Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Cardinal Creeper Ipomoea horsfalliae


Hi, do you think I'm sexy?

Don't you wish you had a blooming flower that is hot like me in your garden in the midst of winter?


Family: Convolvulaceae
Botanical name: Ipomoea horsfalliae
Common name: Cardinal creeper, Prince Kuhio* vine, Horsfall's morning glory, Lady Doorly's morning glory
Origin / Native to : West Indies (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Guyana, Suriname), Venezuela, Brazil

* Named after Hawaii Prince Kuhio who grew it on his property in Waikiki. See what I mean? Even a prince wants to have her.


This vine blooms repeatedly in late fall to early or mid-winter. The flower buds resemble berries. (Please refer to the second picture). Flowers are a bright fuchsia (red/purple) colour and measures around 2-3 inches in diameter. It was the showy flowers that first attracted my attention. It was love at first sight! I think it looks like a symmetrical 10-sided decagon. I just love this shade of fuchsia.

This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds.


Just look at the shiny, glossy, dark green foliage of this evergreen, perennial vine. The leaves have a rounded, wavy outline and palmate with 5 - 7 lobes.



This is how the whole plant look like from afar. It is a medium sized vine that can grow to 12 - 15 ft tall.

Growth requirements: Full sun to partial shade. Water regularly but do not overwater.
Propagation is by seeds or stem cuttings. It is a slow grower and may take 2-3 years to reach 8-10 ft. It can also be grown as a houseplant or container plant.

The kiss of death: The seeds and parts of the plant are poisonous if injested.


This post is dedicated to Mr Subjunctive of Plants Are The Strangest People (PATSP), the first commentor of my previous post, Wordless Wednesday - Purple Fountain Grass. I need to look up the dictionary to find out what 'subjunctive' means. I think the meaning is very deep. I really like the unique blog name of PATSP and I do agree with this statement that plants are indeed the strangest people. This I can relate to very well. I also enjoy reading this very fascinating blog.

Photos taken at The Secret Garden of 1-Utama
My grateful thanks to consultant botanist, Dr. Francis Ng. His blog link is at my sidebar.

References:
1. Daves garden
2. Gardino Nursery, Corp : Rare and Unusual Plants
3. USDA


This is my entry for the second Blooming Friday of 2010. My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.

This is also my entry for Today's Flowers #74. My grateful thanks to the TF folks: Santilli, Denise, Pupo and Valkyrien for hosting Today's Flowers. To participate or view other floral displays around the world, click here.

Post publication update: Andrea of Andrea in This Lifetime has posted pictures of the Ipomoea sp in her post "Wildflowers ... that's what we thought ... at first!" One of the picture is a yellow ipomoea, also has star shaped pattern in the flowers but it is a different species. Do have a look at those lovely flowers too.

39 comments:

  1. Always a delight to read your posts, Autumn. Here, such a plant would never get so big; cardinal vines, morning glories, etc, don't get enough heat to make them happy. I should show mine this post next summer to inspire it!

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  2. That is a beauty Autumn Belle! Yes I would love to have it blooming in the winter!! Lovely photos! Thank you for your last mention of my blog! You are so kind. Carol

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  3. Autumn Belle I would never be able to grow that! I will just be content to view it from your blog

    Rosie

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  4. yes, definitely a sexy flower.
    You are so lucky!
    I am grateful for blogging in the winter.
    rosey

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  5. Yes, I would love to have her in my garden now, how nice it would be, instead of the cold and all the snow :)

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  6. Yes, I do wish I had a hot sexy flower in my garden right now! What a gorgeous sexy pink color this flower is. The leaves are inticing especially to me since all my stuff is in it's dull winter package. Now I have that song in my head. LOL I will be humming that tune as I do some clean up outside. I will have a smile on my face Thank you. :-)

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  7. Wow - so sweet and sexy and dangerous - yes I will have her in my garden - of course! Very nice pictures!

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  8. Hi Autumn Belle, that is indeed a sexy flower, I love the buds as much as the blooms. Thanks for all the background about it, and the prince was on the right track with this one. We love Mr. Sub too, such an interesting fellow. :-)
    Frances

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  9. Such a lovely flower I would enjoy having it summer and/or winter and it brightened up this cold winters evening. Thank you.

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  10. What a sultry beauty! That would look nice in my garden Autumn Belle. I wonder if it grows here on my island, never seen it before.

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  11. I had never seen this plant. Its sure feel very exotic just like the passiflora plant.
    Surprise to note about its poison, it look so much like a morning glory.

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  12. I like this creeper! The flower is beautiful. Thank you Autumn Belle for introducing this plant. Secret Garden really knows what it takes to delight their visitors :-D

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  13. I understand the prince, butterflies and birds -it's a pratty one! Love//Eva

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  14. If it grow in my garden, in wintertime, that would really be something;-) Beautiful flower!

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  15. Wah, sungguh bagus! Andai bisa tumbuh di sini.... Kebun saya ditutupi salju sekarang. :-) Selamat berakhir pekan.

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  16. I'm amazed at the Ipomoea varieties! Hot and sexy? Oh yes! What a colour!! Surely something I'd like to have in my garden:)

    Have a great weekend, Autumn Belle!

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  17. Oh yes, I do wish I had this in my garden, beautiful!!

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  18. It is a beautiful plant, Love the color. Kathy

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  19. Yes, yes, yes! I would love to have such a gorgeous vine growing in my garden in the middle of winter...or any time of the year, for that matter.
    Happy Blooming Friday!

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  20. Lovely flowers. Yes, I want little more hot wheather now. - 20 have we now. Hugs from Lena/isis

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  21. I do wish I had that blooming in my garden. The flowers and buds are really pretty!

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  22. that kind of beauty is poisonous?

    i like the star pattern =)

    happy weekend!

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  23. nice to such delightful flowers. the colour is extremely deep and rich... i only have roselle flowers at the moment.. haha.

    Selamat bercuti dan jalan-jalan,

    ~bangchik

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  24. the symmetry in nature is just amazing. Yes, that kind of beauty is always poisonous, huh?

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  25. Hi Autumn Belle, this is a very beautiful Ipomea, have heard of it but I don´t think ever seen one in person. Do you have cold winters in India, well I know in the north you have... but, do you live around the north??
    Wishing you and family a very happy and blessed 2010.
    Muchos cariños,
    Maria Cecilia

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  26. Dear Belle -- I would welcome ANYTHING growing in my garden at this time of the year, but it is covered in snow and ice. I am so glad to have your beautiful post to cheer me up! Pamela :)

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  27. Yes it definitely is exotic and sexy looking. The color is so striking and I'd love to have it. Send one over :)

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  28. OMG THIS IS FABULOUS! I love the sexy part too!!! what a wonderful flower! Thanks for flaunting with me...hope to see you LOTS and LOTS this year!

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  29. What a very beautiful Ipomoea species! I have other color from the species but the flowers are not in clusters like that! I haven't see it even in Hawaii. I want to put photo in this comment box as a rejoinder, like in flickr but i dont know how. http://abagillon.blogspot.com/2009/10/wildflowersthats-what-we-thoughtat.htmlI just call them Ipomoea sp. as they look like Ipomoea but somehow i also saw it as Argyreia nervosa somewhere, and put it in my slideshow dedicated to you! http://abagillon.blogspot.com/2010/01/flower-parade-for-new-year.html. I wonder (lol) why you haven't look at them yet (log again!)

    Lastly, this is a beautiful post as usual, Autumn Belle.

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  30. P.S. Sorry Autumn Belle, I don't refer to the slide show but the old Ipomoea picture of the first link. Thanks. Clicking immediately without reading it is my common mistake, i am a touch typist and that is one of the disadvantages, lol. Thanks and sorry again.

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  31. I'm so glad everyone agree with me about this gorgeous flower.

    Ayie, you have just described what I wanted to say. Yes, 'star pattern' is the word for it. I had been cracking my head earlier looking for the right word to describe how I see it. Thank you so much.

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  32. Andrea, actually I received your comment just after I typed in mine. Now I have included your link in my post. Thank you very much for your visit, my dear.

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  33. The flowers are so beautiful!

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  34. Jama, I'm glad you like this flower too.

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  35. A stunning flower and a magnificent series of photos. Thank you for sharing them with Today's Flowers.

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  36. Very beautiful. Where I can buy seeds of Ipomoea horsfalliae?
    Thanks for answering
    Elizabeth
    ecarranzalva@gmail.com

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth, I'm sorry I don't have the information you need.

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