california native flora

Calystegia Macrostegia ssp. Cyclostegia ‘Candy Cane’

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California Morning Glory ‘Candy Cane’ is native to the Channel Islands off Southern California. Santa Cruz Island is about 30 miles from us as the crow flies so I think it must considered a local plant? I picked up this 1 gallon specimen from the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley around October 2009. It’s already put on a good deal of growth which is expected of this plant. Morning Glory is a semi-evergreen vine. It’s happy in full sun to part sun (less sun inland in the afternoon) but it can go summer deciduous in drought conditions so it is a good idea to give it some supplemental summer refreshment.

Our specimen was just at the end of it’s flowering season when I planted it. It appears to be very happy climbing up it’s small trellis not to mention climbing up the surrounding plants. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on that. The flowers are quite large, 2″ across and they are pale pink with white highlights (hence, Candy Cane). It could grow up to 12′ given favorable conditions. Should we decide we want more, it should be fairly easy to propagate from cuttings.

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