2013 Moonflower (Ipomoea alba) and Malabar Spinach (Basella alba)These were grown on our porch, whic

2013 Moonflower (Ipomoea alba) and Malabar Spinach (Basella alba)These were grown on our porch, which is south-facing (in this photo, I’m facing East, so South is to my right). To the left is the Solarium. What we’ve done here is create a trellis for these vining plants - the Moonflower and the Malabar Spinach - to climb high on the outside of the Solarium’s south-facing wall (which is all windows). This provides natural cooling to the Solarium, by blocking the sun and instead soaking it up and converting it to edible and beautiful things.What I learned in 2013 is that while Malabar Spinach is fun to grow I don’t care at all for how it tastes or for dealing with it in the kitchen. It reminded me of okra, which is all.. mucilage? mucousy? I don’t quite know the right term, but it’s that slimy business.The bloom on this Moonflower was huge, bigger than the size of my hand stretched out. I tried to take photos of this but they were all super-blurry in the dark. Moonflowers are very fun to grow, especially if you’re nocturnal like we are. These had a wonderful scent as well. I find that Moonflowers can take awhile to germinate, sometimes as long as a month, and then they can take awhile to get around to blooming, but they’re absolutely worth growing. We don’t get nearly as much blooming time out of them here in the mountains as we did down in the heat of Georgia, but we also don’t have Georgia’s crazy heat. Always a tradeoff.The pink hanging plant in the background is Tradescantia zebrina, one looks like maybe a Pothos, and the other is Asparagus densiflorus. -- source link

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