Monday, January 5, 2015

Morning Glories


There's nothing like a true-blue flower to make gardeners like me excited. There are so few of them available to grow, that do not shade into purple or fade into pink. I've grown the common bachelor's-button, which is ultramarine blue, and I've also grown Chilean bellflowers and tiny forget-me-nots. But the most spectacular true blue flower for me is the ipomoea or morning-glory vine, in the "Heavenly Blue" variety. You can grow these just about anywhere that they can climb. I grew them in Cambridge and I even tried to grow one in my indoor garden under lights. It did bloom a few times but was eventually destroyed by aphids. How the aphids got indoors to my garden, I never knew. I do know that aphids "colonize" morning glory plants outdoors, and ants tend the aphids like livestock, harvesting sugary liquid from the aphids to feed the ant community. I have actually observed this phenomenon myself.

This morning glory painting was a commission from a friend who liked my garden art. It is hard to capture the true colors of these blooms with a camera, but watercolor can match that shade exactly. Maybe someday I'll try to grow real morning glories again, if I ever have room for them.

"Morning Glories" is ink and watercolor on illustration board, 9" x 11", January 1986. Click for larger view.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

I have always loved Morning glories, someday maybe we will plants some here along with Moon flowers. Lovely picture.