Morning Glory – September Birth Flower

The Morning Glory (Ipomoea) is a fast-growing annual vine with blooms in a wide array of colors and large heart shaped leaves. As its name suggests, the flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon.

“Heavenly Blue” (Ipomoea tricolor) is a very popular cultivar with true blue flowers.   This vine can easily grow 10 feet in a season.

I grew “Star of Yelta” (Ipomoea purpurea) which had purple blooms with a red veining that formed a star shape.  It bloomed all summer to early November and tolerated a few light frosts. Unlike most morning glories, these blooms stayed open for the morning and most of the afternoon.  This variety easily got to 8 feet in a season. 

You don’t need to prune or deadhead these vines.   Just make sure they have a good support structure.  

Morning Glory vines are vigorous and require a structure that gives plenty of space for the vines to twine around.  A metal fence, or well supported wire garden fencing is ideal.   If you have a wood trellis, with wide wood slats, you can staple wire garden fencing to the wood to give the vines something to grab onto.

These vines are easily grown from seed.  They have a hard seed coat and to help germination, nick the seed and soak it in water overnight before planting.  Warm soil (temps in the 60s) is best for planting.  They need a full sun location (6-8 hours is a must) and will grow in just about any soil type if it is well drained.  Provide regular watering throughout the season. 

The vines grow fast but it often takes till mid-summer to see the blooms.   To speed up the flowering you can start the seeds indoors and plant the vines after danger of frost and when the soil temps are in the 60s.

Deer and rabbits sometimes like to eat the plants when the vines are young.   To help prevent this put fencing around the lower portions of the plant.

They self-sow readily (warning!) and the seeds remain viable in the soil for years.   In fact, it has been 8 years since I planted my Star of Yelta morning glories and occasionally I see some popping up!   However, they are easy to remove from the garden.

Some people consider Morning Glories invasive because of its vigorous growth and reseeding, but in the right location the flowers and months of blooms are hard to beat.