Morning Glory Give Away

This morning I've spent time on the pooter, printing out the pages for the Morning Glory Give-Away artist's book. They're all printed out, and ready to be cut and bound.
Above is one of the photos I took for the cover of the book; though it isn't the one I've finally decided to use.
It feels good to be at the end of this project; it's taken eight and a half months, since the seedlings first came up. Now it's coming to an end, there's the usual concern that their future owners won't like their finished books!

Morning Glory Give-Away

Today 16 (that's SIXTEEN!) flowers have bloomed on the morning glory plants! The conservatory is awash with white trumpet blossoms!

Gorgeous.

Morning Glory Give-Away

Here is the very first flower that came out on the Morning Glory plant. It looks almost square rather than that trumpet shape it's supposed to be. You can see the delicate veining of the blue, in the white petal.

This is the flower of the Morning Glory just before it emerges from the bud.
A beautiful spiral, like the horn of a unicorn.

This is how the Morning Glory plant grew in the pot out in the garden during the summer.

Morning Glory Give-Away

YES!
The Morning Glory flowers are through! Hurray!
I've been taking lots of photos of the trumpet flowers as they emerge, so will have a lovely selection to put up here.
And as I thought, they began to come out the very day after I last posted. The flowers are white with a delicate blue veining through them; the 'tricolour' species.
We're getting at least one a day flowering now. Brightening up the gloomy grey mornings. It will be sad when they stop, and die back. As annual plants, once they've finished flowering, that's it! Off into the compost bin.

Morning Glory Give-Away

Well the good news is that there are LOTS of flower buds showing through on my Morning Glory plant; and 4 are about to burst forth at any moment!
I've taken some photos of the buds, and hoping that I'll be able to catch the flowers as they emerge. It would be terrible to miss them, after waiting all these months.

Once the flowers are out, the photos will be put up here! I can hardly wait!
Maybe tomorrow?

Morning Glory Give-Away

Playing some more with the macro setting on my camera, I took this photo of the Morning Glory plants growing in a pot in my garden.

As the weather is getting much colder, (and the weather forecast says to expect frosts soon!) I thought it would be a good idea to bring the pot inside; so it's sitting in my conservatory, with clumps of what I hope will be flowers!

The news on the give-away front is disappointing. A lot of plants have been eaten by....something? My suspicions are blooming slugs. They seem to adore Morning Glory plants. So the book I'm planning to create, is losing pages, fast! I've suggested to people that they could make drawings or collages to include in the book. See how folk run with that idea.

On the plus side; I put in some Passion flower seeds (a whole packet!) and got 3 plants come up....at least I think they're Passion Flowers?

These are now safely in the conservatory with the Morning Glory, so kept nice and safe from the outside elements.

Onward marches Autumn, soon followed by Winter; so I'm going to spend the season completing the projects I started over the course of year. Still on with the knitting. Lots to do.

Morning Glory Give-Away

Today I've spent time today designing the pages for the handmade book I'll be making from the photographs provided by artist/gardeners of their Morning Glory plants.

It was a fruitful day; I managed to get all the pages put together, with details of the place, the artist, and the plant number.

I'm aiming to create a botanical/specimen look.
Once the photos start coming in, I'll have a lot of work to do with organising the individual pages, and then making each book.
Currently it looks like I'll have 15 or 16 books to compile! One for each artist/gardener.

Morning Glory Give-Away update

The latest news is that 21 Morning Glory Plants have been passed onto gardeners/artists.
Out of this, 14 have so far survived the predations of SLUGS!!!!

I have 2 plants left which are recovering from the hungry chomping of slugs. So they'll remain here, and I'll plant them out in my garden, when they get a bit bigger.

I've handed out advice about the plants, suggesting that eggshells, sharp sand, organic/harmless slug pellets be spread on the ground around the Morning Glory plants.
Cut down plastic drinks bottles placed around the plants, to stop slugs getting to the plants, is another way of protecting them.


I've done a rough draft of how I want the page/s to look, so just got to do that on the computer. And do some more work on the cover and the back of the book.

'Morning Glory (IPOMOEA) flowers last only one day, but are borne continually, so there is the pleasure of being able to see new flowers open each morning. The foliage is not particularly dense which means Morning Glory is not an effective screening plant. Treat it as a decorative guest, not a workhorse.'

Morning Glory Give Away

Here are some of the Morning Glory seedlings that I'm curently growing for the MORNING GLORY GIVE-AWAY project.
So far 6 plants have gone out to their 'growers'.
15 people have agreed to be involved, and take a plant to grow on.
I've been playing around with how to construct the book, and considering designs for the cover and the back.

I can see I'm going to really busy once all the photos come back!

Morning Glory Give-away

One project ends, and another one begins!

In the spirit of collaboration, and also thinking about art-work that I can make fairly cheaply, I've been thinking about incorporating some d-i-y punk ideals into my art projects!

I thought it would be interesting to work with plants; and despite choosing Morning Glory seeds to grow (see previous post for how fussy they are!)I'm growing some plants, and will give them away to other people to grow on.

Everyone who takes one will take a photo of the plant all grown up, and I'll put all the photos together in a handmade book.
Everyone who takes part, and provides a photo, will then get a copy of the handmade book!

So far 5 plants have gone out, 9 other people have said 'YES!'.
And 20 seedlings are coming up!
Looks like being a quite substantial book!

The feedback from people has been fantastic.
Lots of keen gardeners wanting to get involved, artists happy to participate, and friends and family who mix up love of art, with love of growing things.
This will take time to proceed.....very much 'time-based art'!

Irene's sewing machine

Last Bank Holiday weekend, I kept busy, despite the rain!
Went to get some more Morning Glory seeds - for a 'give-away' project I'm working on. Morning Glory are the most fussy plants - the seeds have to be soaked overnight: then put into propagators/plastic bags and kept warm: kept warm...but not too warm! And then when planted out, they're to be put out of direct sunlight.

It makes me wonder how they've ever managed to grow without the assistance of human hands!
Anyhow: the Morning Glory seeds are in various stages of germination - so hopefully the give-away is underway.

As the rain was in for the day, we pottered about at home. I got out my sewing machine, and sewed a new sheet onto the patch-work bedcover, re-creating it as a duvet cover once more.
It was the first job for the newly reconditioned Jones machine. It's got a new motor, and new treadle. And it works beautifully!
I was reliably informed by the man in the repair shop that the Jones sewing machine is 70 years old. Which makes it older than me, and a good 13 years younger than my mum. Mum gave me the machine a long time ago, but it's lived in my loft for years, as I couldn't get on with it. Now it's working so well, I'm able to flex my seamstress' fingers!

The patchwork bedspread is one I hand sewed over 30+ years ago, and is random squares of fabric sewn together...in a not altogether accurate square!
It took me months to complete, back in the late 1970's. I started off by using odd bits of fabric from my mum and my sister. So it was me coming full circle, 30+ years later, to use my mum's old sewing machine (now mine!) to replace the worn sheet with a new one.
Come the cold winter months, we'll have the patchwork duvet to use and keep us warm and cosy. Something to look forward to in the dark of the year.