Growing Morning Glories In The High Desert

The most commonly grown species of morning glories are of tropical origin and require a bit of attention in order to grow them in a high desert environment. The first lesson I learned is that unless you are willing to spend a fortune on irrigation, a dry windy Spring day with a temperature over 100 degrees will kill them. After losing my seedlings this way two years in a row, l learned to grow them in pots.

This year I started seedlings of Heavenly Blue, Ipomoea purpurea, and Ipomoea nil at the beginning of May. I placed the pot of Heavenly Blue in a spot where the pot was shaded and the vines received sun for most of the day. The pot with the purpureas was placed in a similar light situation, but the pot wasn’t fully shaded. The nils were placed in a spot with bright indirect light. The purpureas and nils were e-Bay seeds that turned out to be completely different from the varieties I thought I had purchased.

The purpureas grew quickly and produced huge beautiful leaves; they were the first to flower, starting at the beginning of June. The first two of three vines in the pot produced beautiful flowers that looked like “Sydney” with light blue backgrounds and dark blue stars. In June the pot began to require watering several times per day as the increasing heat was very hard on the lush foliage. The flowers closed up before noon at this time of year. In July the third vine began to produce flowers. It had climbed higher than the other two and it was a Milky Way. July is the hottest month in my area and the purpureas were in constant water stress. The plants lost many of their larger leaves during this time. In August, the Sydney vines began to produce fewer flowers as they were concentrating on seed production. The bulk of the blooms were now from the Milky Way vine. Both types of flowers were now staying open until early afternoon. In September there were far few flowers and almost all of them were Milky Ways. The flowers stayed open until sundown. Watering was now down to once per day. The vines were in serious decline and I was leaving them in place to gauge seed production. By the end of the month flowering had ceased, and the final seeds were being produced. In November the vines were killed by an early freeze. I estimate fewer than 3000 seeds were produced, which tells me the vines were not totally happy in that spot.

The Heavenly Blues required a slightly higher temperature than the purpureas to start their growth spurt, but once they took off, they made up for lost time. There were two vines in one pot. In June, two days after the Summer Solstice, thousands of tiny flower buds appeared. July had a record number of days that were 110 degrees or more and almost all of the buds were blasted. A few of the smaller buds survived until August and bloomed then. The plants began producing a smaller second flush in August and satisfactory though not spectacular numbers of flowers opened daily from August until the plants were killed in November. There were several outbreaks of aphids. More than enough seeds were produced to share with friends and ensure I will never be without this cultivar. In the future, any tricolor plant will need to be manipulated into delaying the production of flower buds until August or later. I will be growing Wedding Bells next year and will see if I can delay flowering with a little extra nitrogen.

The nils were the slowest to take off. They sat for the longest time and I was certain I would wind up with tiny plants with few or no blooms. Suddenly in mid June they began growing at a rapid rate and producing huge numbers of beautiful dark green leaves. One vine had leaves with three points and the other’s leaves had five points. The flowers on both vines started in July and were red with a white edge and white rays that extended halfway to the center. These vines produced massive numbers of flowers and were completely trouble free. One vine produced a branch that had very small purple-gray vase shaped flowers with a tiny white edge. I had to double check to be certain a third plant hadn’t come up. In October when nighttime temperatures began dipping below 50 degrees the vines had a sudden dramatic decline, losing half of their leaves within a few days and producing fewer and smaller flowers until they were killed by the November freeze. Not a single seed was produced.

So what I learned this year is that I need to use a potting mix with better water retention. In my climate, purpureas should not be in full sun. Tricolor cultivars need to be manipulated into blooming later in the season. They need to be watched for aphids. Nils will not produce seeds in my climate but produce huge numbers of flowers when grown in bright shade. Therefore, there is no need to segregate them for variety preservation, and if by chance a nil seed should ever be produced, it’s a good seed regardless of parentage.


This message was edited Dec 7, 2009 12:02 AM

This message was edited Dec 7, 2009 12:07 AM

Musa, just want to say that your well-written posts are a joy to read.

Karen

Thank you! I wrote this up for somebody in the future who moves to a high desert climate and needs information on how to grow morning glories in this environment. When I lived in Southern California, I never had a problem with aphids on my tricolor vines, nor did I ever experience a vine having its flower buds blasted by excessive heat. Nil varieties never grew that well for me in California; I wasn't sure if it was my fault or if they just don't do well there. I grew my morning glories in the ground in California, so I might have had better results with nils if I had tried growing them in pots. I never grew a purpurea variety in California, but a neighbor of mine did, so I had a basis for comparison. I plan to grow a moonvine next year for the first time, and because they have huge leaves, my experience with purpurea clues me in that the moonvine should not be in full sun.

When you move, you have to relearn how to garden and plants that were easy in your former zone can become moderate or high maintenance in your new zone. Ipomoea purpurea is not a high maintenance plant in most situations. For me it was this year because it was poorly situated. It was a struggle to keep it alive. A friend lost her purpurea vines during the heat waves in July. Because my other vines were better situated, I would class them as bordering on moderate maintenance under desert conditions and Ipomoea purpurea would qualify as a moderate maintenance vine under the best conditions available here.

This message was edited Dec 7, 2009 5:28 AM

Musa, I found you by going through the member list for Arizona...looking for someone else....I'm suprised that I haven't met you before...

This is the first year that I have grown MG...I LOVE my Rose Silk...the only other one I have is G'pa Ott....come on over and join us in the Southwest Forum!!!

Jo

MusaRojo - you wrote this for ME, future high desert MG grower! Thank you! I've had NO luck growing them here, but my husband build me an awning with some shade, so I am going to try and grow some this spring where there is morning sun and afternoon shade. I'm going to try some in a half whiskey barrel and some in our sand - both containers amended with compost and water crystals. They will be next to my dogs' 5 gallon bucket of water, so they will get watered once in the a.m. with the prior day's dog water and in the evening with the hose. Wish me luck. I am hoping to grow Heavenly Blue, Flying Saucers, and Blue Star. We are hot and dry in the summer, but usually don't get more than a sprinkling of 105-110 degree days. Most days will sit around 95-101 or so. But we do get those summer 55-70 MPH wind days from time to time.

By the way, do you think a mister will help them? I am thinking of installing a mister for ME - and if it will help the MGs, then will have it set up so that it will make both of us happy.

We have a good well, and so far, there are no regulations on how much we draw from it. For now, anyway.

Wish me luck. And thanks again for writing this!