Morning Glory 'Cornell'

Seeds for 'Cornell' were purchased on E-Bay on 2005. I don't remember who from or how much I paid for them. Honestly, I don't know why I bought them since I was living in a rented townhouse and literally had a postage stamp sized garden!

I moved to a house in the fall of 2005 and promptly forgot about them. The seeds spent the intervening years in my basement laundry room. Last winter when money was extremely tight I vowed to sow as many of my old seed as possible and they were added to the list.

I soaked 10 seeds overnight and then transferred them to damp paper towels in a plastic container. The next day I checked them and every seed had sent a out a strong root. They were planted in peat pellets and the rest you can see below.

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Here they are looking very strong and healthy.

The glamour shot. The color is a deeper, rosier tone than I can capture in pictures.

Two seedling were planted on each side of the gate. Above is the right side. This is not even a full flowering day.


Here is the left side, a good illustration of the plant habit.


A nice group photo, with 'Grandpa Ott' peeking through.


Still looking good in September.



Judging from the three lobed leaves, this is from the Ipomea nil species, that's the Japanese Imperial Giants strains in the trade. The vines are very vigorous, start to flower in late July. Individual flowers can reach up to 6 inches in diameter. It also sets seed like a champ. I'm hoping to save quite a lot of them this fall. There is one flaw, some of the buds seem to get hung up and need to be teased open. The variety is so floriferous, this is not a major issue. This is definitely a variety that needs to be in wider circulation!



I have not been able to discover anything about the history of this variety. Countless web searches have yielded little. I do have a vague recollection that it is from the early 1960's. If any who read this have any background information, please let me know.