aloha
I planted moonflowers from seed 4 years ago on my arbor. I absolutely love them. I cut them back every year and they seem to bloom when they reach about 3 feet up the arbor. They grow seeds that will drop and keep reseeding. (depending on your zone) Mine get morning sun and are in the shade in the afternoon. If it is cloudy, they bloom in the late afternoon. (not if sunny) But they bloom into the night. In the morning the blossums fall off and wither. I was surprised that they just sort of disintegrate. I never have to rake them up.
anuhea (aka Barb)

Depending on your weather, they can take about 90 - 120 days from seed germination to flowering. Mine have been planted with morning sun similar to Barb and would open around 5pm. They would stay open all night and would close again by ~6am as the sun was hitting them. And yeah, they sortof shrivel up and disentegrate (although I've had some shrivel and drop off and roll away). LOL Then you can hopefully look forward to seed pods later.

Are there any ways to make the moonflower bloom sooner? If it takes 90 days to bloom, then I won't see any flowers until September. That's way too long! I will try to fertilize it with fertilizer high in the middle number to see how it works.

Sunflower,

Don't fertilize! It will produce more leaves & less flowers. I started seeds indoors back in April. Put the
little plants outside in May & they have taken over my tiny back yard. I didn't get my first bloom till late July!
I was fertilizing until someone in the PA Forum advised me not to. Same thing with my morning glories!
(Unfortunately, my moon flowers do not have this wonderful aroma everyone else seems to get?)