roseycheeks
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Moonflowers

I want to do this right so they will come back every year. When is the best time to start them indoors?

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digitS'
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They aren't hardy enough for winter temperatures here - I am assuming you are talking about the vines and not Datura. Those are annuals. I'd bet they would look nice together!

It would be nice to have the vines and the Morning Glories are pesty and persistent weeds. However, I have only seen a few of their Moonflower sister vines grown as annuals.

Mulch for root protection? I hope someone has experience with that in the lower hardiness zones.

Steve

steve232
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I'm a big moon flower vine fan. I've been fortunate a couple of times to find a local nursery that sells the plants in the spring. This past spring I got one of them and it was beginning to take off and grow. Walked down there one morning and noticed it was wilting. I knew it wasn't that hot or dry that early in the morning. Checked around the base and a %&*^$ vole had bit it off at the ground. I ran down to the nursery where I got it to get another one since it was still fairy early in the season only to find they were all gone. So I came home and thinking I had nothing to lose I got a 5 gallon container, filled it with dirt and stuck the end of the vine in the dirt. I kept it really wet for a couple of weeks and would you believe it took root and grew for me till frost and had many beautiful blooms on it ? I was gonna post a picture of it but haven't gotten the picture posting here figured out just yet. Oh yeah I'm in zone 7.

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rainbowgardener
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Moonflower vine is a tropical perennial. It is only hardy to zone 9. Everywhere else it is usually grown as an annual, started from seed every year. If you let it go to seed, it may self sow a little bit, and some may come back the following year from the dropped seed, if your winters aren't too fierce.

I guess you could bring it indoors for the winter, but I've never had the space and lighting indoors for that. So I've always just started them from seed each year. They are easy to collect seed from, so once you have grown them once, you won't have to buy seed again.

roseycheeks
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Ok, thanks rainbowgardener, I have time to think about it, I do love their fragrance!

john gault
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I grow them every year down here in Florida, but even in Florida (NE) the winters are too brutal for them to survive. I collect the seeds at the end of the year and sow them in the spring when there's no chance of frost. I've seen volunteer seedling come up too early, only to die in a frost -- a very light frost at that.

BTW, I always soak the seeds overnight before planting, it helps a lot to soften up the tough outer shell of the seed.

imafan26
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Moon flowers are related to morning glory. They just bloom at night instead. They may be controllable in your wintry locale but they can get out of control here.

roseycheeks
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ok, thanks everybody for the advice!

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rainbowgardener
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imafan26 wrote:Moon flowers are related to morning glory. They just bloom at night instead. They may be controllable in your wintry locale but they can get out of control here.
Morning glory seed, though closely related, seems to survive the winter much better. The plant doesn't, but the seeds in the ground do, so it comes back the next year. It can become a pest that way. The moonflower seed only very occasionally makes it through the winter, even though it is a big seed with a hard coating. So even though I grew moonflower every year in Ohio, it always had to be replanted and so never was a pest. I haven't grown any yet, since I moved to zone 7.

john gault
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rainbowgardener wrote:
imafan26 wrote:Moon flowers are related to morning glory. They just bloom at night instead. They may be controllable in your wintry locale but they can get out of control here.
Morning glory seed, though closely related, seems to survive the winter much better. The plant doesn't, but the seeds in the ground do, so it comes back the next year. It can become a pest that way. The moonflower seed only very occasionally makes it through the winter, even though it is a big seed with a hard coating. So even though I grew moonflower every year in Ohio, it always had to be replanted and so never was a pest. I haven't grown any yet, since I moved to zone 7.
My experience, even here in NE Florida, seems to be about the same as rainbowgardener; I can see moonflowers becoming uncontrollable somewhere like Hawaii, but few places on the mainland.



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