Planting, Growing, and Caring for Morning Glory Flowers
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Planting
Choose a sunny spot. These plants need a lot of sun to bloom their best! Plant in moderately fertile, well-draining soil to encourage good foliage growth followed by plenty of flowers.
Finally, choose a location that is sheltered from strong, drying winds. Give them a fence, lattice, or trellis to climb up so that vines don’t crowd out other ground-level plants.
When to Plant Morning Glories
- Sow seeds as early as possible after the danger of frost is over.
How to Plant Morning Glories
- Germination rates are improved by filing down the seeds just enough to break the outer coat and then soaking them for 24 hours before planting. This encourages them to send out a root (it looks like a little worm).
- Cover lightly with 1/4-inch of soil. Space seeds about 6 inches apart.
- Water thoroughly at planting.
- Seedlings should appear in about a week; some seeds may be stubborn and take 2 or 3 weeks to sprout.
Growing
- Apply a balanced liquid fertilizer after planting. Do not over-fertilize, or the vine may grow more foliage than flowers.
- Support this climbing plant with structures like trellises, pergolas, or arches.
- Tip: Morning glories climb by twining their vines around a support, so make sure that whichever type of structure you grow them against has plenty of space for whorling!
- Morning glories are low maintenance; just be sure to water during particularly dry periods.
- Mulch to retain moisture and suppress weeds.
- If you don’t want the plant to reseed itself, pinch off old flowers before they turn into seedpods. This can also encourage the plant to keep producing more flowers.
Types
- ‘Heavenly Blue’ are the classic morning glories with rich azure (blue) flowers and white throats. These plants climb to 12 feet.
- ‘Scarlett O’Hara’ has bright red flowers with a white throat. It climbs to 15 feet.
- Here are more recommended morning glory varieties!
Wit and Wisdom
- Morning glories are one of September’s birth flowers.
- If you’ve ever grown sweet potatoes, you may notice a resemblance between their leaves and flowers and those of the morning glory. Unsurprisingly, the plants are related; both belong to the genus Ipomoea.
- Additionally, Morning Glories can help predict the weather!
- The Moonflower is a type of Morning Glory that opens at night!
Catherine Boeckmann
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I had recently purchased a morning glory fro my gardener which is young. We live in India,my plant is placed in plastic pot up in the terrace and get enough sunlight or lets say direct sunlight but recently I notice that the leaves are turning yellow and also seemed to crispy dried at the ends. I regularly water it and yesterday i fertilized it with some vermi-compost. The reason why I have not placed the plant in my balcony is because it has a shade which direct sunlight. Please help.
Hoping this reply doesn't come too late. From your description, it sounds like your morning glory has sun scald - basically a plant sunburn. If you live in the hotter part of India, direct sun might be too much for the morning glory. I used to live in a warmer part of the US - Oklahoma, USDA zone 7 if that helps - and I had to plant my flowerbeds on the side of the house that got the most shade. My morning glories did really well with only about 4-6 hours of direct sunlight.
Another trick I learned there, was to water in the evening or at night, never in the morning or during the day. High temperatures can cause the fresh water to steam the plants, which can cause yellowing and wilting, but I don't think it would cause the crispy edges like you'd find with sun scald. But, watering in the evening gives the plant more time to absorb more water, before it evaporates, so it also helps conserve water :)
Hope this helps! Happy gardening!!
Hi Sara, I just wanted to mention that after 5 years of watering in the evening, I have finally discovered what has been causing my rust and disease outbreaks - Watering in the evening! It turns out that moist damp soil overnight is exactly what diseases, particularly yellow rust, need to have an outbreak. For the last several years, I've been spraying with Daconil, trying to clip every leaf that showed the disease, figured it must be coming from the surrounding trees. So this year, my schedule having recently changed, I decided to water in the morning. No more diseases. None. The only thing that I have trouble with this year is spider mites. I've tried everything on those and it only "helps" slow them down, not eradicates. My advice about watering is water in the morning before 10am everyday. That gives the soil and any incidentally wet leaves all day to dry out before the evening sets in and diseases try to spread. If it rains and your plants are new, they may can skip a day. If they are established, month or more, they may still need a little water even if it rains - depending on how much it rains. I let mine dry out a day if they got over 2 inches of rain in one day. Anything less, and I keep a watchful eye on the soil to make sure it doesn't dry out too much. The drying out is important as it triggers the plant to bloom more.
I have a spot for moonflower and the trellis is already set up but the area isn't very shady and barely gets any sun, only for like an hour in the afternoon. CANi plant these there? I really want these and have no other place to put it
I decided to plant morning glory after seeing a neighbor's fence covered in bright flowers and green foliage last month. I've done some more research, and didn't realize the plant would die during the winter. Is that also true for warmer climates? I live in San Diego, CA.
We have a 20 ft wide by 6 ft tall west-facing trellis that gets sun nearly all day. Is there a quick-climbing, hopefully flowering plant that I should use instead of morning glory?
Many thanks!
Morning glories are indeed annuals and die off after one season. We suggest you try clematis or jasmine for beautiful vining flowers if you do not want to grow morning glories.
So last year I harvested seed from the morning glories that were in the yard of our new house. I'd like to start new plants from seed but I don't understand the technique required to "nick" or "file" the seed before soaking and planting. What is the best way to accomplish this without damaging the seed?
Hi Cathy,
I use an emery board to gently file down the area behind the "eye" of the seed. Just until you can barely see a little white. Not too deeply or you can damage the embryo. Then soak for 12 - 24 hours in a 50-50 warm water / hydrogen peroxide solution. When the seed swells and cracks, time to plant it about a half inch down under loose soil. Keep moist every day. In really warm sunny conditions, the seed can sprout within 3 days. In "normal" conditions it could take 7 to 10 days to sprout.
You can use a razor or sharp knife to nick the seed. But if you are worried about damaging the seeds, you can just soak them overnight.
that is not needed if you soak the seeds in lukewarm water over night when you see them in the morning most will have a root already with in 24 hours ever seed will have a root
