Greenformer: Moonflower... lovely as the moon!

Bought the seeds a few months ago but only planted five seeds out of the packet. Gave another five seeds to my nephew who has green fingers. He gets everything that he plants growing healthy and happy! On the contrary, I watch like a hawk over the seeds that I planted so they would survive all odds. The Moonflower vine seeds are from California as well. I was not sure that they would grow to the normal 10 ft height and flower large 5" pure white flowers. I expected them to grow like less than a feet and bear 10 cents size of flowers... This is how the seedlings looked like about 10 days after planting the seeds. First set of true leaves on all five seedlings.

Moonflower vine seedlings

I also planted another few seeds in a pot with Cosmos and Coral Jasmine. Only one seedling came up. Surprisingly all the seedlings had first flower bud just after second set of true leaves. I was worried that these seedlings going to give me a half inch flowers instead of five inch flowers. I actually fed them organic fertilizers (guano and fish emulsion) on a weekly basis to make them grow large. I didn't want them to flower too soon, as the plants may just start seeding and never grow fully in size to show their true capacity as large vines! I pinched off some of the buds but eventually gave up since every leaf axil had a flower bud. It was pointless to pinch and probably injure the young vines. So I left them to their own likes, although I was not too happy about it. Plants have their own "mind" and sometimes it's hard to change them.

Moonflower vines (after 40 days)

The flower buds even though came up together with the each set of leaves, took almost same time to mature into the larger flower buds. Finally, I could see a 5" flower bud on the vines that actually had buds during the first few days after first set of true leaves were developed. Strange enough one of the seedlings never grew any higher than 4", but actually had one of the most beautiful white flower that I had seen. A 4" vine with a 5" flower! The picture shows the bud in lime green colour still in the developmental stage. It has not reached the 5" length of the matured bud ready to bloom. (There is also a Cardinal Climber and Cypress Vine seedling growing together with the Moonflower seedlings)

Green flower bud on 4" vine

Then after almost 43 days, the buds opened up in the evening and coincidentally it was almost full moon when the blooms appeared. Majestic white papery like Moonflowers, with very fading fragrance took the center stage of the balcony. I think that pixies could be dancing with the flowers, if they really existed. The flowers are really beautiful. Large white trumpet like, but with almost the texture of smooth thin silk or tissue.

Almost faint green flower bud

Almost 15cm length

For some reason both the first blooms never opened fully. I think it was my photo sessions that probably interrupted their blooming activity. I took the plants into the bright room to take some pictures. The flowers were blooming outside in the dark after sunset. However the third flower that bloomed was almost fully opened since that happened without my knowledge and I had no opportunity to disturb the blooming activity.