Morning glories do not like to have their roots disturbed after they start growing. But they can be started in either peat pots or paper cups and planted out without ever being moved out of the starting pots, just tucked into the soil after pulling the bottom of the pot off. They are not hardy so wait until after the frost free date. But once in the garden, they do self seed and germinate in the same place in succeeding years. I have had a lovely deep purple m g on a fence for 4 years and only planted the first year. I direct seeded though in May

We grow morning glories for the Norman Market and they easily transplant if you don't disturb the root ball. We use 3" pots and potting soil.

Wait past 4/15 or last frost incase you are 7b.
Pearce

If you make newspaper pots you can drop the whole thing into a hole in the ground when the weather has warmed, without disturbing the roots at all. I got some seed mailed to me that was already four years old. Some of it looked a little "powdery", so I wasn't sure if it would germinate. I soaked the morning glory seed for about 48 hours and it looked like it was splitting. With a spoon, I carefully scooped up one seed at a time and placed it on top of the soil in the newspaper pot and then covered it with peat moss. Those seeds sprouted in just a few days and I hope are not wound around too many things by the time it gets warm enough to plant them!

Ilene -- I am having the same problem as u -- my morning glories have already sprouted and they are in a tiny greenhouse seed starter -- so I already need to move them == should I move them to pots without a cover and hope they make it until around the middle of april to plant outside? Dont know what to do with them -- I did not expect them to sprout so soon -- i just planted them around the 27th. . .

I am glad I found this thread. I bought a pack of seeds today. While looking by the racks, I noticed one pack says "does not transplant well" while another one from another company says "grow indoor and transplant...." Now I understand that if I don't disturb the root that should be ok.

I have a couple questions:

1. Will morning glories climb a tree? The bark is pretty rough, but I don't know MG has those suction-type of tendrils or wrap-around type. I have a dead tree and it looks ugly. I thought it would be nice if I could have some climbing flower clinging on it.

2. About self seeding, I worry about it being invasive. Does self-seeding equal invasive? What if I don't like that many next year? Will it work if I just pull out those that I don't like? They do not propagate by root of rhizome, right? Well, even they do, I think they are not cold hardy enough to survive in MI, so it is the self seeding that I am concerned mostly.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Melissia,

I've never started morning glories inside quite so early, but have started them and kept them indoors for maybe 2 to 3 weeks after they germinated before transplanting them into the ground.

You could translant them to something larger...like maybe one or two plants per cup in paper or plastic cups with holes punched in the bottom for drainage. Having more soil and space available for root growth might encourage them to put more energy into growing roots and, thus, less energy into top growth.

Putting them in a location where they stay very cool, but still above freezing, will slow down their growth. If they are indoors in warm temps, they will be monster plants by the time it is warm enough to transplant them. If you could keep them in a cool, sheltered location....like on a porch or patio, bringing them inside only when freezing temperatures are likely, they might stay smaller and more manageable.

Personally, if it was me, and I had some seeds left, I wouldn't worry and fret over these too much. If they get unmanageable or if you don't want to deal with them for the next 4-6 weeks until it is warm enough to transplant them, you can dump them onto your compost pile and sow seeds again about a month from now.

Morning glories can handle quite a lot of cool (but not freezing) temperatures. When the volunteers sprout in our beds in March every year, they tend to stay slow to the ground and quite small. As soon as the temperatures are warm enough, though, they take off and grow like mad. And, yes, sometimes they sprout too early and freeze. I haven't had any morning glories sprout yet, but have had some sunflowers sprout near the chicken coop already.

Dave,

Well, our climate is so very different from yours that I don't know if we can predict what your morning glories will do. I would think, though, that yours should reseed to at least some extent, unless your soil stays excessively wet all winter long. If the soil stays REALLY wet, the combination of wet soil and cold temps might rot the seeds over the course of the long winter.

Self-seeding does not necessarily imply a plant is invasive. In general, I don't really consider morning glories to be invasive if you manage them well. Some years they do reseed quite thickly, but it is quite simple to pull up or hoe out the seedlings you don't want. Also, after they bloom and leave visible seed pods behind, you can simply cut off the seedpods before they have time to mature, dry, slit open and drop seeds to the ground.

Having a thick layer of mulch on the soil can help cut down on how many self-seed, although some do tend to sprout in the mulch (but they are easy to pull out).

Morning glories climb by twining and they will climb a dead tree quite easily.

Mine climb on metal fence posts and wire fencing also, and they climb the wooden fence posts and porch railings too.

They do die back to the ground when freezing weather hits and do not come back from roots or rhizomes.

Dawn

Dawn,

thank you for helping me -- I never thought those morning glories would sprout so quickly -- they are already 3" tall.

I think I'll put them in dixie cups and move them to the pantry --

thanks again --

Melissia,

Your're welcome.....and if they keep growing taller, you can either give them a trellis to climb (a soda straw or a twig or stick from the yard stuck into the cup of dirt) or you can cut off the top 2 or 3" every so often just to keep them manageable.

Dawn

Dawn, thank you for your reply. Although our weather conditions are very different, the information is certainly helpful to me as well.

(I didn't realize my post went to Oklahoma! I did a search on the forum and posted a reply and only after that did I realize it went to this forum). :-)

Dave, You're welcome. It's all right with me that your post came to the Oklahoma forum. Except for the fact that y'all have cold weather for a very long period of time, and we have hot weather for a very long period of time, I bet our growing conditions aren't really all that different.

I hope your morning glories do well this year. I just think there is nothing prettier than a tree, fence, trellis or arch covered with morning glories in bloom.

I like to mix together morning glories and moonflower(Ipomoea alba) vines. The moonflower starts blooming later in the summer than the morning glories, but it is so gorgeous and deliciously fragrant. When both are blooming, I have the morning glories open in the morning and the moonflowers open in the evening. It's a great combination. I don't know if moonflowers would grow well in your climate.....they are true heatlovers and bloom late, but if they would, planting them with your morning glories would give you twice the flowers.

Dawn

>

Huh, what an idea! I will research a little on moonflower. They sell the seeds here at Walmart, Home Depot and almost everywhere, so I assume it should be fine.

Thanks again!

I have seedlings which grew 2-4" tall before they started growing true leaves. Can I plant them deep so that they form roots on the buried stems?