in them. So while I have not seen any seeds yet, I am not gonna give up hope. They are really late in blooming this year, I remember last year I had blooms all summer. But still no sign of white blooms. The vines on these are really delicate, like fine wire and they do not root for me. I tried many times last year to take cuttings & seems like they wilt right before your eyes. I even took a jar of water out with me last year & put the vines in the water & cut them there. Did not matter. Wilted up to nothing in a day or 2. So seeds are the only way to go. I am gonna email my friend today & see if he has anymore seeds & work out a trade. I really do not want to lose out on the white ones. I will let you know if I get any.
Donna

Hummm, No hurry, I have been so into these Morning Glories this year I haven't planted the stuff you sent me last year. Not even the Canna seeds have seen dirt yet, but they will tomorrow. I went to lowes this morning and bought me a great big bag of potting soil and will start some more seeds tomorrow and the cannas are first.....
:o)
Dee

PudgyMudpies I was referring to the blue clitoria vine, my seed pods are ripening now, but it took forever for the centrosema to go to bloom. The two plants are different only by the leaves being more elongated on the centrosema than on the clitoria vine. I know they are different but the flowers are similar but for the color. We need to get seeds from this or this is it for us unless someone has any seeds they'd like to trade me - hint-hint :-) What do the seed pods look like for the centrosema so I can be on the look out....?
thanks,
mmseeds
Dennis

LOL Dennis, love the hints. I hope to get seed this year too. I have not had any mine seed before but roll up to post on 8/20 by Larkie for a good discription of what they will look like. You can bet I will be watching really close for those. Centrosema is a perennial so you should still have another chance at getting seed next year, unless your zone is too cold for it to overwinter... not sure.
Donna

Well, I can say that WW must be REALLY busy if those cannas haven't seen dirt yet....

Yep, and you know what all I been doing too..... smartie panties........LOL
:op
Dee

PudgyMudpies - I have them all growing in containers in our greenhouse, but we are in zone 5-6 (right on the line) in West Virginia. Do you think they'd survive in the ground? I didn't see any seed pods forming yet, but it had a bunch of blooms on it the last two weeks. I keep looking for them. Thanks!
Dennis
mmseeds

Dennis,
I just looked up the zone of the person I got them from, I thought it was lower, but he is in zone 8. So I guess I am no help. Personally I would overwinter in the greenhouse, but that is because they are not something I would take a chance on.
If you find a way to get cuttings to take I would love to know the secret.
Good luck,
Donna

Hi Donna - Thanks so much for your help. I will try and keep the plants alive througout the winter, but I hate to heat our greenhouse throughout the winter. It gets costly. I have the centrosema all bunched together in a rectangular container and didn't think much of them when we started them growing back in March and they didn't really start growing well until July, then blooming in August. I have a bunch of passifloras growing the same way (another of my addictions) and I will have to bring them in the house into our morning room when it gets cold. It's not the best environment for them, but alas it works. Our winters here are just too harsh for many of my plants, but thanks to all you folks on Dave's Garden and your generous seed trading I will at least have seeds to supply my addiction.....LOL.....Anyway here's a photo for you. Thanks again for your help.