Her: Late bloomers... literally.

One of my attempts of beautifying our garden this year was planting morning glories and sunflowers along the side of the garden that faced the road. I've always thought morning glories were so pretty, and so special because they only bloom in the morning. My mom would always have a crop growing, so I picked up the idea from her. Plus, sunflowers are always so happy looking!

So, the seeds for each all sprouted and started to grow magnificently. I would carefully train the morning glory vines to grow up the side of the lattice fence of our garden. Soon, the sunflowers reached over 6 ft tall and bloomed in several colours. The sunflowers certainly flourished. One stalk even had 10 heads on it! I've saved a few heads so we'll have seeds for next year.

The morning glories, on the other hand, just would not bloom. However, the vines and leaves grew like crazy. We had trouble keeping the vines off of the sunflowers, actually, and they grew so thick and strong that it ended up being a bit of a mess with the sunflowers. The morning glory vines almost choked out the sunflowers! It required a bit of maintenance, and there was still no sign of any flowers... until about a week ago. Now we have beautiful morning blooms of deep purple and royal blue, spotting the fence with colour.

Now, why did they wait all summer to bloom? My guess is that it was the heat which prevented the vines from producing flowers. (I think the heat also made our marigolds grow 4 ft tall... unless I planted mammoth marigold seeds?!) We've had a pretty hot summer down here, but the last few weeks have been manageable, and at least 5 degrees cooler. What a difference a few degrees makes, not only for Canadians stuck in hot Maryland summers, but for morning glory blooms as well.

Look at the pretty flowers! :)