Crystal blooms

One of the plants I'm lazily overwintering in the garage is creeping wire vine (Muehlenbeckia axillaris). I say "lazily" because I didn't bother taking it out of its pot or doing anything special. It's getting very little light, but since it's still holding some green leaves (although it's dropped a lot of them) I'm not too worried.


I want to get some part of this plant through the winter, as I don't feel like I gave it enough of a chance in the garden last year, keeping it in a single out-of-the-way hanging basket. The plant sits in the garage in an out-of-the-way place again, and only when I started looking at it closely this weekend did I notice something really cool about it...


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It has flowers on it!


Not just any flowers either, but thick succulent blooms, tiny bells of cut glass:


At first I thought there was a single bloom on this plant, but then realized that there were others:

The inspiration for some jellied candies for sure!


Some newly-opening buds:


As well as some faded blooms:


I suspect this guy has been blooming for a few weeks, completely unnoticed by me.

Are those black spearheads the seeds? They appear to be:


I'll save those and see if they germinate (I'll research germination conditions first). Since there are no pollinators and no wind in the garage, there hasn't been much chance for pollination.

Unless you count the times that I've bumped into the plant passing by. Or knocked it with my head now that I've hung it up.

The first photo I took has a bloom bud forming, and
I didn't notice it until reviewing the photos later!

An exciting discovery for me, as I've never seen such "juicy" blooms before!

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Gerhard Bock (Succulents and More)  – (January 9, 2012 at 9:52 AM)  

I'll be darned. I've growing this for years and never noticed the blooms. Will check my plants...

Gerhard

danger garden  – (January 9, 2012 at 10:05 AM)  

This is one of those plants I've "almost bought" many many times, but I've always walked away. A few weeks ago I saw it in a container in a commercial area and decided right then and there I'd buy it the next time I saw it. Of course now thanks to seeing those amazing little flowers I think I'll actually be hunting for it! So cool.

M  – (January 9, 2012 at 11:16 AM)  

When I look that plant up i get info telling me its root hardy to zone 5a and invasive in zone 9 or higher. You could plant this outside without any trouble. M

Alan  – (January 9, 2012 at 11:42 AM)  

M: Interesting! The plant tag says "annual except in z8-10", so I just went by that.

Also, I wonder if these are the "berries" left after the flowers?

The Gardening Blog  – (January 9, 2012 at 3:32 PM)  

What a COOL flower!! Like glass! So weird! Love the post - thanks!

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