I did get out at 7:00 p.m. and took this picture of one of the moonflowers just opening. Just love these, and the fragrance is wonderful. Hope to get more pictures in future as the plants really begin to produce lots of flowers.

Me too, first flower was Saturday. What a delicious fragrance!!

I had to throw mine out. It was in the back of my greenhouse with the fans blowing the opposite way. Spidermites too bad since it had a bunch of flowerbuds

Joanne, I never knew that spider mites liked moonflower vines, we have never had that problem, thank goodness. However, now we will keep an eye out just in case the plant starts to look funny. We hate spider mites!!!

I sowed seeds directly into the ground some time in May and by July 1st had blooms. I wish our deck was screened in (soon we hope) so that we can enjoy the fragrance at night. This one begins opening in the early evening and the blooms remain open all night. They usually begin opening @ 7:30 p.m.

Avedon: Do you grow your Ipomoea alba in container's in a greenhouse? This is the first year I've ever grown the "Evening Glory"/"Moonflower" and it's quickly become a favorite! I haven't had a problem with spider mites on outdoor plants but when I had a greenhouse many years ago I'd get them on occasion and they can really decimate a plant collection quickly!

Hello, Lin, no, we put the moonflower seeds directly in the ground in late April, which means we can usually avoid those late frosts. We start them by soaking them over night, and if the seeds show signs of splitting, then we know that hard outer covering is soft enough that the seeds can germinate much easier. We did 40 plus seeds that way this spring, and only one failed to germinate. No, we don't have 40 moonflower vines, growing here, we give away all the extras. By the way, I was out last evening trying to get pictures of the nighthawk moth pollinating a moonflower--wasn't fast enough to get the shot, but when I heard a buzzing around my head, I took off for the house. Mosquitoes are to be avoided, since there is such an outbreak of West Nile Virus happening in the U.S. This morning in our newspaper, we learned that an area lady had died from the virus. So as much as I want to get pictures, I may give that up for now. It's just too risky right now with a thing like this out there. Oh, I will post a pic of one of the trellises that has the moonflower vines on it. We still don't have a lot of flowers yet,

Very nice ... I really like that trellis! My plant is growing up a little tree.

This morning, just before 7:00 a.m., I took the camera out and got this picture of the moonflowers blooming on the big trellis in the Main Garden. We had a cold front come through Saturday and the temp when I was out this morning was 52 degrees, so I can only wonder if that's the reason the flowers stayed open as much as they did. Regardless, they were beautiful and still fragrant. One thing, I didn't worry about mosquitoes, think they were too cold to be out.



Moonflowers on the big trellis





Moonflowers on the small trellis





Closeup of single moonflower--I think it is beautiful

Nice photos everyone. I have troubles taking photos of white flowers

Thanks, Joanne, these flowers have always photographed just right for me. I never have to try to adjust the color, thank goodness. This is definitely a case of what you see is what you get.

Avedon: That is one beautiful plant and great photo's! I hope you will add some of your Moonflower pictures to the database:

Moonflower (Ipomoea alba)

Lin, done and done. I put up two photos, the one of the big trellis and the one of the single flower. Really glad you like them.

I did manage to get a few photos last night of the big nighthawk moths pollinating the moonflowers. Here they are.

Awesome ... especially that last shot! I hope you will add that last one to the database! Moonflower (Ipomoea alba)

I'd love to see one of those neat moths on my moon flowers, the only thing I've seen on mine at night are little gnats.

Lin, I did add the last picture to the Database. The reason I posted the first one, even though not as clear as I would have wished, is to show how long the proboscis is that is used for sucking the nectar. It's amazing to me when I see how far back the moth can be, doesn't have to get right down in the flower, as in the second and third photos. I hope someday you will get to see the moths in action.

I've been gone a couple of weeks and I came home to see the moonflowers still have a few blooms. I took this picture about 8:30 this morning. It's cloudy, so the flowers stayed open. If you look at the leaves, you will see the seed pods , and that usually means the flowers are almost done for the year.

Nice! My Moonflowers are done for the season. I had lots and lots of seedpods and pulled the remainder off the vines last week. This was just a hand full of the seed pods produced. I gave away so many seeds and still have plenty enough for next spring.