Getting the Most out of Morning Glory Growth

From my experience, morning glories have been a plant that is just as frustrating and disappointing as much as they are wonderful and rewarding. The particular morning glories I am speaking of are strictly those of the Ipomoea genus as those are the only ones that I have growing experience with. When writing about getting the most out of these I am referring to their growing potential, for them to become larger plants, take up greater space, produce a greater number of flowers, and let a generous amount of seed.

To grow from seed or buy plants?

This is something that I have experimented with several times at several different growing zones in order to find my particular liking and to be honest I was not sure for a bit, but favor growing from seed to buying plants. My first year growing these I purchased 4-5 fully developed Ipomoea purpurea and Ipomoea tricolor. The former tended to grow more aggressively but outwards, while the latter grew at a slower, but more steady rate and far more upwards and then out. This growth is all in relation to a fence.




These photos are of plants purchased from a local greenhouse for about $8. This is the size they increased to after being in the soil for roughly 3 weeks.

One of the major rules of morning glories is that they do NOT transplant well at all. This is what I realized after this plant was transplanted to the fence more than two months ago and remained at that health and level of growth to the end of the summer.



Sadly this is what most of my purchases looked like. Perhaps I thought it may have been the supplier although this one has been extremely reliable for many other plants. Another greenhouse, of which I bought eight 'Grandpa Ott variety the following season also proved the same as five of the eight died before the start of June while the other three did not start developing until the end of August and early September.

This leads me to the other method of growing, from seed. The best manner in which to do that is to allow the plants from the previous season to reseed themselves as can be seen on these wonderful morning glories.



When growing morning glory from seed is it better to toss seed in the ground and watch them hoping for the best or is it more beneficial to start them off in seed trays and then place them in the ground?

As stated earlier transplanting seems to almost always kill morning glories, especially seedlings. Sowing seed to ground directly is the horticulturalist best bet to have a handful of good size plants. Perhaps one can scratch the seeds with a file and soak them in water overnight. This would allow the germination to speed up.

Here is a small collection of morning glories around a mailbox. Only 6-8 seeds were set in the ground, after the weeds were all removed within the area of the mailbox. If I were able to get to this location more often the weeds would not have taken over. Regardless they still began to take off as seen in the photo.



Once established successfully, there is much lore and often less interest in how to maintain the health of morning glory vines. Often times these are seen as invasive or weed-like so homeowners will fail to water them or fertilize them. As a result of placing mine in rocky locations where little to nothing else grows it was easier to not have to worry about weeds. However because morning glories are grown in full sunlight and should be watered 2-3 times a week there is great potential for weeds. This is why growing them out of a rocky area is preferred and in general has a great aesthetic appeal. The best thing about them though is that they can tolerate a lot of water or a lot of forgetfulness.

Please post any advice, tips, or points with growing morning glories. I know I make them a lot harder to handle than they actually are but I really enjoy growing these and have been gifted a handful of a variety of rare crossbreeds and color combination's. Contact me if you have some of your own or are interested in trading.