Many of you may think of morning glory as a weed,
and they are related to the bindweed, which is a wild
morning glory. However, once you've seen the beautiful
purple, pink or white blooms first thing in the morning
with the sun shining on their fragile petals they'll be one
of your favorites too. The flowers will fade by afternoon,
but the next morning more will be there to greet you.
Morning glory can be direct seeded into the soil after
the last frost, but you will have much earlier blooms
if you plant indoors 5-6 weeks ahead of time. They are
a little tricky to transfer. Use little peat pots that can
be put directly into the soil where you want the plant to
grow. The seed of the morning glory is very hard. I
soak mine overnight before planting to soften the hard
shell. Growing morning glories is easy; keeping them
where you want them is a little more difficult. You will
notice that soon after a bloom fades a perfectly round
capsule forms. This is full of tiny black seeds. Once it
dries the capsule opens and morning glory seeds drop
everywhere. Unless you are so diligent as to cut off
EVERY pod they will spread and reseed.
The solution:
plant morning glories where they can flourish each year
without bothering other plants. A fence row is perfect-
chain link or wood. Perhaps you have a side of a barn,
shed or your house that is sunny and needs something
to brighten it. Put up a trellis, or several along the wall
and grow morning glories. Another idea is putting up a
"tippee" made of wood or bamboo in an out of the way
place. I've also grown morning glories in containers with
success, though they don't grow as tall. Hanging baskets
work well too, as long as you dispose of the seed pods as
they dry. The good thing about morning glories is they pull
up very easily if they reseed where you don't want them.
All of this said, I can't imagine a summer without morning
glories in my garden. They are a beautiful flower, and my
mornings would not be the same without their blooms.
