Meet the plants: ipomoea
Nature doesn't hurry, yet everything is accomplished- Lao Tzu
Moonflowers and Morning Glories are vines which are part of the large Ipomoea genus with over 500 species. Irrepressible climbers and performers, the flowers of this entire genus blooms and dies within a single day. Moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) come only in white, bloom at night, and are scented to draw night-flying moths for pollination purposes. Morning Glories, contains hundreds of single day performers, in arrays of colors and combinations who also don playful monikers like, ‘Pearly Gates’, ‘Scarlet O’Hara’, ‘Scarlet Star’, ‘Scarlet Climber’,‘Heavenly Blue’ ‘Crimson Rambler’, ‘Mt. Fuji’ or ‘Flying Saucers’.
According to Rene Boje: During the Victorian era Morning Glories became recognized as a symbol of love and affection. The morning glory flower blooms and dies within a single day. In Chinese folklore the Morning Glory flower were connected with lovers and, in particular, unrequited love. Christians honored the morning glory flower as a symbol of the transitory nature of life on earth. As well, in Japan the morning glory flower is a symbol of mortality. In England the flower symbolizes the various stages of life of humans; The early morning bud represents youth, the mid day flower in full bloom adulthood and the wilting flower of dusk represents the elderly.
Before the invention of clocks Moonflower and Morning Glory blossoms gave humankind a sense of the time. Ipomoea purpurea shares their bloom before noon whereas Ipomea alba performs after dusk. We looked to nature, not our wrists, clocks, or gadgets for orientation.
Nature always wins. Wild morning glories taking over a Solitary Garden in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Capitalism changed how humans perceive the passage of hours, days, and weeks. This made people more productive, but did it make them any happier? Read this article by Derek Thompson and reflect on Ipomoea’s questions below:
How has an industrialized time interrupted our relationship to liberation?
To what, or whom have we become tethered?
How has time been weaponized? How has the measure of time become harmful or antithetical to joy (like real real/ unshakeable/ not purchased)?