I love Morning Glories and how they clamber up poles and over fences with wild abandon. Every year May zips by, and I forget to show you my Morning Glory trick. Right about now is the perfect time to start planting seeds for an amazing show come mid august all the way until the first frost for years to come (here in the northeast). They look lovely and carefree tumbling over our picket fence... and they are just that "care-free". I planted seeds 9 years ago and haven't had to do much since. I learned by accident. I planted all along the base of the fence. They came up the first year timidly and without a lot of gusto. I was disappointed. I left their small tangled vines on the fence all winter long.
The next spring, removing their dried, twisted skeletons was my last priority as I readied the vegetable beds and tended my perennials. Finally, late in May I pulled them off. Much to my surprise, seeds popped out of their dried pods and spread all along the fence.
That summer the Morning Glories went wild. They were prolific and have been ever since. The trick is to not remove their vines until late in spring... it may be tempting, but don't touch them until the days have warmed up. I often leave the wheel barrow of collected vines out for the birds for a day or two. I dream of Morning Glory nests blooming in all of the trees... no matter how impossible that is.
I'm all about flowers and vegetables in May, so if you have any tips, stories, or tricks, I'd love to hear!
Granpa Ott's morning glory is very pretty. I have that one too.
ReplyDeleteThey look so beautiful! Thanks for telling your trick, I'm planning to plant some too, so now I know how to!
ReplyDeleteI'm in love with my garden at the moment too. The kids are absolutely keen on picking the little woodland strawberries, they are so aromatic and so delicious...
Eva x
So pretty on that fence!
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! We've got peonies blooming in our garden, and nigellas too. I always forget that the nigells exsist until May, and suddenly there's these amazing blue petals and dainty green ferns--they are beautiful, they look like lace--and I'm always shocked. The best kind of gardening!
ReplyDeleteI love morning glories too! Here, in the Ottawa area in Canada, they don't bloom until very late in August and the first frost comes shortly after that. Once I planted them on a string trellis on a protected from the wind brick wall and it was "glorious". big sigh. LOVE this flower. And I just machine quilted a morning glory quilt for a friend!! So lovely!!
ReplyDeleteI love gardens, but it´s so exausting to keep them nice!
ReplyDeleteLOVE this post. Thank your for sharing...I hope to have a picket fence of my own very soon. Going to put Morning Glories on my list.
ReplyDeleteCheers from BC.
"Morning Glories" is such a lovely name for what my Dad always called a dreaded weed!!! You've captured their gorgeous colour beautifully. x
ReplyDeleteI adore Morning Glories. Sadly they're a noxious weed here (Australia) and not really encouraged to be grown. You see them along railway lines a lot! I think because of our climate they never die back or get smothered in snow which doesn't help their cause! I'll appreciate yours instead.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI've read that morning glory seeds need to have a "freeze" on them so that the hard shell of the seed cracks. Either that or you should soak the seed before planting.
ReplyDeleteI have volunteer morning glories in my flower bed too. They are so glorious!
I'm going to plant some gladiola bulbs today.
Jody
Thanks for the tip. My morning glories did really well the second year. I think I inadvertently followed your tip. However, the following year I was too keen with cleaning up before winter and didn't get the same production. Now I know what I did wrong. The bonus is I harvested some of the seeds and I think I will scatter them about this year.
ReplyDeleteI love morning glories! My mum used to plant them witn strings running up on the side of the front porch of their house....I used to love going out in the morning and seeing them actually blooming, since often it's too hot for them to stay open! I love how yours look on the fence:)
ReplyDeleteWonderful blue colors.
ReplyDeleteI love the blue flowers.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice evening.
Katharina
I love this! And I am excited!! I just planted quite a lot of morning glory seeds yesterday, for the first time, and seeing yours and hearing how easily they reseed is a big encouragement. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI planted morning glories and moonflowers this spring, a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the heads up on what to expect. It will be interesting to see what happens with them.
ReplyDeleteYour yard is soooo beautiful, I love that grass is longer, and in most yards dandelions look like weeds, but in yours, they look like they belong there. Beautiful, I'm definitely envying your yard today :). Gorgeous.
ReplyDeletei adore the glories too, ever since planting them in my ghetto rooftop garden in nyc about 15 years ago! they grew up and all over the fire escapes, up to 2 floors above me! i just planted the first ones at my new house a few days ago (never got to it last year) and can't wait to see those familiar heart-shaped leaves sprouting...
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