First Cypress Vine Flower

After several weeks of waiting, one of our cypress vines finally produced the first bloom ever!

I admit I was a bit impatient after building its trellis. I'd visit the vines everyday and wonder what's keeping them too long. This is especially when the main stems have turned browned indicating maturity and the vines were already crowding the top part of the trellis.

The seeds were planted sometime in May and were transferred to their new location in early June. The trellis was built immediately after.

Anyway, according to gardenersnet.com:

Plants will begin to bloom in as little as 50 days. Deadhead spent flowers to promote a continuous, summer long bloom.

So the timing's just about right. I suppose what's frustrating for us is that it's a bit difficult to differentiate a leaf bud from a flower bud. DH and I would guess that a bud would become a flower only to find it just another leaf or branch.

But we found that only when a bud becomes red or pinkish can you safely assume its a flower. Shown below are photos showing the progression of the bloom after we correctly identified the bud as a flower.