HI Everyone!
I know alot of people here especially in Southern California love Morning Glories but are concerned about how they can quickly become invasive. I planted two I. indicas in late January. One is in a raised flower bed and the other is in the ground along a pickett fence. They were the same size at planting time and here I will show you how much they've grown...
And here is a photo of the MG I planted at the same time. Look at how much smaller it is. It is completely manageable. I dug a hole the exact size of the container it came in, removed the plant from it's container and plopped it right into the hard clay soil. It obviously has to work hard, and it can't go anywhere I don't want it to. The MG on the chimmney on the other hand requires vigilance, but is still manageable as long as I get up on an extension ladder and run those vines back down the chimmney. I am also going to make sure it doesn't get much more dense than what it is so that rats don't decide to make a home in there.
I plant this once and tore it out after just a few weeks. It went crazy and I was not willing to risk the rest of the yard to it. They are gorgeous and the one I plant was from a cutting I stole from over someone's back fence. Best of luck with yours.
Pot Em,
I know, I know I am playing a dangerous game, but I can't help myself! They're just too pretty and I can't resist!
I swear though, the glories on the fence are going at a snail's pace!
That's what I like about Dave's Garden, learning how to live life on the edge!
Yeah, I mean, it's not like I'm inviting Godzilla over for a BBQ- it's just a sweet little Morning Glory!
Sure! That's why I see them 30 feet up a tree. Don't let that pretty face fool ya!
Please Pot! Take me home! Look at me, I'm so cute and friendly and I won't be any trouble, I promise! I'll keep my runners to myself and I won't even drop my blooms! Please can I can I?
Sorry, but my Kudzu won't allow competition. http://www.alabamatv.org/kudzu/
Oh ho ho, getting froggy there eh Pot? Your Kudzus might grow a foot a day but can they do THIS????? HA!
http://www.invasives.org.au/images/photo5.jpg
In the high desert near Palmdale they do not get invasive, it is too hot and too cold so they are great here if you can get them to grow in the right place.
I took mine off too, It didn`t have anywhere else to go. 'lol
planted them at my old house and will never ever do that again... what a mistake... can't kill it with round up... can't dig them all out... once they find a foothold in the garden, they will stay there forever, choking, strangling and pulling down everything... they nearly covered my entire ash tree, and killed the Jacaranda... I was weeding/erradicating for 5 years and got nowhere... but thankfully I don't own that house anymore. I put some in pots this year, and STILL they rooted in the soil right through the bottom of the pot and through a brick patio... but did manage to get all that root out. Yikes! Threw them out last week (bought about 4 oz worth of plant last year and easily tossed out about 100 lbs this year... and all that in a pot and on a trellis!!). Never seen Kudzu out here in So Cal, but hard to imagine it could be worse than this plant. The two pots in this photo turned out to be two, heavy, solid cube-shaped rootballs.. almost no soil left... like an alien invasion!
This message was edited Aug 17, 2006 12:14 AM
You guys wouldn`t complain if you lived here. I told you Bob, I think your on to something w/the cactus/succ. thing. How often do you water the priclky things? Succs. too?
This message was edited Aug 17, 2006 9:10 PM
Oh Lisa Lisa Lisa......listen to palmbob.......get rid of it before it's too late....if you don't, it'll be everywhere next year.........
What is wrong with having walls of Morning Glories?
I grow the pink and white and lite blue morning glories... from seeds every year...
about 10 feet high then rip them out in the rainy season...
I would prefer to have huge regions of the dark blue ones like you...
If it takes over a fence and a wall... like a carpet isnt that glorious?
It is glorious...it's the continuing thread on my property...perennial blue. I've loved the look of it so much that I let it go here and there, runing over this, climbing over that...between that and the geranium incanum I've let them take over too much and today I'm paying the price. It's pretty, but if I let it continue, that's *all* that I will have. So today I've started reclaiming my beds to have room for other things...I forsee a whole lot of work. I still love it, but I won't let it run wild again!
Sherry
I killed mine when it began to approach my roses. MG is gone.
It is sneaky too, I have a big pot of it on a frame and it snuck out the back with such long runners when I wasn't looking. Not one runner from the front where I would have seen it. I died when I saw they had rooted all along the fence. I was ruthless getting rid of it ASAP. I have seen it take over houses in a season. Never trust it.
There is a house in Niles, Ca where it covered an entire house about 10 years ago. I couldn't believe it when I saw it.
This pic is from San Leandro where it covered everything in its path for about 2 miles. It is an incredible sight but so scary.
It runs rampant where I live. It naturally grows here in the canyon. If I dont watch carefully, it send tendrils out just looking for plants to suffocate. I am always having to trim. If it would just stay on the chain link fence and fill in the fence, I would be happy, but instead it is just taking over the upper portion and then sends its tendrils out - like it doesnt like the fence and wants to go somewhere else.
I have this, creeping myrtle and ivy that just want to take over my yard. If anyone kind find something that really works to permanently irradicate - please share
Sherri
They are fine if you want your lot to look like a Mayan Ruin.
IN pots, the morning glories were incredibly thirsty plants- had to water them 2x a day in summer or they would wilt.. not even my ferns need water that often. This summer it was unusually hot, and hardly any flowers. Succulents get watered weekly, or sometimes 2-3x a week if it's super hot (over 110F), though probably they would be fine with a lot less water... thing about succulents (most) is they do great with almost no water... but better even with some water. Most handle all the water I can give them, but I do discover there are exceptions (usually the hard way). Back when I had the morning glory-taken-over-yard, the vines would also suck the water out of the soil, making life a lot tougher on the palms and tropicals it was growing near.
I grow the annual variety of morning glory, and they're great. The flowers are a deep purple color. They come back every year from seed and they don't take over like the perennial kind. I have some blooming right now if anyone wants seeds.
Morning Glories give me the Willies! So Beautiful yet soooo invasive (must try advice found above). I'll never forget my Mom's place in Campbell when she got a bit older and let them go. They went everywhere! Up telephone poles and across the wires..everywhere!).
Yet...I want some!
Brian
Hello Everyone!
The problem I experienced with Morning Glories was not containing the original size, per se. When they go to seed, they broadcast seed all over the yard and there is no convenient or reasonable means to abate this once they have shared their beautiful blooms with the garden.
Here is what I wrote in Plant Files for Ipomoea nil 'Scarlett O'Hara'
“Renee’s Garden seeds “treasured heirloom is a vigorous midsummer climber and has scarlet trumpet blossoms with dainty white throats that lure hungry hummingbirds.”
………Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain......
(music fade in………)
Don’t plant Ipomoea nil 'Scarlett O'Hara' in your garden unless you really like them. They vigorously self-sow.
I'm just thankful that they are not alligators! And so are the hummingbirds.”
~ Petite Potager, a 4th generation So. Californian
I suggest getting rid of this plant as soon as possible. I innocently bought a one gallon can some years ago in Santa Barbara. My yard is somewhat like a tropical jungle so it was easy for this vine to creep around unnoticed. When creeping on the ground, it roots at every node. When you clean the vine out of an area, hundreds sprout up from the soil in a few weeks. It also seeds, so plants come up in areas that you thought were safe.
My little plant has now spread, over the years, to more than eight neigboring properties.This has happened since the area is very rustic and many backyards are not cultivated. This vine marches on even without any watering. I have managed to keep most of it under control in my yard, but I have to watch the property line constantly since it reinvades.
Of course, I feel very guilty for having introduced this vine into the neighborhood, but I was unaware of it's potential at the time. I can't believe that they sell it in all the nurseries.
I suggest that if you really want to have morning glories that you get the annual type that do not have these invasive qualities.
Ken
We had it take over our entire hill and it was strangling out everything. Paid some people $800. to rip as much of it out as possible, but hundreds or thousands have sprouted up again. It's going to be an on going battle that I'm just too busy to fight. Wish I hadn't brought it home. It was slow growing in our rock and clay soil for the first 2-3 years ..... and then went crazy after that. I had the annual type before, and although they reseed they're easy to keep under control. Not these guys!
mp,
If you're lucky, maybe it froze over the last 2 nights, mine has.
