Morning Glory vine
If you need to cover a trellis or fence in a short amount of time consider planting an annual vine. Annual flowering vines tend to grow vigorously and continue to bloom until frost kills them. They provide a vertical interest to a garden, add privacy and shade, block the wind, and camouflage any unsightly view.
Morning glory vine (Ipomoea tricolor) is a fast growing tender vine that can easily climb a trellis or fence by twining itself around the support. The funnel-like flowers open in the morning, hence the name morning glory.
The vine can be started from seeds indoors in peat pots 4-5 wks before the last frost date or sown directly into the ground after the soil warms up. Before planting, scrape the black seed coat with sandpaper and soak in water overnight to allow better germination.
Plant in any type of soil but it grows better in poor, infertile soil and blooms best in full sun to light shade.
Once established Morning glory can self-seed and spread becoming a weedy plant, smothering plants and difficult to control in the flowerbed. To avoid this problem be sure to remove the seed pods. Grow it in a container or adjacent to a sidewalk were it can be managed. The large flowered cultivars tend to reseed less.
Common Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea) has large flowers in shades of red, white and blue. “Heavenly Blue” cultivar of (Ipomoea tricolor) is a popular blue color.
A compact series with variegated foliage ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Mini Bar Rose’ can be grown in baskets and containers.
Another vine worth mentioning is Moon Vine (Ipomoea alba) which produces heart-shaped-leaves and large fragrant white flowers. Because the flowers open from dusk to dawn, this vine can be enjoyed in the evening garden, by the light of the silvery moon.
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I want to save seeds from summer flowers such as Morning Glories, Hollyhocks, etc. How and when do you do this? Thank you, Pam & Donna
i recently moved into a new house and there are morning glory vines everywhere, what is the best way to get this plant back under control.
There are wild “morning glories” that grow like weeds everywhere in the Northwest, with a white flower. If you have these, I have been told they are not true morning glories. They spread runners everywhere and can grow back from a tiny piece left in the ground. They don’t grow from seed. Rip them up constantly and hope for the best.
If your rampant morning glory is the beautiful colored ones- like Heavenly Blue, lucky you! They are nearly impossible to grow where I live (Bellingham, Washington), so I plant them in pots and let them grow on a string around my south and west facing windows.
Hi,
I planted morning glories from seeds about two months ago. The leaves look quite healthy & are starting to put out runners. Within the last two days a noticed quite a few holes in the leaves. Looks like something is eating the leaves, but I didn’t spot any worms or anything anywhere around them. Any suggestions as to what to dust them with or spray on the foliage?
I have two gorgeous morning glory plants…every time they look full and fantastic my husband insists on chopping them back with hedge trimmers flat against the wall…I am spitting mad right now because they look dead. Is this truly how they should be done?????
In East Texas, the Tyler area, are morning glories strictly annuals or will they survive the winter? if so will I need to replant every year or will they reseed themselves? The ones I planted this year are already six to seven feet tall but show no sign of blooming. How long do they usually take to bloom?
I have lots of blooms, but there are yellow leaves to be picked off every day. These plants were established when I got here, I recently used a fertilizer stick and water daily in this hot area.
I have a plant 20 ft high but no blooms. Planted in large container, what can I do, I have to water every other day so too much fertilizer should not be a problem. Any suggestions.
My morning glories have some yellow
leaves. I have been removing the leaves
everyday. This didnt happen last year.
HELP!!!!!!
Have you had a lot of rain???
YES WE HAVE HAD RAIN DAYS AND
SOME EVENINGS
Thanks for the help. This plant is in a large container, if not watered it wilts and looks like it will die. I guess I have a choice, no blooms or lots of leaves. I put a lot of my plants in containers as we here on the Outer Banks of NC have hurrincanes in our history. I have lost entire planting and started over, just something you have to accept if you want to live here.
My Morning Glory vine was thriving this summer but has suddenly begun to fail. Its leaves are wilting, turning yellow and falling off and its new blossoms are falling off before they open. I am also trying to find out what type of Morning Glory it is. It has deep pink blossoms but its leaves are not the heart shape that I am used to seeing. They are istead an elongated oval shape and quite thick. Any information or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
hello,i really like ur site. i have a problem with my MG vine. my zone is 9-11. summer goes to 40c here. i have planted my MG in a 16” container. It gets 5 hours after noon direct sunlight. ALthough it has reached 10 feet climbed, but all the trunk portion of vining is droping the leaves. they get yellow and brown and wilt. Upper leaves are fine. Lower 1 feet portion is naked now. There are also yellow spots in the bottom leaves. here is the pic. http://khabbab.pictiger.com/images/16139552/
. i sprayed mild general pesticide only on bottom leaves. still problem unresolved. kindly help.
PS: when will it bloom?. i keep it normally dry and no fert.
Khabbab, Lahore, Pakistan
My Morning Glories have a lot yellow bugs and a few black ones. they are killing the plant. the yellow ones seem to be veryvery close together and in rows. What Fertilizer or remedie should i use? i have other flowers close to them but they are not there yet.
i am in southeast ct. when should my morning glory and moon flower start too bloom and for how long? some in ground some in pots climbing up and around deck?
How do I keep my morning glory from growing into a light on a lightpost? I’ve been redirecting but should I cut it? Also what to do at end of season/frost do I cut back or leave as is?
I planted several morning glory seeds that I found in my shed from last year (not thinking they would grow). Since then the vine has grown so much that it is starting to take over the eaves of my patio. It has grown off the trellis and is still climbing. Can I cut back the morning glory?
How to plant Morning Glory cuttings
How would I grow morning glory indoors?
i live in a dorm and i wanted to plant morning glories inside. would they be able to survive as long as i took care of them and gave them plenty of sun light. and also if they would survive would they eventually die or keep on living since they are in a controlled enviorment? thank you
My first morning glory was grown inside, when I rented a small single room in a big house full of twenty-somethings. I grew it in a small pot by a sunny window- it climbed up and around the rods of the window and bloomed wonderfully. It was so beautiful, framing the window with twisting vines and sky-blue flowers (Clarke’s Heavenly Blue). Very little work, super-easy (and I knew nothing about horticulture) and helped make a small space lovely.
Our morning glory recently received the first frost and is now all wilted. Should I cut it back for the winter or leave it alone? I live in the Illinois. Thanks
Hello, I planted a MG plant last summer and it went wild on our back fence to our delight and the neighbors also. But, all of a sudden the leaves took on a mottled appearance, got brown spots that turned into holes and then leaves and blooms died and fell off. Happened quite quickly. I have pictures of the leaves here on my blog http://appelquilling.blogspot.com/search/label/Gardening and when you click on it to enlarge the photo you can see the leaves starting to mottle, some are yellow w/holes.
And here you can see the leaves when it was bad at this link: http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/sea7777/quillingmg031.jpg
Now there are seedlings comming back and they have this look to them!!! Could you please tell my what it is and how to fix it? I really loved them and would like to have them healthy again.
Thank you
Sonya
I planted a morning glory before knowing anything about them. The plant was mature and was thriving for a while. It was climbing a trellis and my fence and even a tree but now it’s dead. The leaves fell off and all that’s left is dead vines. Will it grow back? Should i pull it out and start over? I live in Northern California-Bay Area.
Will morning glories and moonflowers survive year round in a greenhouse with a natural spring and high humidity at 75 degrees?
The problem!.The conditions seem perfect for MG’s to grow here, in fact the seeds germinate in 2 days with no nicking or soaking! I use peat pellets and the little plastic green-houses in the green house itself, so theres no temprature change upon transplanting. Trouble is, when I transplant them into the beds, they only grow as far as the 1st set of true leaves, Grow about 4 or 5 inches, then keel over!
Upon removing the dead plant it has a good root system going!
What do I do with the dead flowers? Do I “dead head” them? I have some morning glories in a nice window box, but I don’t know how to care and maintain them. Please, help.
Thank you,
April
I unknowingly fertilized my Morning Glories. Is there anything I can do to fix this mistake?
I just planted some morning glory plants I got from a local nursery. The weather has been stranger than usual here with quite a bit of rain and then getting really hot. I planted the plants in really bad soil, and watered after planting. My plants look really wilty. Should I water the plants more often due to the heat, or wait and see if letting them dry out works better. How much water do they usually require? Thanks for your help.
Hello, I live in central Washington, and I have planted morning glories (heavnenly blue, and flying saucers) for the past 3 years in late april after the threat of frost has past and have had beautiful thriving plants with many blooms. By this time the plants are usually beginning to thrive and make there way up the trellis and fenced deck. This year has been very different, as they are still very small and only one has begum to shoot its vine up the trellis, and its smaller than normal. The rest appear to be getting eaten, possibly by little tiny ants that I have seen around this area, but rarely do I see any insects eating them. Im guessing that the holes in the leaves are depleting the plants of energy from the sun, and thats wahts stunting their growth. The other problem is, I planted much more than what has come up, there are bare areas, where I planted 5-6 seeds and none have grown. The soil is poor, and I thought they liked this, since they have done so well in the past. SHould I fertilize? And how can i protect the plants with insect holes in them from further damage? I dont want to kill the poor things from the wrong type of insecticide, and am sort of weray of the idea of using an insecticide in the first place, i will if i have to. I’m almost positive the enemy are these little ants. I would really value any tips, i love these plants, and need to save them before its too late. some have been chewed to destruction before any vines shot out.
hi, my zone is 10b. can i grow Convolvulus tricolor as perennial in my zone? If yes, what is ideal sowing time?. Summer reaches over 100F here while winter is mild not below 5c. We also get moonsoon rains in july/august. Note that we grow ipomoea purpuea (morning glory) as perennial here.
hi, what exactly do you mean when you say “pull out in winter”? Do i literally pull out the plant with roots and all? i dont understand how it will reseed at this point. Unfortunately, I had no idea what MG was and planted it with a Jasmine plant as it was so small and has overcome the climbing jasmine and all the climber. I thought all i had to do was cut all the leaves which i think is alot just doing that without harming the jasmine. I have to say the deep purple with jasmine is beautiful. i hope i havent harmed the jasmine.
please tell me the jasmine will survive.
I planted several Heavenly Blue morning glories from seed in pretty poor soil about 7 weeks ago. They are interspersed with sunflowers in a full sun area in a 6 x 9 rectangular shape (trying to grow a “sunflower house” for the kids and the morning glories are supposed to wrap around the sunflower stalks.)
However, the MGs are only about 2 inches high and don’t seem to have grown much at all in the last few weeks. The sunflowers are now about 14 inches high, which may impeded with the light the morning glories get, since they haven’t taken off yet. I am watering more than usual because of unseasonal hot weather. They are in an area with some tree roots (which I tried to pull up when planting the seeds.) What could be causing this stunting? Should I water more/less? They are mulched with grass that had been treated with weed/feed a few weeks before cutting. Could that be the problem? I’m located in Alaska.
MG and clematis
I am concerned that my morning glories may choke out my clematis. Am I well advised not to not plant them too close together next year? Is there a danger that the morning glories (an annual) might utterly destroy my perennial clematis?
My morning glories have beautiful, healthy vines, but the blooms never open! I am in Illinois. What could be the problem?
My Morning Glories bloom nicely for the day and usaully do not reopen the next day, is this commom or is something wrong?
I have morning glory flowers here in NW Oklahoma. Once they vines die out in the winter, should I remove them or will they come back in the spring?
Why do my Morning Glories only bloom for one day? If you touch the flower it will fall off by evening.