[gardeners] moonflowers
c.l. avery (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 24 Sep 2001 04:25:09
Dear fellow gardeners,
I saw my first moonflower open up ! This is my third year planting the
vine, and I had just about given up hope. The first year I put the seeds in
a pot in the shade. Oops. Wrong thing to do I now know. I either dried it
out or it starved for sunshine. Second year it got about 4-6 foot long but
then died off. This year I made sure to put it in a sunny spot (well,
that's relative as I really have a shady yard) and made sure to water it
like crazy. And I've been rewarded. Have had blossoms now each night for
about 2 weeks and last night I finally was outdoors watching it as one
blossom opened up -- whee! It took about 8-9 mins, I could see the stem and
the white twisted blossom shaking every now and then with the effort of
opening ...finally enough of the petals had opened up far enough so that the
wind caught them and opened them up the rest of the way. Really neat. And,
quite frankly, I just liked having those 8-9 minutes of stillness and rest,
watching a large beautiful flower open up slowly but surely, not wanting to
blink or turn away for an instant.
happy gardening!
Carolyn
Bethesda
Zone 7a
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