As the weather has warmed up and the day lengths have peaked, some early season wildflowers have gone to seed and become a muted part of the background landscape. Their blooms will return next year, if environmental conditions are favorable.
Other native plants have stepped into the bloom void to contribute their pallet of colors to panhandle Florida’s scenery and added to the intangible, but very important quality of life here. Two are vines, which can sometimes be a problem if fences or other structures are involved.
One is the fiddle-leaf morning glory, an herbaceous vine native to the southeastern United States. This plant, Ipomoea stolonifera, grows throughout Florida’s interior and along the coastal areas.
It gets its common name from the unusual, but not unique, trait of opening its blooms in the early morning, and then closing its flowers before noon each day during the blooming season. The flowers are produced daily in the summer and fall.
Morning glories start off the day with attractive, but short lived, displays of blooms.
The white, funnel-shaped flowers of the fiddle-leaf morning glory are generally two and a half to three inches wide. While not a major nectar or pollen producer, they are still attractive to pollinators which will visit while they are open.
This plant reaches a height of four to six inches without support, but can spread along the ground to a distance of 75 feet. Also, it will root and produce branches where its nodes or joints contact the soil.
It spreads very rapidly in the warm north Florida summers when the afternoon rains come regularly. The small, thick, glossy green leaves are ovate-cordate in form (egg-shaped to heart-shaped) and densely cover the stems.
A fence with ample sun exposure can quickly be converted into a flowering wall by this aggressive vine. Unfortunately, this plant will quickly climb on houses, garages, and out-building which rules it out as a low maintenance landscape plant.
Small round seedpods containing four velvety, dark brown seeds appear on the plant after its flowers wilt. A high rate of germination assures the plant’s continued presence.
Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, is another north Florida native. It produces bright orange flowers during the summer and with structural support in the right environment it can climb above 30 feet.
It grows and flowers best in full sun, but will grow with very few flowers in shaded locations. It flourishes in any soil except those which are continually wet and flooded.
While a popular landscape plant to attract humming birds, its rapid growth rate in the warm weather makes it difficult to control. Regular pruning and training are necessary to obtain the manicured appearance necessary in most home landscapes.
In addition to hummingbirds, the blooms attract ants. They frequently establish colonies on or near the trumpet vines to take advantage of the nectar.
Both add to the environment, but both also involve work and management if cultivated at home. For most the prolific blooms usually compensate many times over for the effort.
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