Morning glories that are well fertilized seldom bloom well..
I haven't grown MG's in years, but I never remember deadheading them. Lay off the fertilizer. That's why they bloomed better in a pot....the soil got worn out.
Linda C

MGÂs in our zone don't really start to flourish heavily till around August. Just be patient they should put on a great show right away.

I grow Grandpa Ott in a huge pot, he gets Miracle Grow (higher middle #)15-30-15 fertilizer a couple of times a month. The vines growing in the ground, donÂt get nothing.

I donÂt deadhead MGÂs.

Sharon

I have to agree with lindac about the fertilizer - they don't need alot. If you use a high nitrogen fert (high first number) then you are sacrificing blooms for a real leafy plant. Mine don't get ANY fertilizer and bloom like crazy from August on. The blue ones are Heavenly Blue which I started from seed - the pink and purple are wild ones that bloom all over the place down here....

Lynne

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I have had trouble getting morning glories to bloom here with our short growing season. I copied this note from somewhere and filed it away in my garden notebook.

*Morning glory will flower sooner and produce more flowers if plants are grown for the first week or two after germination under short-day conditions: only 8 to 10 hours of light per day, and complete darkness for 14 to 16 hours each night. It's easiest to manage this indoors, so start these seeds inside in early May, then transplant out to the foot of the trellis once soil has warmed.*

I don't recall the exact source--somewhere on the 'net, probably the U of MN.

I have tried starting the plants early, nicking seeds, soaking seeds, waiting until the soil is very warm, etc. This year I have planted a variety called "Early Call". They JUST started climbing the trellis about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Next year, I think I will try warm the soil with black plastic. Doesn't anyone have any other tricks to get morning glories to bloom before frost? Since I didn't do the light deprivation right after germination, I thought I would try as soon as they neared the top of the trellis. Oh well, maybe next year. . .

Thank you for all your replies. What beautiful blooms you have Lynne. Now, that's the kind of result I'm looking for. This year I have a mixture of Heavenly Blue, an MG mix, and Cardinal Climber in a large pot (same as last year). This year I have seen only flowers from the mix (same as last year), but only a few. Today was the biggest show - about five flowers - so maybe as Sharon said, they won't put on a show until later in August. They sure didn't last year. I'll cut back on the watering - maybe every second day from now on. Thanks for the germination information Hoghaven, but I absolutely refuse to grow anything under lights since my introduction to winter sowing, especially because of my experience this year with tomatoes which all became infected with whitefly. I had to 'borrow' plants from friends with whom I had shared my heirloom seeds. Next year I'll be experimenting with a modified cold-frame method I recently heard about. But I just checked my journal and I sowed my MG May 23, so perhaps I could sow them earlier and cover with black plastic (as I do for Gomphrena) and see what happens. My plants are way up my trellis and climbing over the arbor over my gate, so I don't have a problem with the plants growing, just the flower production. I just have to be patient and see what happens. Thanks again.
Northerner.