Beekissed

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Welcome! Glad you joined us.

I’m afraid I don’t share your love of morning glories. My neighbor grows it and it is so invasive. I’m constantly having to cut it down.

Mary

Same here. I too was lured into the Heavenly Blue desire and planted them in my son's little BTE garden and have been regretting it ever since. It's nothing more than what people call "bindweed" and the description is apt....it wraps anything near it in a tight embrace, choking it off and killing it. Not only that, it puts off so many offshoots one cannot keep up with them....I'll probably be fighting that original planting for years.

Every time I see any of it, I rip it out mercilessly, as it's winning and I'm losing....Heavenly Blue? Flower from hell is more like it.

If you must plant it and nothing can dissuade you from it, I suggest you plant it far from anything else you love and want to grow well....far from anything you value. Especially far from your vegetable garden.

Oh, and BTW...not a single Heavenly Blue blossom came out of that packet...the blossoms were white and not very many of them, but the vines just keep comin'.
 

so lucky

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Hi Heavenly Blue! I agree morning glories can be invasive, but they are so pretty it's worth it to me. I particularly like "Grandpa Ott" which is a beautiful dark purple blue. In my area, they are susceptible to spider mites and a tiny black and orange worm.
They volunteer very willingly, so once you plant morning glories, you won't have to plant them next year.
We have Grandpa Otts growing in the sidewalk cracks. Sometimes I leave one or two. Those I do pull out, they are only a two inch plant on top, with a 12" tap root.
 

so lucky

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Speaking of invasive plants, (By the way, if you haven't noticed, we are notorious for hijacking threads here) when I am feeling particularly resentful towards someone, I daydream of ways to get back at them. My favorite day dream is to secretly scatter seeds of cleome and morning glory into their flowerbeds, maybe throw a few springs of mint and some of snow on the mountain in there too.
 

flowerbug

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welcome to TEG! :)

everyone has to start somewhere. :) my gardening addiction started as a younger child. there were some flowers which had seeds that looked like hand-grenades... one of my earliest garden memories. i got into house plants and then when the weather would cooperate i'd be outside "helping". :)

love morning glories!

as others have said, they can be hard to manage. i've banned them here as the seeds are able to sprout even in the gravel/mulch and persist for many seasons in the soil. we have them still sprouting in gardens 7 years after trying to remove them.

you can cut back the vines to remove some of the seeds, but then what? :) wherever you put the cuttings those seeds will sprout and try to take over too... i think we have them growing in the north hedge now and i really don't want to have to go in there to keep them from spreading further.
 

Ridgerunner

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When I was growing up on the farm morning glories were considered a weed. They were a pain in our two acres of corn and in the garden. But my city raised wife loves them. I planted some in a totally isolated bed on a trellis to try to provide some shade. Only needed to sow seeds once, they now volunteer.

That bed is isolated and I do not use anything out of it in the compost. I occasionally get one to show up in the garden (wonder if birds spread the seed) but as long as i am vigilant and don't let them go to seed I can manage.

Don't take any of this personal about your screen name. If it is what you like, it is what you like. Just join in wherever you want and make yourself to home.
 

ducks4you

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:welcome from Central Illinois!
Agreed, keep the moniker and don't plant ANY morning glories. I fight bindweed on my 5 acres. If you leave an inch or less in the soil they come back, and come back, and come back, ad nauseum. ALSO, don't plant trumpet flowers
https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organ.../13-plants-that-could-kill-you/angels-trumpet
Lots of pretty blue flowers, inCLUDING a blue geranium!
https://www.highcountrygardens.com/perennial-plants/unique-plants/geranium-johnsons-blue
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/grow-johnsons-blue-geranium-plant-69484.html
Glad to have your here!
 

thistlebloom

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Hi Heavenly Blue! Welcome to the forum!

I am maybe the only person on the planet who doesn't have anything negative to say about morning glories. I have planted them and they have not become a problem. Heavenly Blue is a particularly pretty one, as well as Grandpa Ott, like @so lucky mentioned.

I suppose a lot has to do with location. It helps to have winter freezes, or to make sure you clean up well in the fall.
But I really suspect that a lot of people are confusing field bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) a perennial weed, with the ornamental annual flower Morning Glory (Ipomea species) which is relatively benign.

They share the same shape flower, but bindweed is white or pinkish and smaller. If you plant a package of Heavenly Blue and what you get are small white blooms I would say your seeded morning glories did not sprout, but your perennial bindweed did and the morning glories are getting the bad rap.
I have bindweed and I plant morning glories and there is a very noticeable difference. Bindweed is something as bad to have as Bermuda grass.
 
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