Ipomoea alba, sometimes called the tropical white morning-glory or moon flower or moon vine,
I had planted this one using seeds. The seed resembles a small, brownish nut, and should be nicked with a file and then soaked overnight before planting.
This is a nocturnal flowering plant that I had come to mesmerize with it's white immaculate blooms.
It is just like the Morning Glory where it blooms from morning till evening, this one does it in a reverse order - from blooming from evening till next morning - it is in full bloom by midnight.
The blooms are like satin soft and bigger than common morning glory flower.
The only set back is that it is badly infected with white flies, eventually the plant had started setting seeds and become mature and dies. It was great cultivating it for a season.
It is said that it is a perennial vines but I'm not sure as this plant does died out on
me like an annual as like it had finished it's season, set seeds and die back.
Perhaps it died out because it had faced a heavy infestation of pest particularly white flies on this one that the plant had succumb into stress and died.
Care & Cultivation:
However it is not a fussy plant - just like any morning glory plant types - all it needs is a good potting mix with a trailing space where it can climb easily. It does need good sunlight area for it grow (not recommended to grow in shaded areas) and watering is basically twice a day depending how hot & dry the weather is. Do refrain watering on rainy days.
Propagation:
Do collect the seeds and keep if you would like to cultivate it for the next season as they may tend to die away like some ipomoea species.
NON-FRAGRANCE:
These bloom just last for a night and it gets close shut tight by the morning.
The other thing is both of these flowers do not have any scent. (no fragrance at all)
I had checked some website mentioned that they are fragrant - so I'm not sure if it's a different cultivar or perhaps may elude scent in very cold climate zones.
So - I really not sure how they attract their pollinators.
They do have the common heart-shaped foliage in dark green coloration, the flower buds form at each intervals of the plant nodes.
Blooms are closing in the morning.
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