The Timing of Flowering and Day Length

[GrannieAnnie]

I was surfing the net looking for info on morning glory bloom time- seem to remember reading not to plant them near electric lights because it delays their bloom.  Found this explanation and thought it interesting though it didn't mention anything about morning glories:

"Plants count the minutes and hours of the day or night with chemistry. I am no expert but I think I can convey the essense of how it works.

The process of photosynthesis is a chemical reaction that drives many other plant chemical reactions and the production of all the other compounds a plant may contain. Let's say there is a flower bloom chemical and a flower inhibiting chemical. As the day length changes the AMOUNT of these chemicals produced as a by product of the energy of photosynthesis changes. When the critical threshold of a flower bloom chemical is accumulated a plant will bloom. When the concentration of flower inhibit chemical is low enough the plant will bloom.

Short and sweet plants have chemical clocks."

[GrannieAnnie]

[star]

I understand what you're saying there Annie, Chrysanths sold as houseplants bloom by day length as do poinsettias. Which is why Mr and Mrs Average cant get these to flower again at home.

Did you find out how many hours of daylight Morning Glory needs?

[Rosa_Mundi]

Christmas" and "Easter" cacti also flower in response to day length. I'm not sure about Morning Glories, though - I normally have them flowering from late June until killed by frosts.

[ACE]

Aye?

[GrannieAnnie]

I understand what you're saying there Annie, Chrysanths sold as houseplants bloom by day length as do poinsettias. Which is why Mr and Mrs Average cant get these to flower again at home.

Did you find out how many hours of daylight Morning Glory needs?

No, I did not find any answer on Morning Glories. People were stating many different dates for bloom time.

[PurpleHeather]

It is surprising just how much there is to learn about plants.

People in areas where they get 12X12 = day/night can not grow a lot of our species because the plants have a device which tells them to come up and flower when there are longer days.

By the same token a lot of their vegetables bolt where there is too much day light for them.

Then there are the bulbs like garlic which start to sprout if you put them in the fridge because they determine when to grow by temperature.

I always wondered how the plants worked out summer and winter after they had been brought from say New Zealand to England or visa versa. I suppose that the first year they must get a bit jet lagged. Wondering now if it is best to give them a double winter or double summer. I don't NEED to know it is just a thought.

I have some morning glory seeds coming up, don't know why I bought them  really it must have seemed like a good idea to cover something at the time.

[GrannieAnnie]

I'm trying different colors of Morning Glories since popping up a variety of arbors made out of whatever was around. Hoping to have PROFUSE flowering up every surface available ;D