Morning Glories from Seed

Hello All,

I'm a newbie to Dave's Garden (and Morning Glories and gardening in general). I've recently been working on exercising and strengthening my thumb to get it to turn green, as I've always had a bit of difficulty with keeping plants alive. I decided to try growing some different things from seed, as it is much cheaper that way, and if I kill it, it wasn't too big of an investment.

One of the seeds I had picked up was Morning Glory 'Heavenly Blue' (because it was marked as drought tolerant and pest free). I plan to start these inside and to keep in containers even after I move them outside. I read that the roots can escape the container, so plan to keep it sitting on concrete. Has anyone had any experience with keeping morning glories in containers long-term outside?

Also, for those that start from seed, what medium do you prefer for starting seeds and what procedures do you follow? I've read a couple different techniques, but was hoping to hear from someone who has actually done it.

Thank you in advance for any help, suggestions, or advice you are able and willing to offer! =)

Sharon - Welcome to the MG Forum! Good luck sowing and growing your MG seeds this year! I grew Heavenly Blue last year and loved it. Mine turned out to be a dark blue shade of flowers and were a nice size! I grew mine in containers and used an arbor for it to climbing up! Made a beautiful area over a bench! It did well in containers for me, but I suspect it would have gotten even larger had it been planted in the ground. Heavenly Blue is an annual like many MGs are. (Though there are many species that are perennials, too!) So they have a season life and hopefully you will get seeds to grow them again the next year, too!

I start mine in styrofoam cups in seed starting soil-less mix. And then carefully remove them from the cups into their permanent home after they have 4-6 true leaves. I fertilize with Bloom Booster. And give them lots of sun! And water them when they get wilted looking! :-)

Check out the sticky thread here on the MG Forum. There is lots of great links and suggestions!

Hi Becky,

Thanks for the welcome! I did glance through the sticky thread, and will probably do some more reading through there. Glad to hear that you actually grew the Heavenly Blues last year! What kind of soil-less mix do you use? Do you mix your own or buy something? Can I use just vermiculite or something like that as a soil-less? With the Styrofoam cups, do you punch holes into the bottom, so water can drain out? I had read that you could germinate the seeds in moist paper towel, so I put a few in to try that way. The packet came with like 50 seeds, I think, which would be a lot of plants!

It sounds beautiful how you had it set up! I was thinking of putting them into these window box type rectangular containers, which will be on concrete, with a trellis, near a fence (though not too near, because I don't want them escaping). Once I'm ready to move the babies to the containers, how many do you recommend per container? I know the vines can grow pretty large, so would I only do 1 per container, or did you do more? Bloom Booster from Miracle Grow? Or another brand?

Now, I apparently did not read very closely, because I did not realize the Heavenly Blues were an annual. I actually didn't realize that types of morning glories were annuals, as I've no direct experience with them, and the morning glories I've seen growing here seem to keep going year round. Do you have any recommendations for perennial morning glories that you like? I would definitely prefer a perennial, although maybe annual is good too, because then it definitely gets cleaned up each year. =)

Sharon - I usually just buy any soil-less mix on sale for seed starting. I doubt you need to add anything to it. I don't. Just make sure the bag isn't wet inside. If so, that means it may be contaminated which could lead to germination problems. Definitely punch holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage. I don't know how big of a container you are growing your vines in, but I would guess you only need maybe 1-3 seedlings growing in them to cover the area nicely. Most MG seeds will stay viable for many, many years if kept in a cool, dry place. So just store them properly and grow them from that seed packet every year until the seeds are all gone in 5 or 10 years! LOL!

The Heavenly Blues may be reseeding themselves every year and that is why you are seeing them grow again year after year. I happen to like the annual vines because the blooms are usually bigger than many of the perennials. It's a personal preference. If you grow tired of the annuals, you can always plant something different the next year. :-)

I had my seeds in paper towel in ziploc bag, and they are now sprouting! Though I think I underestimated how many would actually germinate. I definitely don't need 20 plants. =)

Oh my! That was certainly successful! LOL! If you have an area that you would like to block from view, they make great living walls if they have something to climb up! They also make nice garden room dividers. Or a living screen to give you some privacy from your neighbors! Perhaps you could use all of them afterall in several different areas of your yard?

I was planning to keep them in containers, only because I've heard about nightmares of having the morning glories take over and spreading crazy runners underground, and all that jazz. I don't think it gets cold enough to necessarily kill it back here, so I'm just hesitant. Do you think I need to worry with the heavenly blues? I love morning glories, but I don't necessarily want to end up fighting them in other areas away from fences and stuff.

Sharon - I didn't have any problems with them last year. And unfortunately, I didn't get many seeds from them either. I think they prefer full sun, not partial shade which is where I had them. I also think a container stunts the growth, so they don't get as massive as they are capable of. Mine were very well-behaved in containers growing on an arbor. ;-) If you get volunteers from seeds, they can easily be pulled up. They don't produce underground runners. You might be thinking of Bindweed which is a perennial, which can be very invasive. But the most common MGs are I. nils, I. purpureas, and tricolors which are all annuals. I think you will love them! ♥

I either grow them in containers or on a frame and never put them in the ground. With the frame you'll definitely get cross pollination with some amazing crosses the next year.

This year I made a mistake of putting some passiflora in the center .. they are thugs .. won't be doing that again.

For those I want to be able to sequester easily for purebreds I use a container in a container method with cattle paneling for them to climb on.

I also bury the containers so it's easy to weed whack around them. I use a 3 - 4 gallon container and bury a 1 gallon pot. Makes it easy at the end of the year to clean things up. Come Spring I just cut the vine, lift the pot and insert a new pot with a new plant. Works incredibly well. I use that cheap Lowes topsoil for the outer pot and the good stuff in the inner pot. Keeps the roots cool and better hydrated.

Becky - Thank you for the tips. From doing my reading, even though Heavenly Blue was listed as an annual, I was afraid it would maybe not die here in California, since we don't get that cold. But I think if they work for you and die off annually without going crazy, it should work for me too. I do have an arbor that is empty. It still has the remains of some type of jasmine that had died (had to cut through the base of the vine to fix a sprinkler pipe and it never grew back), but if I can get all that out, it would be perfect for the mg's.

Xeramtheum - I love your idea of sinking the 3-4 gallon pots into the ground and burying a 1 gallon pot in it. I'm thinking that would probably work well if I sunk it next to the arbor. I can also hopefully sink some into the ground along my back fence and just let it cover the back fence. I would LOVE to not see the neighbors directly behind me anymore. That would be amazing! But tell me about the cross pollination thing. Does that only happen if I have different types of mg's planted all together? I'm new to all this, and haven't gotten as far as thinking about what to do with the seeds and all that jazz. Also, the passiflora, when you say it's a thug, do you mean it just took over at the expense of the mg's? I was thinking about trying to grow that too.

Becky - How big did your morning glories grow in the container on the arbor? How many plants did you have in one container, and was it just one container on one side, or did you have containers on both sides?

Xeramtheum - With the plants you have in the containers sunk into the ground with the cagey thing around it, how big do those end up getting?

Also, I read that they like full sun. Will they grow in shade/semi-shade, but just not flower as much, or will it not really grow well? About half of my back fence is full sun, part is part sun/part shade, and the rest is almost completely full shade (maybe some dappled sunlight getting through). But the area with the arbor gets almost completely full sun all day (at least until the sun starts going down, maybe last hour or two of the day?).

The ones in the pots get morning sun and are in total shade by 2pm. The ones on the frame get mid morning sun to mid afternoon sun.

The ones in the pot have to have a little help to grow around the frame otherwise they will just grow straight up. . Every time I do a walkabout or water, I thread the shoots around the frames.

The problem with passies and mg is that the passies have tendrils and end up grabbing the mg shoots and strangling them. I have to police them 2 to 3 times a day now.

MG's on the frame are more prone to hybrids because weather and insect can move pollen around causing hybrids or crosses .. it's called Open Pollination and any time you trade for seeds you should let people know if they are Pure Breds, meaning they were only pollinated to themselves or OP meaning you don't know who pollinated what. To make sure that I have pure bred seeds from the ones in the pots, the night before a bud is to open I'll bag it then the next morning I'll hand pollinate it myself and rebag it so no other pollen can fertilize it. After a day or so when the pistil, the part of the plant that accepts pollen is no longer receptive I'll remove the bag and tag it. I've found that using a laser printer on avery 5267 labels easily last a whole season.

Here is a picture of the reproductive parts of a morning glory. You can see the anthers which contain the pollen releasing the pollen. The pistil is the roundish thing which accepts the pollen.

I'm fascinated by your set up Xeramtheum. You put a lot of work into that. I hadn't even thought about the whole pollination thing or seeds from the morning glories. But that would be fun too!

So the passifloras have those little tendrils that wrap themselves around anything they can find? Kind of like a grapevine? Or I think we have what may be Virginia Creeper growing in our yard, and it does that too. Wow, that's a lot of times during the day that you have to go correct them. Is that going to be more often as they continue to get bigger?

If/when I get to the point where I'm getting blooms, I may have more questions.


Now, I do have one more questions about morning glories in general, maybe a dumb one, but it's my first time growing. Do the little morning glory roots get root hairs that kind of look like a white mold? Or is this most likely mold I'm seeing?

Unfortunately, it does sound like mold to me without a photo to see for sure. The roots have fine and bold hairs, but they don't look like mold to me. Water it with some hydrogen peroxide and water mixed together. A couple drops of H2O2 with the water. That will hopefully take care of any mold developing.

Passiflora is quite aggressive growing and yes! the tendrils do have a habit of wrapping around anything (including other plants) for support! Mine grow in leaps and bounds even in containers. I don't grow them near my MGs for that reason.

Thanks, Becky. I did water with hydrogen peroxide and water together. How many drops to how much water do you recommend? I'll take a picture a bit later.

I have some passiflora seeds on the way, and was planning to try it in a container. Is there anything special you do or recommend when growing that in containers (though I realize this probably isn't the forum for it)?

I grow some of my passies the same way I grow the MG's in a 3 - 4 gallon pot but do not have a smaller pot in it. Like the MG you have to guide it around cage.

I also grow them on arch trellises .. I discover a few months ago the perfect, cheapest trellis ever and I'm growing some passies on those too. Here is a link to the thread I started in the Vines Forum:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1185875/

Here is a picture of P. foetida var gossypifolia in a pot.

Do you sink those pots into the ground too? Do passifloras have any problems with runaway roots or anything like that? I love that trellis idea! So cheap and easy. I will definitely have to see if I can get that. Great idea!

About how old is the plant in the picture?

I don't put the pots in the ground. The plant in the picture was grown from seeds there are 3 plants in the pot - I'd guess they are about 4 months old .. I start seed in late January early February on heating pads in the house. I would never EVER put a passie in the ground. Once those guys get away from you they are pretty much impossible to stop. For the most part I don't put ANY vines in the ground and take special care to dead head and contain ones that might be hardy in my zone.

Yeah, I am feeling very hesitant about trying the vines in general. I am a little afraid of them getting away from me and then dealing with that mess. I am already fighting some ivy coming through from the neighbor's yard. I hate ivy. We also have honeysuckle growing over a corner of a fence from another neighbor's yard, but it doesn't get too crazy.

So the seed pods develop after the flowers are dying off, right? That's why you can keep it under control by deadheading?

Yes, once the flower is finished blooming, if it's been fertilized it will make seeds .. I have honeysuckle growing on a split rail fence in my front yard and I cut off seed pods every week and if I want to save some I bag the pods while still green.

I don't think I have ever noticed the seed pods on the honeysuckle, but I cannot say I have ever looked for them either. I will have to look for them. =)

Deadheading MG blooms is a sure way to prevent volunteers on Ipomoea purpurea and Ipomoea nil vines.

I've never seen seeds on honeysuckle vines either!

Here is what honeysuckle seed pods look like. These are small ones.

Hmmm ... I've seen those before on my honeysuckle. Didn't know they were seeds! Cool! Thanks for the visual, X!

Thanks for the picture of the honeysuckle seeds, Xeramtheum! I went and looked at the honeysuckle on my back fence, but the gardeners had chopped back a whole bunch of it, and I think they chopped back all the pieces that would have developed those (at least on my side). I'll have to keep my eye out later this summer though. =)

Becky, about the mold on my morning glories, after I had seen them looking like that, I had spritzed them with the hydrogen peroxide/water solution, and when I went back to take a picture to show you the roots, they looked normal, like the pictures I found online. So I don't know if that was the start of the little hair roots, or if there was mold and I killed it. But they looked normal after that. I attached a picture. I might have waited a little too long to get these kiddos potted. I got some potted up a couple days ago, but I still have some left that I'll probably have to get rid of. I completely underestimated what kind of germination rate I was going to get on these. =)

On a side note, my vine friends, do either of you have experience with wisteria? My neighbors have wisteria growing up the back of their patio and up over, and there are a TON of seed pods hanging down. I was wondering whether it would be worth it to grab one of those seed pods and try growing wisteria from seed. =)

Wisteria is easy to grow from seed but takes about 7+ years before it will start flowering .. also as you have probably noted .. its a very heavy vine and can be destructive if it latches on to your house.

Yeah, the trunk of their wisteria is quite large and thick, though I don't think they let it latch onto their house, just the patio covering. I did not know it takes so long before flowering though. I wonder if I was able to successfully get a wisteria cutting to root, how long it would take before that flowered. I was thinking of trying some seeds, and if they germinated for me, growing in a container. I've seen some sites where they were growing a wisteria plant as a bonsai specimen (and it looked gorgeous!), but I'm pretty sure that is far above my experience level at the moment. I may have to revisit this idea next year. I think I have my hands full with the variety of stuff I'm trying my hands at now. =)

Can't answer you on that .. no experience .. you can go here to get an answer:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/climbers/all/

Thanks Xeramtheum! =)

Welcome!

I ended up killing my seedlings. I forgot to move them in before they got hit with full afternoon sun too soon. Plus, I'm feeling a little ambivalent about them. I'm afraid that I may not be a responsible enough plant owner to keep them out of my neighbor's yard, even keeping them in containers. I'm probably being paranoid. I still have a bunch more seed too, and a couple neighbor's want some, but I'm not sure I should share those.

Sharon - Be afraid! Be very afraid! LOL! Just kidding! Honestly, the species seeds that you have can easily be pulled up if they are growing where you don't want them. They are annuals. If the seeds hit the ground and sprout, just ripped them out. Don't be afraid. I am glad I grew them here. And they weren't invasive here at all for me. I know your climate may be different, but they are not Kudzu! (I promise!) Go for it! You'll be delighted that you did! You'll love them!

Thanks, Becky. I don't know much about kudzu, but I know ivy is horrible (still trying to sneak into my yard from the neighbors). I just get concerned, because I know this one isn't supposed to send out those underground crazy runners, but then some people do say on this kind that they've had so much trouble. Maybe I will give it another try. I think the packet was like 50 seeds or something crazy. Might as well use at least one more. =)

Ahhh ... go for 2 or 3. One will surely germinate! ;-) And when it blooms, take photos and post here so I can drool! ;-)

Haha! I had started 20 seeds the last time, because I didn't think they would all germinate. They ALL germinated. I'll definitely take pictures of whatever I get. Though my neighbor wants one, so I'll probably give him one. I assure you, his will look MUCH better than mine. Everything in his yard blooms and looks gorgeous. =)

I think you and your neighbor should both grow some and have a showdown to see who can get the most blooms. Hee, hee! And then the other neighbors will come over and drool and beg for seeds, too! It will be a block party plant! Everyone will celebrate the blooms every year. One really neat thing about Heavenly Blue is that the blooms will stay open longer than any I. nil blooms do in full sun. They do wilt, but not as fast. At least that has been my experience growing them. Mine were a dark true blue, not the lighter blue that I saw on the seed packet. I could see them from clear across my yard! The bluest blue you ever saw! They were beautiful!!!!

That would be awesome! My neighbor on the other side wants one too. We can all three have a contest. Good to know about the blooms staying open longer. That is great! I do so love the blooms of morning glories. So gorgeous!