Hi, I collect and grow various Ipomoea.

I noticed that Ipomoea muricata 'Clove Bean' flowers automatically from seed regardless of the day length. However Ipomoea muricata 'Kaladana' does not flower until autumn when the days are short. I suspect these two might be distinct (cryptic) species, though they look very similar.

I have been growing most of my Ipomoea indoors because they tend to be short day flowering plants in my experience and I have repeatedly observed light interruptions in the night time cause flowering to stop in several species.

I've had Stictocardia bloom, indoors, in under 2 months from seed, though it did not set seed.
At present I have Ipomoea amnicola, Ipomoea aquatica and Ipomoea fistulosa flowering indoors and Ipomoea setosa developing fruit from blooms a few weeks back.

The only species I have seen yet that flowers automatically from seed, in a clockwork like manner, is Ipomoea muricata 'Clove Bean' which is a culinary selection that is traditionally eaten in India.

I am interested in learning about the experiences of others in regard to triggering flowering in Ipomoea .

Entwined said: Hi, I collect and grow various Ipomoea.

I noticed that Ipomoea muricata 'Clove Bean' flowers automatically from seed regardless of the day length. However Ipomoea muricata 'Kaladana' does not flower until autumn when the days are short. I suspect these two might be distinct (cryptic) species, though they look very similar.

I have been growing most of my Ipomoea indoors because they tend to be short day flowering plants in my experience and I have repeatedly observed light interruptions in the night time cause flowering to stop in several species.

I've had Stictocardia bloom, indoors, in under 2 months from seed, though it did not set seed.
At present I have Ipomoea amnicola, Ipomoea aquatica and Ipomoea fistulosa flowering indoors and Ipomoea setosa developing fruit from blooms a few weeks back.

The only species I have seen yet that flowers automatically from seed, in a clockwork like manner, is Ipomoea muricata 'Clove Bean' which is a culinary selection that is traditionally eaten in India.

I am interested in learning about the experiences of others in regard to triggering flowering in Ipomoea .

This is interesting. I had no idea there was more than one type of ipomoea muricata. I've grown it annually for years just collecting seeds from previous year's plants. I notice it never flowers heavily for me but more sporadically. This year mine bloomed a bit over the summer and then again in the fall before the frost hit. It was entangled with some purpurea vines so I missed some of the earlier blooms as they were at night and only found the seed pods later on.

Which Stictocardia? I currently just germinated 1 seed-

I know from personal experience that Ipomoea nil blooms readily if exposed to short days. I am finding that vines bloom in winter when grown indoors, sometimes when the plants are very short in length. I am trying Ipomoea purpurea this winter indoors and think the plants will also bloom. I read some information online from a Japanese source that if you expose seedling Ipomoea nil to long nights (complete darkness) for say 14 hours, 4 days or so in succession, then grow them out under normal light dark schedule in early summer, you can shorten the time to bloom by maybe a month. I've seen others in this forum have luck getting Ipomoea tricolor to bloom under short days of winter using natural sunlight though the window. It's all fun.

Now I'm interested to try this with ipomoea tricolor! I'm going digging for a Wedding Bells seed now because i won't be happy until there's no room for food on my kitchen at all!

Here is ipomoea aquatica I've grown from seed. I've previously only grown it from cuttings from the supermarket but never had a bloom.

I went back through my photos and I found a seed pod of ipomoea muricata on 8/3 and then it bloomed again on 8/9 and then again in the fall.





Which ones should I acquire for more and earlier blooms?

In a rather ironic fashion today I have a single bloom of Ipomoea aquatica open today and no other Ipomoea flowering right now.
I went and grabbed a few partially dried flowers that fell from an Ipomoea fistulosa and tore them open looking for pollen that looked fresh, I found a little and mixed it with the dried pollen already on my paintbrush and pollinated the Aquatica.

I have a few seeds from attempts at similar crosses with Aquatica (KangKong highland white stem white flower form) but I have not actually sown them out. I have a backlog of hybrid seed to sow and Ipomoea aquatica is not high on my priority list, it is not the easiest plant to get to flower. I have some growing out of a Paladularium like fishtank set-up with a 160W high bay light over it, set right now to 12/12. I have used this same tank setup and a large planter next to it with some bamboo stakes, to grow several plants under the light.

Bandita74, I have Stictocardia beraviensis. I once bought some seeds of another species from Europe (3 seeds for about $20) but they came crushed and I didn't try again.
I have had difficulty getting help with some of the paperwork involved in a small seed lot import permit, but I have been wanting to get one and then try to purchase some Stictocardia seeds from Herbalistics. I have a friend who recently moved to Hawaii and I have half a mind to teach him to identify Ipomoea and their ripe seeds.

I too have noted Nil is a short day plant. It blooms great indoors under lights but doesn't bloom early enough to set seed, at least not this last year, though it flowered well in late autumn.

For the people who obsess about this sort of thing Alplains (I love this company) has the native Ipomoea cardiophylla, I consider this to be in Ipomoea sect. Tricolores, though I am not sure the present consensus agrees. Nevertheless this one doesn't show up for sale too often. Alplains has a minimum price for their order and doesn't accept creditcards, I just sent cash last time, which many people may not know is entirely legal and usually quite safe. I have spent over a thousand dollars in the last decade by sending cash through the mail and the only time there was an issue, I wrote the wrong address by mistake and the person who got it kept it.

I have a small lots seed permit. Where is the company located? I'm set up for the UK and Germany currently. It's a bit of a headache to get it but I've amended it to add countries and plant species.

The seed I germinated is supposed to be Stictocardia macalusoi. Still waiting for it to develop cotyledons.

I might order the ipomoea cardiophylla. I've sent cash in the mail to a number of seed companies before. I did look at Herbalistics but it says they are not shipping outside the country at all now. Too bad.

Bandita74 said: I did look at Herbalistics but it says they are not shipping outside the country at all now. Too bad.

That is a shame, 2 years ago they were still shipping some seeds internationally, but I know of several people who have reported that working with them can be tricky. They are not highly rated by everyone who has purchased from them, but are known to have plants that are often difficult to obtain.

About twice a week for the last few years I do searches for "Ipomoea" "seeds" "rare" with engines and various online sites like Ebay and Etsy and every now and again something new seems to show up. Ebay and Amazon rarely have good material and the prices are often absurd, but Etsy has proven pretty consistent for me, though I have have a shop called PlantFlowerSeeds send seeds that were dead (literally misshapen and rotten) and smashed in the packet, which was very expensive and they refused to refund the money or send a new product (despite saying they would after I showed photographs to them and offered to return the product). This was for Ipomoea pandurata, which I have yet to obtain healthy seeds for.

Other than that however, and the case where seeds from Europe were smashed by mail sorting equipment (happens a lot here) Etsy has been the #1 place to find rare and interesting Ipomoea.

I've also had trouble getting quality seeds of ipomoea pandurata. I had bought some and only one germinated and then promptly died. But I have acquired a good deal of rare seeds from various sources and trades.

Given what I have seen in terms of flowering response, some species need to build an appropriate mass and then they flower more freely.

I have seen this with vine like species with storage roots where they grow out rapidly in the spring or early summer and start flowering. I have had Ipomoea transvaalensis do this from overwintered storage roots which are rather caudex like, where it grew and flowered after a rest. I have even seen this happen indoors with some species where the vine appears to die back and do nothing and then later it regrows. This happens with Ipomoea spp 'Kruger Park' as well as it's relative Transvaalensis, in the conditions I provide them.

Where a plant is adapted to in terms of it's niche population is a major part of how it responds to flowering, with a large number of species in Ipomoeabeing native to equatorial region tropics and then radiating north and south. Some populations of plants in this family have evolved to be cold hardy and Ipomoea leptophylla is among them, growing well here in zone 7a. However it appears to require a certain size to be achieved before it can bloom and has yet to do so under the conditions I provide, but this will be the third year that two plants in the yard have had and we will see if they are able and willing to flower this coming season. However I do not have any real knowledge of their flowering for having not observed it first hand.

I've had ipomoea transvaalensis bloom after a few months from seed. Not heavily but they still did bloom in the fall after seed being sown in the spring.

Bandita74 said: I've had ipomoea transvaalensis bloom after a few months from seed. Not heavily but they still did bloom in the fall after seed being sown in the spring.

The first time I tried them outdoors I didn't get ripe seed, but indoors I did.

It was by setting out established plants that I was able to get nearly year round blooms from them, though they slowed down during the longer days of summer. I was not able to get more or earlier blooms doing this with Tricolor and I want to try forcing them using dark treatments to see if I can get them to flower and fruit in July instead of September.

Ipomoea transvaalensis is probably my favorite species so far, but not by much. The flowers and form of this family are famous on nearly every continent and nearly every culture in one way or another. Except for the arctic and polar areas where people are traditionally found one can generally find Morning Glories and those who revere them.