I fell in love with Moon Vine (Ipomoea alba) while gardening in Columbia, SC, and warmly recall the night my two sons were swimming in our pool at night and first saw her lovely white blooms. “What is THAT flower” one of the boys asked pointing to my brick wall covered with several white blooms that dazzled in the moonlight. It was almost magical!
A cousin of the Morning Glory and the Sweet Potato vines, Moon Vine blooms at night and has a delightful vanilla fragrance. In my Columbia garden, she was grown as an annual, but in reading up on her I discovered that in many tropical zones, she is considered a perennial plant. What would she do in Charleston, a semi-tropical environment, I wondered.
I decided to start some seeds in July. I soaked them for 12 hours in water and then nicked them at the pointed area of the seed. With very limited space on my patio, I dropped them in a container with a trellis.
Moon Vine needs full sun, so I moved my pot around to capture as much light as possible. This fabulous plant did not disappoint. The blooms started emerging early this month, and I doted on my pot constantly as we waited out Hurricane Florence.
This week my Moon Vine started blooming, and I have run outside nightly to catch the incredible show!
Charleston Walker 