Why do people hate morning glory?

Wondering why so many people hate morning glories as plants, sure enough they grow quick, but I think they are really under rated. Where are all the vine lovers? If anyone else loves "bindweed" let me know. My homepage is dedicated to morning glory http://www.exoticplants.org.uk and am I wondering if after looking at it any morning glory haters have been converted?

Well , depending on your soil / climate they can be extremely invasive . In our climate they can be a nuisance in sandy loam soil so they must be used with caution. There are many types of vines to utilize in the plant world so I would find it difficult to stick only to the more invasive morning glory group . Best to you !!

It doesn't just have to be sandy soil...I have clay and I fight bindweed all year...it grows up plants and will eventually smother them...the roots of bindweed go down over six feet deep so eradicating them is impossible. The seeds live forever so any hope of ridding yourself of the nuisance is pretty much impossible. Has Ipomoea ever seen the kudzu vine in the SE US? This was an introduced species that someone thought was a good idea...it destroys forests, farmland, fences....incredible! Please be ecologically responsible! The earth can't take much more.

I had morning glory growing this past summer. I do like them. But I will plan better next year. And chose a different area to plant them next year. I do also agree that invasive plants can become a problem if left unchecked. I have some sort of a bindweed that destroyed half of 50 year old lilac bush that was growing here when I moved in. Luckily, I was able to trim out most of the dead wood and the lilac bush survived. The bindweed still keeps popping up under the bush and every where.

Yes I do like them and I trade the seeds I harvested this fall with other people. But I will use better judgement as to where I plant them in the future.

Sharon

I guess I am suprised with the problems experienced by people with morning glories - are we all talking about the same plant? My family has been planting them for 20+ years in Oregon. I have planted them for five years myself here in South Dakota. I don't have any come backs (must need to be warmer to support an ongoing "taproot"?), always have to buy new seeds and replant where I want them and I guess because I am familiar with them I have always planted them where they would be happy and not grab on to other plants or trees. I understand the dynamics of invasive weeds (purple loostrife is not permitted in Rapid City) and I love mother earth as much as anyone else, but my family or myself has never had any problem with the traditional packaged varieties(have never referred to them as bind weed)in Oregon or South Dakota and I am planting three new varieties this year. If you are concerned about a root problem, try growing them from potted containers up the side of your house or over a trellis just for them. Now creeping jenny - that makes me want to scream :)

You mean Lysimachia nummularia? That pretty little ground cover with nice yellow bells that likes damp soil? Desperate to get a bit of the tiny one, Lysimachia nummularia minima, but can't get seed or cuttings. I found Morning Glory (Ipomoea) a bit feeble over here in Ireland. Bindweed (English) - Calystegia sepium - on the other hand used to cover everything in sight in my last garden - bundles of ropey stems all over the rockery, big green leaves and huge white trumpets draped over every bush and tree, every bit of root left in or on the soil grew a new plant, same with Clematis vitalba, festooning all the trees - oops, you're trying to palm that off as a garden plant right now, aren't you, Dave?

I live in zone 4/5 and morning glories live through the winter just fine here. I hate them. They are very invasive. I pull the wild ones ANYwhere I see them.
I must say that I do see some in the catalogs that are very pretty.

Hi! I love the packaged morning glories. I had the most beautiful tower of them the summer before this last. They got so heavy that when we got some strong winds (happens a lot here)they toppled over. They went to seed and I had some come back this year, but not as many. This last summer, I gave them a metal support to crawl up. We have a wild plant here that if allowed to grow in your garden will choke everything out. I think that is what people here might think of when you say bindweed. It is even very pretty, but quite a problem. I love your website, especially the fairies.

I love morning glories! I planted them around a couple caragana bush that we cut down after many years of neglect. It was an eye sore but we couldn't pull them out so I decided to plant morning glories all around them. They were covered in beautiful blue flowers! Sure beat the look of the old bush. I am going to do this every year!

Ok you morning glory haters! Do you want to swap for some seed of English cottage plants (no controls on seed) before I get flamed I have been growing them for 15 years on my crack free terrace!!

Ipomoea,

It looks like the reactions are split right down the middle - some love them and some hate them. Looks like you're in good company with those who love them. :)

There is a HUGE difference between wild morning glory and the domesticated varities. The wild bindweed is a nuisance--my family has battled it for years on our farm in Northern California. It can take over entire fields and crowd out crops if left to itself. However, the domestic strains are mostly harmless--many don't reseed very well, and they aren't as invasive. So, those who hate morning glories usually are talking about the wild bindweed, which deserves its bad rap; and those who love morning glories are usually in love with the domestic strains. Scarlet O'Hara morning glories are a far cry from the small, white or barely blushing pink weeds that have wreaked so much havoc in the world.

I love morning glories, but I HATE bindweed (convolvulus arvensis, or convolvulus equitans specifically). The morning glories are a pretty ornamental, but the bindweeds, while pretty in their way, are extraordinarily destructive. When we moved to our place 20 odd years ago, my father-in-law spotted a bit of bindweed growing in my newly turned garden area...he adamantly advised me to get rid of it muy pronto. Not much ever listening to the conservative traditional side of things at that time, I thought, well, it's just a pretty little wild vine with a nice flower. I let it grow here and there. Well, my father-in-law had been a sharecropper in his growing up and he DID know what he was talking about, because now it has invaded almost every part of this place and would kill everything if I didn't fight it all summer. It is perennial and it will be back. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to grow the pretty annual morning glories for awhile...the grasshoppers have been so fierce the last 3 or 4 years that they eat every last scrap of those, but of course, have no taste for the bindweed. Hum!

I live in the mtns of NC and I am new to Dave's Garden so this is my first post. My father-in-law had 3 colors of morning glory growing in his garden. One has small red blooms, one was white and one was blue. He had a terrible time stopping them from choking his garden. Apparently bindweed can survive winter in all but the extreme northern tier of states. However, I am still going to grow a few of the newer hybrids in a couple of places

Bindweed is really wonderful when it is growing into your garden from your neighbor's side of the fence! I never really thought of it as morning glory.
A few years ago I had some morning glory mutate into some sort of stickery plant. At least I think it was morning glory - looked like it. Anyone know about anything like that?

Here in Central MO. we have both bindweed and wild morning glory. The sweet fragrance of bindweed blooms is why I let some grow every summer. The lovely pale blue blooms on the wild(?)morning glorys are why a few of them are left to grow every year. I do know that they must be controlled, and if left to their own devices will smother out everything in sight. So we practice control. Does anyone else allow some pokeweed or Jimson Weed to grow in their yard or garden? I do, much to my retired/disabled farmer husband's disgust. He does like poke greens occasionally but the plant can be VERY prolific and invasive since it is a perennial here.

Since you've brought up pokeweed, I've always wondered how correct preparation for eating it was discovered. Darn, killed another husband. Maybe if I cook it a little less next time it won't be poisonous.

Smiles,
Gabrielle

I like Morning Glory. I planted some around a sad looking tree last year and it grew up the tree and bloomed it's little heart out. It did die back this winter but there are lots of seed left. I wonder if it will reseed. They were packaged varieties. The leaves were very large. I had people stop in their cars to ask me what that vine was. They were impressed. It hid an eyesore and looked good to boot. What would be a good vine to grow up a tree? Is there a certain type of clematis maybe I could try. I would like something perennial as I really do not like this crab apple tree. I cannot afford to have it remove at this point.
Thanks much,
Ree
(Thanks Holly for telling me about this site. I had wondered where some people had gone (from GW). )

I planted a morning glory 10 years ago, a beautiful blue one. The next year it came back as a wild one, very small flowers. I am still pulling that d__n thing up. It spread to a neighbors yard and they don't pull it out, so it goes on and on and on and on....I dislike morning glories for that reason and the fact that their leaves yellow and are not attractive in my country.

[ Removed per member request. - Admin]

For those that LOVE them...we have a MG war going on incase you missed the thread.

ouuuuuuuu, i just love morning glorys! i even ordered the heirloom grandpa ott's , and can't wait to get them planted :)....oh and hollyhocks yikes they are the second best! i just got some called outhouse hollyhocks(years ago people used to plant them around and in front of their outhouse)

This message was edited Friday, Apr 5th 11:01 PM

I won't say I hate them but I don't plant them either. I don't have anyplace to have them vine on and don't want them near the house to vine under the siding. I had that happen before and what a mess it made.

Sorry folks

A 'love' 'hate' situation here. This will be my first year of planting them so will have to wait and see before giving my opinion on these but the flowers sure are pretty.

well, if you LOVE them...this is the place for you! We all here are VERY excied about it. They are alot of fun. And I agree...holly hocks are so wonderful too.

Morning glories were among the first things I planted independently, and I was around nine years old. They must have realized I was a total novice, as I certainly didn't do anything but put the seeds into the barely prepared spot under some pine trees. They climbed up into those tall pines and disappeared, draping the branches with blooms all the way to the top. Years later, when I was about 33 years old, we had a bad experience with a new house, when the builder went bankrupt but the inspectors never revealed that the plumbing and other systems weren't functional. The kids and I moved in, since we had closed already, and all four bathrooms began to have muddy water backing up as soon as all the kids were bathed. So we had to quickly move out, into the nearest available rental. It was dismal. Before I began the search for another house to buy, I planted. First in, morning glories at the carport posts. My DD told me recently she still thinks of those morning glories and they are a cheerful memory in a terribly stressful time. I can never have anything but warm feelings for that vine, bringing a little beauty into the lives of a woman and seven little kids who felt homeless.

comfort vines! lol. Thats good to have a warm fuzzy when you think of them

I'm with CoCo, this is also my first year of growing MGs.

Garlon4 administered carefully with an eyedropper will rid small areas of bindweed. Don't get the Garlon on anything you don't want DEAD though!

I love morning glories. Have grown them for a couple of years - did the Grandpa Ott's last year. THey definitely are hardy. Don't know how they ended up in the dirt, but some are growing in a pot that I had that froze solid this winter. I planted some rain lilies and sorta left them in the back window to "rest" for the winter. Checked last week, and there were morning glories already starting to grow.

Pity fuchsias aren't so hardy!

Impression that I am getting is that they make good candidates for containers and maybe places that nothing else will grow. Mine are already started in the peat pots, getting a head start.

I love Morning Glories. They are all beautiful but I love the blue ones the most. They are my favorites. They blooms last all summer and they grow where alot of other plants would never make it. I grew up with them. I remember my dad teaching me how to "POP" them after the bloom died down.
can't imagine not having them somewhere in my garden.
Meems

Three years back I had some topsoil and mulch delivered by the truckload to landscape my front yard. Much to my surprise....I had a vine growing in my red azalias with a "pretty white morning glory" blooming. I thought it was awesome....after all...the bush was done blooming, it added
a pretty flower on the greenery.

The following year....I had more. Now twisting around every
plant in that flower bed as well as all through the azalea.

Last year.....I pulled out every one I could find!! I had logged onto Dave's Garden and found out how much trouble I might be in for *smile*

This year...I bought some morning glory seed but am putting it in where I am not planting anything else. I love the Morning Glory website Ipomoea has shared which is what prompted me to do this. We will see :*)

Hi everybody!! I just couldn't resist posting on this one. I love them. I have several that are my favorites and most of them I got from a very special and generous Poppysue here from Dave's. Just thought I'd post this in the hopes that she will see it. I love the Milky-Way(Lavender Star), Scarlett O' hara, and Kniola's Blue(or Purple) can't remember exact name but it reminds me of a Dark Cobalt Blue and I started them indoors under grow lights and fixed trellises for them and just set them outside last week. Some of them already had buds!!! I am so excited about them. They are absolutely gorgeous to me. I would not plant them anywhere near my Veggie garden, but where I have them I can control them if I need to. I always have them growing up my birdfeeders anyway and Now I have them on trellises and bird houses. I love them!! I just replied to the link above and I am looking to trade some of my miniature Orangew/yellow center Mg's this year as I have tons of seed. I really hope I get a reply!

Thanks,
Traci S

Hey, does anyone know where has www.exoticplants.co.uk gone?

Evert,
Is the hyperlink above the same place? Just thought I'd ask, because I am trying to trade a few things w/him now.

Traci

Sorry I meant www.exoticplants.org.uk ...

I love morningglories. They never reseed in my garden zone 5. I have to plant new every year!