The Patience Flower

Every summer I try to grow moonflowers, Ipomoea alba. I plant numerous seeds (hard as rocks they are) soaked in wet paper towels for days and nicked ever so slightly. A few germinate in my little pots and because they do not like the transplanting process even fewer survive when I move them to a warm sunny area.  Being the tropical exotics that they are, they like it hot and it isn't until August that I begin to see any real growth in the vine.  Finally on August 8, I saw this bloom at the far side of my deck as I was heading back into the house at the end of the day.  This one bloom makes the whole deck smell like a lovely perfume store or an evening in Bali.  The blossoms last only one night, do not bloom until after I head indoors as they are waiting for the sun to set, and the plant itself will start to suffer with the cool nights of September.  But every year I am rewarded for my patience with these few precious weeks of beauty and fragrance.