Try growing different kinds of MG"s. :) Arum

noamsmom - Nitrogen fertilizer will usually result in increased folige growth,but don't overdo it...give the plants as much water as you can,as the water is necessary for the plant tissue to expand and grow...

TTY,...

Ron

P.S. You say you have a 'perennial hybrid'...I'm not aware of any perennial hybrid MG's...can you post any pictures or send me an e-mail for further correspondence...

I too am interested in what a "perennial" MG is.... mine are all EXTREME reseeders, but none are perennials.

As for improving the foliage, MG's are almost a "one or the other" plant: foliage or flowers, but seldom both! Improving nitrogen and water will improve the foliage, but at the expense of flowers. If your plants are interwoven, you may try fertilizing and watering every other plant -- that way the leaves from one and the flowers from another might provide even coverage of both?

It may be a function of the climate here - many plants that are annuals in more northern zones are perennials here. This is these Morning Glories' 3rd blooming season. When they were smaller, they did have nicer foliage, and heart-shaped.

Here's the MG:

I have a purple bindweed& for me it is perenial but thats because my soil don't freeze cause have mild winters.The places it trys growing that I don't want....I useually pinch the flowers off,but it still returns.
I have 2 MGs that are the same in 2 different locations.their sun conditions are the same.full direct sun from sun up to sundown.the differance is ones roots are shaded by a log& some 4 pm plants.The full sun proably cooks the soil,the other has a few more seeds sown so looks more like the other thats got a log protector.

pretty morning glory.

noamsmom - the species you have pictured is Ipomoea indica and Ipomoea indica is a perrenial that can be overwintered indoors in the cooler climates..true annuals will rarely overwinter or last more than a very few years at best...,

Ipomoea indica(as the species epithet would strongly suggest)was once thought to have originated in Asia,but the most recent genetic analysis shows that Ipomoea indica undoubtedly originated in the Caribbean and is now(to the chagrin of many) considered(by those botanists in the know)to be a bonafide native(!)of the US Gulf Coast States...it has naturalized around the globe...

I am aware of different colored blooms of Ipomoea indica from different parts of the world that display natural color and petal variations,but I am not aware of any true hybrids of Ipomoea indica...the Ipomoea indica named variations include

'Betty Mars'
'Edith Piaf'
'Morning Face'
'Tokiko Kato'
'Zarah Leander'

and a few others...the one that you (noamsmom) have looks like the 'Tokiko Kato' type to me...

The term bindweed is a fuzzy term often applied to plants that don't even twine...Convolvulus floridus e.g.,is a non-twining tree...

Calystegia sepium is native to the temperate US and California is the 'bindweed' capital of the world with more native(!) species of Calystegia than any other location on Earth...but not all species of Calystegia twine or are in any way invasive...but because the species that are invasive, are usually ferociously so,all the Convolvulus and Calystegia species get immediately thought of as 'invasive bindweeds'...

That's the way it goes...

TTY,...

Ron

I assumed it was a hybrid because no seeds are ever produced - I bought the plants as small vines at a nursery.