Opus has sent us something special – a lovely story accompanied by some gorgeous photos. Enjoy.
When I was growing up in north Georgia, in the early 1960s, my mother always grew moon vines. I remember that the seeds needed a lot of help to germinate – soaking, followed by nicking with a nail file. The vines were nothing special, much like many members of the morning glory family. However, unlike morning glories, moon vines bloom in the evening. Mom always grew them in pots on the front porch, to make it easier to keep an eye on them. In my hazy memories, they always opened as darkness fell. Earlier this summer I ran across some seeds and decided to see if they were as beautiful as I remembered.
The plant has had two blooms so far, with more on the way. I missed the first; was busy inside and just didn’t notice until the next morning.. I was alert the next evening, and the bloom was well on its way to opening by early evening when I checked.
I had not seen one bloom in well over 50 years and had forgotten: it was spectacular. I usually do plant photography in the studio, with lots of light and gadgets galore. This was just an iPhone, and a truly mind-boggling subject. No edits, no cropping, no tweaking.
I have nothing to add to the pictures.
Well, one thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_alba
©Opus, all rights reserved
Click through to see the magnificent flowers.
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
©Opus, all rights reserved
Wow, that is stunning.
An amazing flower, and your house looks wonderful as well. How much space is that?
I would call a house like that a pitsihuvila (lace villa). It is beautiful.
The flowers are huge and wonderfully sensual looking. The genus Ipomoea is also known here as ornamental plants (and also sweet potatoes are imported and eaten nowadays). Ipomoea is called elämänlanka (thread of life, elämä is life, lanka is thread or yarn) here and this species is kuuelämänlanka* (kuu is moon).
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* = I wonder if the Czech name of the plant is as consonant-rich as the Finnish name is wovel-rich.
This is truly embarrassing!!!
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The house picture is totally irrelevant. It’s on the top of the bluff on the riverfront in Natchez, Mississippi. The photo was taken months ago on a road trip up the Natchez Trace and I have no idea why I accidentally included it.
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I would say that I wish I lived there, but I don’t. The climate, and the fact that one would be surrounded by Trumpsters, is enough to keep me away. I have just as many Trumpsters in north Georgia but I don’t have the malarial miasma or slave-trading history of Natchez to deal with on a daily basis.
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Nice house, though.
Opus
I wondered about that because I couldn’t find a moon vine in the picture, but it was numbered as #1, so I went with that. It is a nice house and thanks for telling us about it.
The moon vine is still the star of this show.