02/03/2020 - Arise and Shine

So, we are finally back after a 9 month hiatus. Some of you may have wondered what happened to the vineyard and blog since last year. Lets shed some light and, most importantly, get into what is coming this season.

Kikyo Quasar

First of all, my sincerest apologies for not keeping you updated. I am aware the website does not get all that much traffic but I do really appreciate the few who do take an interest.

This website mostly started out as a personal diary and gallery to archive my experiences growing morning glories. Mostly because my needs had outgrown the practicality of Facebook which I was using before for the same purpose.

Who knows, maybe someday Japanese Asagao will become as popular in the West as it is in the East. The Ruvan Asagao vineyard will be around for a long time to come regardless. Even long, unannounced breaks will never mean I have quit this beautiful hobby. Don't worry.

A few of you will know I have been suffering with PDD (Persistent Depressive Disorder) and PPD (Persistent Perception Disorder) for most of my life. This sadly often results in long periods of extreme fatigue and anxiety which strongly interferes with my ability to keep up with long-term projects like this.

Unfortunately last summer was a particularly bad period for me and after some horrible weather (a very cold spring followed by a very hot and dry summer) and bad luck I decided to take a break until the next season and focus on developing a new skill for a while (particularly knotting and weaving cord).

Of course it would only be a matter of time before the itch for growing morning glories came rushing back. However, I will be starting out a lot more calmly this time and build up slowly as to not get overwhelmed later on.

I will also refrain from buying another couple dozen new varieties this year as I still have an enormous backlog of varieties in my collection which I have not grown yet. The seeds won't be getting any better laying around and it would be a sin to let them go to waste.

Tsuki no Odori | Moon Dance

I likely won't be growing a 100+ varieties this year. And I won't be doing too much preplanning either. My goal will be trying to get the Japanese varieties to produce much more consistent seed crops as this has been the biggest struggle so far (apart from getting plants to actually flower in the first place, which has mostly been solved). I'll also be trying to figure out a system and routine which will hopefully help keep the garden going even if major depressive episodes do occur.

Today I have started three varieties to begin with. Namely, Tsukiyono (Moonbeams), Seiun (Clear Blue Sky) and Heian no Sora (Sky of the Heian Era). All varieties originally came from the Jacksonville Morning Glory Vineyard which I highly recommend if you're looking to buy seeds.

- Tsukiyono (Moonbeams) is a lavender-grey blizzard type with variegated leaves and large flowers. This one will be grown in the usual pot with cylindrical trellis. The seeds were harvested in 2017.

- Seiun (Clear Blue Sky) has, like the name implies, solid, sky blue flowers of decent size, also with variegated leaves. This one will also be grown in the usual pot with cylindrical trellis. These seeds were harvested in 2014 but I still expect them to be quite viable.

- Heian no Sora (Sky of the Heian Era) we have grown before. You can check our gallery here. Since I have plenty of seeds of this variety and know it is a good producer I will be using them for some more experimentation with "kirikomizukuri" style growing. They were harvested from my own garden in 2018.

Heian no Sora | Sky of the Heian Era

As usual, indoor space is limited so we'll be starting out with small numbers. I will let Tsukiyono and Seiun grow for a few weeks under a short-night schedule and flip to a long-night schedule when they have reached the correct size. Heian no Sora will be germinated directly under a long-night schedule. More varieties will be added every so often.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing some flowers again! We can probably expect some of the first ones in roughly 6-8 weeks time. I'll try and make sure to update the blog once a month at the very least but the updates should get more frequent once things get going again. As usual, photo galleries will be updated continuously as flowers appear. I'll also be trying to document things like leaf shapes, colours, vining habits, etc. a bit more consistently.

Blue Mutant

Cheers! Walt (Ewoud V.), founder of the Ruvan Asagao morning glory vineyard.