Basic MG newbie questions

Hi,
Wow! I had no idea there was so much going on with MGs until I just came into this forum to see if I could find anything out about my surprise MGs. My questions are going to seem really dumb in here. :(

I had a truckload of (heavy) clay top soil delivered a couple of months ago, and a few weeks ago it started sprouting "weeds" - or so I thought. I thought it was the dreaded Kudzu, but then it started blossoming and it turns out there are several different types & colors of MGs in the pile. Some of them are just beautiful!! These have all grown with very little rain this summer, which amazes me.

I plucked (the plant) a very pretty little white one with a fuschia rim this morning, potted it in some soilless mix, and fed it. I'll keep it there until I figure out where I want it. There are others out there I want to do the same with, and grow them along with my clematis on a fence.

Question is this - I'm on the border of 7b/8a. What's going to happen to these in the winter? Will they come back on their own?

Should I feed them like my other plants? Or, since they've been doing so well on their own, do I let them keep going that way?

No need to feed them, and it's better not to. I think I am in the same zone as you, and they will die back when you get a good freeze. If they have had enough time to make seeds, they will be back in the spring. You may even have seeds present in your soil that will germinate in the spring.

My parents live in Simpsonville, SC, just about 45 miles down the road from Anderson.

This year, they had morning glories spring up from an area of the yard that had had nothing done to it beyond having some brush removed from it the previous fall. They hadn't noticed any flowers in the brush before, but they hadn't spread any new cover either, so the seeds apparently spent the winter in the ground and sprouted on their own in the spring.

Either that, or it was the Morning Glory Fairy...

The Morning Glory Fairy?

That's an interesting thought....

LOL Well, the MG Fairy certainly sprinkled the seeds on this dirt pile.

It just amazes me that they've sprouted & grown like this with the horribly hot & rainless summer we've had, and in a pile of dirt that offers them nothing. And the irony of coddling all my other plants to keep them alive, while these beautiful little things needed nothing bemuses me.

Thanks for the advice. I hope some of them make seed before the winter.

SCNewbie - Welcome to the MGForum...(!)

Why don't you post some photos of what you have so we can try to ID what species you have...

TTY,...

Ron

Hi Ron,
Thanks for the welcome. :)) I'll get photos over the next couple of days. They don't all seem to bloom at the same time and this am the only ones blooming are a purple & baby pink.

On a happy note - the white/fuschia one I potted yesterday seems to be quite happy so far! I told her when I plucked her she was going to the spa (compared to what she was in) with nice, fluffy Fafard mix & nutritious drinks. She loves it! lololol