Maybe I'm too impatient, but I have no flowers on my Heavenly blue or
Alba (moon flower). I planted the first seeds in April but they did not
germinate, so I planted a second lot in May after scarifying the hard
seed coat and soaking them in tepid water overnight. So successful
germination and they are both now over 6ft tall with beautiful pale
green leaves approx 7ins across. The foliage looks very nice in the
conservatory but no flowers unfortunately.
Am I too impatient or should there be flowers or at least some buds by
now ? Four days ago I tried shock tactics on the heavenly blue by
speaking to it very severely and threatening it with eviction out of
it's comfortable surroundings 19 deg C last night, (external minimum air
temp 10deg)

Yesterday I allowed it to develop temporary wilt by delaying watering to
try and shock it into flowering so I'm hoping that I shall see some
signs of flower buds soon..
They are both planted in a standard potting compost which seems to suit
other plants. does anybody know where on the plant the flowers develop,
leaf axils perhaps?

Any useful info gratefully received.
Cheers
Don

On 24/07/2010 10:29, Donwill wrote:
Maybe I'm too impatient, but I have no flowers on my Heavenly blue or
Alba (moon flower). I planted the first seeds in April but they did
not germinate, so I planted a second lot in May after scarifying the
hard seed coat and soaking them in tepid water overnight. So
successful germination and they are both now over 6ft tall with
beautiful pale green leaves approx 7ins across. The foliage looks very
nice in the conservatory but no flowers unfortunately.
Am I too impatient or should there be flowers or at least some buds by
now ? Four days ago I tried shock tactics on the heavenly blue by
speaking to it very severely and threatening it with eviction out of
it's comfortable surroundings 19 deg C last night, (external minimum
air temp 10deg)

Yesterday I allowed it to develop temporary wilt by delaying watering
to try and shock it into flowering so I'm hoping that I shall see some
signs of flower buds soon..
They are both planted in a standard potting compost which seems to
suit other plants. does anybody know where on the plant the flowers
develop, leaf axils perhaps?

Any useful info gratefully received.
Cheers
Don



Have managed at last to upload a couple of pictures: there must be an
easier way than the way I'm doing it :'(
http://i31.tinypic.com/5k4t9i.jpg
http://i30.tinypic.com/qmyixg.jpg

In article ,
lid says...
Maybe I'm too impatient, but I have no flowers on my Heavenly blue or
Alba (moon flower). I planted the first seeds in April but they did not
germinate, so I planted a second lot in May after scarifying the hard
seed coat and soaking them in tepid water overnight. So successful
germination and they are both now over 6ft tall with beautiful pale
green leaves approx 7ins across. The foliage looks very nice in the
conservatory but no flowers unfortunately.
Am I too impatient or should there be flowers or at least some buds by
now ? Four days ago I tried shock tactics on the heavenly blue by
speaking to it very severely and threatening it with eviction out of
it's comfortable surroundings 19 deg C last night, (external minimum air
temp 10deg)

Yesterday I allowed it to develop temporary wilt by delaying watering to
try and shock it into flowering so I'm hoping that I shall see some
signs of flower buds soon..
They are both planted in a standard potting compost which seems to suit
other plants. does anybody know where on the plant the flowers develop,
leaf axils perhaps?

Any useful info gratefully received.
Cheers
Don




Too soon this year, and its never worth sowing the seed before the end of
may. one cold night and they stall and often never start again so best
wait for things to warm up, they soon catch up
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

They look fine. You're just being impatient! They're a second-half-of-summer flower.

As Charlie says, April was far too early - they really like to be warm. I wouldn't make a habit of letting them wilt ;-)

Mine have been flowering for a couple of weeks now - but my greenhouse was a lot warmer than your conservatory/sun room will have been.

Yes, you're right, the flowers appear in the leaf axils. As you probably know, each individual flower lasts less than a day - it will be fully out when you get up, and fades sometime during the afternoon.

On 24/07/2010 16:24, kay wrote:
'Donwill[_2_ Wrote:

;895255']
Have managed at last to upload a couple of pictures: there must be an
easier way than the way I'm doing it :'(
http://i31.tinypic.com/5k4t9i.jpg
http://i30.tinypic.com/qmyixg.jpg

They look fine. You're just being impatient! They're a
second-half-of-summer flower.

As Charlie says, April was far too early - they really like to be warm.
I wouldn't make a habit of letting them wilt ;-)

Mine have been flowering for a couple of weeks now - but my greenhouse
was a lot warmer than your conservatory/sun room will have been.

Yes, you're right, the flowers appear in the leaf axils. As you probably
know, each individual flower lasts less than a day - it will be fully
out when you get up, and fades sometime during the afternoon.





Thanks for that Kay, Yes I probably am too impatient.
The conservatory hasn't gone below approx 18deg C at night and I
usually open the vents when it goes above 25deg C in the day, on the
hottest days that we've had (28.5deg C), opening the bi fold doors holds
the temperature within a few degrees above ambient. With the vents
closed at night the temperature is approx 10 deg C above ambient.
I may start feeding with a tomato feed to see if that will help, the
compost may be a little high on N perhaps.
Don

On 24/07/2010 10:29, Donwill wrote:
Maybe I'm too impatient, but I have no flowers on my Heavenly blue or
Alba (moon flower). I planted the first seeds in April but they did
not germinate, so I planted a second lot in May after scarifying the
hard seed coat and soaking them in tepid water overnight. So
successful germination and they are both now over 6ft tall with
beautiful pale green leaves approx 7ins across. The foliage looks very
nice in the conservatory but no flowers unfortunately.
Am I too impatient or should there be flowers or at least some buds by
now ? Four days ago I tried shock tactics on the heavenly blue by
speaking to it very severely and threatening it with eviction out of
it's comfortable surroundings 19 deg C last night, (external minimum
air temp 10deg)

Yesterday I allowed it to develop temporary wilt by delaying watering
to try and shock it into flowering so I'm hoping that I shall see some
signs of flower buds soon..
They are both planted in a standard potting compost which seems to
suit other plants. does anybody know where on the plant the flowers
develop, leaf axils perhaps?

Any useful info gratefully received.
Cheers
Don



Thank you all for your contributions.
Warm Regards
Don

As I thought, cooler than my greenhouse (at least by day) ;-)

That would explain your big healthy leaves ;-)

And from the plant's point of view, why bother putting all that energy into reproduction is you're getting that well fed?

In article , kay
writes
As Charlie says, April was far too early - they really like to be warm.
I wouldn't make a habit of letting them wilt ;-)

I don't get flowers until I've shoved mine into the soil in the front
garden! They seem to take forever to grow then suddenly put on about 3
foot a day! Mine are now up by the Bedroom window and lots of flowers
coming .

Janet

--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:46:23 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

In article , kay
writes
As Charlie says, April was far too early - they really like to be warm.
I wouldn't make a habit of letting them wilt ;-)

I don't get flowers until I've shoved mine into the soil in the front
garden! They seem to take forever to grow then suddenly put on about 3
foot a day! Mine are now up by the Bedroom window and lots of flowers
coming .

Janet

Yes, mine too. I know they are "late developers" and don't plant too
early. I have some in a big pot at the base of my wisteria, and now
the first flowers are showing at about head-height and I have hopes of
more. Planting early doesn't seem to pay off.

Pam in Bristol