I'm a relatively new gardener beginning to develop my garden with plants that are happy in my area, native if possible, and not particularly run of the mill. Most of my friends who garden seem to play it safe with marigolds and petunias and such. While these are nice, they don't really appeal to me. I am a widow on SS and not getting any younger, so I also want things with relatively low maintenance features - so if it isn't a perennial, I usually won't spend money for it (except seeds). A friend brought me some dirt from her garden and her daughter's (two sites) to fill in some holes in my garden. Because of a busy social life, I didn't use it up right away and then noticed several "mystery" plants among the inevitable weeds. I got rid of most of the weeds and backed off to give the mystery plants (5 all told) a chance to grow. It is a vine with very attractive leaves (to me) and since last week, lovely blue flowers that look like morning glory. Morning glory vines are popular with my neighbors and they (glories) all have leaves that are arrow shaped and smooth, growing on much thinner stems than my mystery plant. The mystery has larger, multi-(?)lobed leaves covered with fine hairs above and below, and hairy stems. This plant right now is covering most of the dirt heap, but if given support, I think it would climb, probably a good 6-8 feet, since it is twining on itself. I've been laying the runners back on top of themselves to keep them out of the path of my tires. The flowers last less than a day - closed by noon and (my impression) all sewn up by sundown. They change color thru this process - blue when open, sort of magenta when they close and deep purple when "sewn up". The vine itself must prefer bright shade, since I've seen it wilt rather badly on hot sunny days. But by late afternoon when the shadow of my garage has moved across the heap, or on an overcast day, they revert to the fully "alert" state of early morning. I'm sorry to be so long-winded with the description, but I would like to use this vine as a groundcover in several places if I can just find out what it is. I suspect it is an annual so I'll need the ID to get some seeds. My friend and her daughter don't know what it is, and everyone else tells me it's just a weed. Photos are attached. Can anyone identify this mystery vine?
Looks like Ipomoea hederacea. Common name ivy leaved morning glory. See.... http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/ipohe.htm
