Ipomoea Species, Morning Glory, Blue Dawnflower, Oceanblue, Island Morning Glory

It's true, you'd be hard-pressed to find a plant with more vibrant, electrifying blue flowers, but this plant (at least in my zone) requi...Read Moreres extreme VIGILANCE to keep it from running amok. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow and won't be able to keep it in check, my neighborhood is going to be covered in blue!

I'm in Surrey, near London UK. My previous Ipomoea Indica did not get through a very cold spell last winter in an unheated greenhouse. I'...Read Moreve bought another plant which has been magnificient this summer and for the coming winter will be protected in my now heated greenhouse. It's now huge and in a pot, should I cut it back now and are there any other precautions I should take for winterising ?
Roy

Ipomoea indica flowers usually possess both male and female reproductive structures. The main reason this species rarely produces seeds ...Read Morein cultivation is because the plant doesn’t like its own pollen or the pollen of closely related individuals. Very few gardeners maintain multiple strains of this species, and most of the plants in a given area are likely to have originated from asexual propagation.

In order to produce seeds, the indica flower must receive pollen from an unrelated Ipomoea indica plant. Many perennial species have reproductive incompatibility with individuals of their species that are closely related to them, and require outcrossing in order to produce seeds.

The reason they rarely set seeds is that they appear to have only one sex per vine, and since their runners root at the drop ofa pin, you...Read More can get massive colonies of only one sex. You can even root them from cottings in a jar. I'm a sucker for morning glories, the more aggressive, the better. The one I have appears to be staminate.

I've had this plant for over 8 years and it still amazes me. It has scrambled up the oak tree I planted it next to and, other than the v...Read Moreines that have mixed in with the ivy under the tree, it has disappeared into the top of the tree. It still reappears enough each Spring to cover my deck rails with just the most beautiful "blue" flowers you could ever ask for. I always cut it all off the deck at the end of Summer, if I didn't it would probably have covered my entire house by now.

Loving this flower gonna have to add to my growing for 2012

Hate to give such a beautiful flower a neg, but it is terribly invasive even in zone 7B. I have tried for two years and still have to ba...Read Morettle it every summer. I went into my neighbors yard where it had created 12 foot long runners, with roots, along our fence and up into her trees. Careful where you plant it.

I want to say I love it, it has grown mad in a few months and is still in the pot I got it in. I have it in an area with a lot of other ...Read Moreplants and it will surely smother them in no time flat. I read the negatives and am in a panic. I need to find another spot to put it in but I think it is lovely.

This is a beautiful plant but is extremely invasive in Southern California. It roots wherever it touches the ground and sends tendrils d...Read Moreozens of feet. A plant from a 6" pot covered my hillside in less than 2 years. I've been trying to get rid of it for years.

The only way that I'd suggest growing it is in a pot sitting on cement. Never let it touch the open ground.

My comments echo those of several others. Some years ago, I planted a single 1-gallon size plant of blue dawn flower next to the trelli...Read Mores that borders the deck in my front yard. Since then, it has covered the trellis and then has sent out runners all over my front yard. Fortunately, we have some frosts in the winter to keep it in check. Closer to the coast where frosts are rare, it grows like kudzu. But the flowers are beautiful and always get admiration from passers-by. I love really blue flowers and in my front yard, dwarf blue plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) and blue dawn flower (Ipomoea indica) make a knock-out show during the warmer months of the year.

Ipomoea indica IS HARDY for me in my 8a TX Zone. I have had my vines for a number of years and they do die back at the first frost, but ...Read Morereturn each year from the roots and keep right on blooming. There are also times that if a part of the vine is in more of a sheltered area, it will survive the frost and never die back.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS that BLOOM ALL DAY LONG. Starting out a Bright Blue in early morning, then changing to a Darker Blue by mid-day, then to a Purplish-Blue and Finally to a Dark Pink at the end of the day. At the end of the year when the weather is cooler, the blooms will remain open into the next day turning a Bright Fuchsia color. Spectacular!

Because we have hard freezes each winter my Ipomea indica freezes to the ground. Although it pops back to life each spring it takes a whi...Read Morele for it to grow full and lush and produce flowers. Sometimes I have to wait until fall for full bloom and then of course it is time to freeze again. This past Christmas I had small mini lights on the picket fence when my morning glory grows. During the time the lights were in place we had a very hard freeze. The morning glory in the rest of the yard froze to the ground. however the vine on the fence was weathered but not frozen. I left the lights in place and turned them on when a hard freeze was expected...and lo and behold here it is just the first week in June and my morning glory is full and lush with indications that flowers will come soon.

Just love this plant. Others have commented on its extraordinary color and I would heartily agree with that. It also has been an extreme...Read Morely hardy plant here, thriving with no watering beyond the minimal rain we have had this summer. I will note that this plant has been a delight to me in one unusual and rather unexpected use that I thought I might share. Like many other folks, I am plagued by the various weedy ne'er do wells that sprout up around the base of my birdfeeder from the overflow seeds and whatnot. This spring, I planted some morning glory seeds in that area, thinking it might be trained to climb the feeder pole. It did just that, which is lovely, but the best part of it all is that the morning glory used the various other sprouting grasses/weeds as support and wove itself among them and draped atop them... the net result is that I not only have a morning glory covered pole, but the base of the pole is surrounded by a huge, mounded morning glory "shrub". Not only do I not have to weed the uninvited sprouts anymore, it's actually the case that the more they come up, the more support they provide the morning glory and the puffier and prettier it looks. Very nice unintended consequence.

Well, I am hopeful my MG will bloom. I planted it this spring and has beautifully green vines however no blooms............what am I doin...Read Moreg wrong ???? Quickly after planting and it sprouting, I had a couple of blooms, but nothing more.
Oh and some of the leaves have bites like some insect is at it. This is all new to me.I would love any tips.
Thanks , Jill

I live just south of Denton, Tx (8a) and Oceanblue overwintered just great. In spite of snow and temps in the low 20's, it never died bac...Read Morek completely - still had a few green vines snaking along the foundation. By mid-March, it was already climbing the porch column. It grows very aggressively in full sun and the blue blooms (beginning in late summer) are just gorgeous. I plan this spring to plant it as a large groundcover, instead of my usual sweet potato vine as I am tired of replanting the potato vine every year. Also, with the aggressive habit of the Oceanblue Morning Glory, it will probably spread even faster and have beautiful flowers, too!

This is my second year growing this MG.
It dies back in the winter here and pops up around the last of June.
The first bloo...Read Morems were in the first week of Sept this year,
so it took mine a while to take off here in TN, but once it dose its full of blooms.
I never water it so it just gets rain,... that might be the reason it takes so long for it to do anything.
Robbie

I live in Satellite beach Fla, and brought a specimen back from Moreno valley Ca about ten years ago. It continues to grow wild in my bac...Read Morek yard and along my chain link link fence around my garden. It requires very little attention, other than keeping it under control. It is a vigorous grower that puts roots down any where it touches soil. If anyone cares for one send me an e-mail at actoon@yahoo.com. I have plenty to share. It is also everblooming and does not die back like other Ipomoeas do in the winter time. It is truly beautiful when in full bloom along a fence or trellis.

BEWARE!! This spreads by incredibly long runners. It will cover a house in no time.

I grow it in a pot, trained as a s...Read Moretandard with support and it actually sent runners out of the back side of the pot over concrete till it found dirt then sent the runners for many, many feet. It was so sneaky!! I had no clue it was doing this.

It is dangerous in areas where it does not die every year. Almost impossible to get rid of it if you let it get a hold. It will smother huge trees and cover huge ravines.

I have added pictures to show you how invasive this plant is.

UPDATED 1/2011
I wanted to add that this one is not the usual morning glory. It is a plant from hell. It also does not set seed but it spreads from tons of runners it sends out which all root wherever they touch dirt and then these newly rooted plants all in turn send out at least 5 runners from each rooted spot.

These runners can go forever looking for soil to root in and then it again will send out 5 or 6 runners from there. Over and over again until it covers a house or a canyon, choking all over plant life it encounters. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY ITS PRETTY LOOKS! And do not think you can control it.

I kept one in a pot in the middle of a concrete courtyard for several years thinking I was in control. Even when I found it had sneakily sent out runners out of my sight from the back of the pot which had gone over many feet of concrete finding a 1 inch line of soil along the fence line, I still thought I could keep it controlled in that pot. It had rooted over and over again all along that 1 inch line of dirt.

Well, come 2010 and it was all over. It had sent out runners from the drainage holes in the base of the pot and because it was among many other potted plants I did not notice until I relaized it had climbed into so many of the pots and had rooted in them. It was climbing all of these potted plants.

But it also had made it all the way down along the concrete to my front bed and sent its runners all over to root and make thousands of new plants. I am still trying to get them all out. I killed that potted plant immediately and rue the day I fell for its beauty!

I swear it has a brain!

This one can easily become invasive here in Texas, running amok and covering everything like kudzu. The strain here in Texas is sterile,...Read More but produces tons of runners that can easily be transplanted to a new location. It will freeze back totally in zone 8b, but will reappear from the roots in the spring.

I do not have this plant either, but I would love to have one! I saw a Morning Glory plant that looked just like this one growing at a...Read More produce stand in Huntsville TX which is very close to where I live. The blooms were huge and a deep blue. The leaves were a dark evergreen. Most Morning Glory plants around here have small light pink blooms in the morning and then they are gone by mid morning, but this one was in full bloom in the middle of the day. The beautiful color caught my eye as I approached the produce stand. It was absolutely gorgeous! Now that I know the name of this plant I will inquire about it early next spring. I doubt that this plant can survive the Tx winters.

I haven't planted one yet, but a couple of blocks away it turns my head everytime, and I always slow down, sure is a eye catcher with the...Read Morese large showy flowers. I will have to check our great nurseries around, is a mush have!!!

This plant can produce hundreds a fragile flowers everyday and since it works on a 24 hour cycle it can leave a messy carpet below. The ...Read Moreflowers are dark blue in the morning to purple/magenta at noon and pink in the evening. The next night they will curl fuchsia-shaped and fall to the ground the next day or two.
The plant is also very aggressive, but I have no problem keeping it under control. It expands by running rather than seeds that never seem to grow for me. I guess it could take over an entire neighborhood and, being so seductive, it probably has. Just rip it out from time to time and keep it TOTALLY way from anything that you don't want it to climb as it will bury it.
By attaching small wires around a drain spout I have one growing up the corner of my townhome. It is not like ivy that will rip things away and dig into surfaces. It is a very gentile plant that grows amazingly fast, is beautiful and for some strange reason has kept the ants away from the kitchen directly near it for the first year ever.

In the end, it is a plant that will own you....you won't own it. But chances are you will welcome it. It is a pet, not a pest.

It's a very beautiful plant and in bloom year round. Folks never fail to ask about it or for it. It was a trade years ago that takes ov...Read Moreer major areas and has to be fought off constantly. Because of its beauty I never have the heart to totally destroy it, but I should. I have not had anything more invasive in my yard. Beware of it in Florida unless you can very determinedly grow it in a pot and never let it touch the ground. DR

What a wonderful vine! I call it the Avis's Glory since my friend Avis gave me a small cutting but boy! it's a rapid grower although it u...Read Moresually takes 3 years for this beauty to really show off. I have it growing on a dying tree that a lot of woodpeckers call home. Since the tree is in front of my home this breathtaking vine takes care of the view and no one seems to mind the old tree.

This is my favorite morning glory. Its fabulous huge blooms stay open all day. I have a large plant in a very large container - because i...Read Moret propagates by runners, I am afraid to put it in the ground. It stays green year-round for me, but blooms only once the weather warms - mid-July 'til fall. You see it all over in N. CA - along freeways, over fences ... the blooms are stunning. The color change is fun to watch.

Fast grower, infectious color, irridescent blue, turning to pinky fuschia by day's end. A real asset that brightens the garden.

Big, brazilian morning glory - in our area, it's perennial. The leaves and thinner vines frost off in the winter, but new ones emerge in ...Read Morelate March or early April. Really gets going on the flowers in mid- to late summer. Ours is growing on a trellis on a nine-foot redwood fence, and has also sneaked throught the fence into the neighbor's yard, up a nearby tree, etc. The vines will also root in place if they're allowed to rest on the ground for too long. (I suppose that's "invasive" - since we love the plant, we generally just think of it as "enthusiastic.")

Hummingbirds seem to like it, although interestingly enough they don't poke their beaks into the trumpet, they poke them into the outside base of the trumpet. I don't know if the nectar leaks there on the older flowers, or perhaps they're puncturing them.

Flowers begin purple in the early morning light, turn bright blue by midmorning, then fade to pink and wilt by the end of the day - unless it's cloudy, in which case they change a little more slowly.

2006 update: I still love it, but you REALLY have to keep after this thing or it'll Eat The Yard. And the neighbor's yard. Our next door neighbor has a big cypress in their back yard and I was astonished to see it covered in glorious blue flowers last year - the vines had crawled under the fence, wandered through their shrubbery undetected, and climbed two stories up the tree. Fortunately, they found the effect quite striking. This year, I've been yanking up armloads of vines on a regular basis. If the phone company could figure out how to steer this stuff and make it carry cable components, they'd make a mint.