Ipomoea

No garden without the large luminous flowers of Ipomoea purpurea “Heavenly Blue” or “Grandpa Ott” – my favorite color varieties in my previous gardens. But it turns out to be just too hot and dry for them here. I did try sowing them but if they come up at all they need to be watered daily and the first flowers show in October, after it has rained a few times… So I decided that I will do have to do without them.

I then grew enamoured with the beautiful perennial Ipomoea learii/indica that are hanging over fences and walls all over the region, with their incredibly purple-blue flowers. I got some cuttings last summer that I let root in a glass of water and then put in empty spots in the vegetable and berry beds, thinking that they would decorate the empty wall or the yew hedge there.

They froze and seemingly died in January at -4℃ but came back in May/June and grew prolifically, twisting and twining around everything. After I read some more about their extreme invasiveness (and potential size of 10×10 meters) I took them out in August and discovered that they had already made roots of almost two meters length!

I’ve saved some cuttings though that I may use on the escarpment bordering the garden to the North. There is lots of space for them there and with the poor soil and direct sun exposure there they should not become too prolific…