Planting – Heavenly Blue Morning Glory

On By TimelessladyIn Planting

IMG_4686

The 2015 seed displays are in place in many garden centers and box stores. The first packet I purchased was Heavenly Blue Morning Glory. I love morning glories; I have grown them every year for as long as I have gardened.

golden tortoise beetle
Photograph courtesy of Flicker and Charles Lam

I plant dozens of morning glory seeds around my front porch. Each year they start off great, develop oodles of buds, and DO burst into bloom, but…they also draw Golden Tortoise Beetles that decimate the leaves, turning all the foliage into shreds. I use only natural pesticides, and since this pest dines on the underside of the hundreds of leaves, it is impossible to handpick them.

Some people think the golden tortoise beetle so beautiful; they don’t mind the bug eating their plants. That might be fine if my main morning glory display was in the back yard, but the vines twine around my front porch. This year, I don’t want to cultivate the swiss cheese effect again. Instead, I’ve decided to grow my beautiful Heavenly Blue Morning Glories in the house this year, and allow them to twine themselves around my sunniest window frames.

The first step in growing morning glories is to soak the seeds in water for 24 hours. The next day, drain the water away. You will notice their hard shell has split and they are double in size.

IMG_4690

I prepared the plastic pots for planting by placing a coffee filter in the bottom to keep the dirt from spilling out.

IMG_4688

In the bottom 3/4 of the pot place regular potting soil, for the top 1/4 use seed starting soil. This technique gives the seed a good medium for starting, but also provides more nourishment when the roots extend into the soil. This enables the seeds to grow for several weeks without the need to repot several times.

IMG_4692

When the seeds are sown cover them with a plastic bag. The bag acts as a small greenhouse. Place the pots near a heating vent or on the top of your fridge. I will update the progress of mine as they grow.

15 thoughts on “Planting – Heavenly Blue Morning Glory”

  1. how nice of you to do this dyi post 🙂 – and we have some that grow on the side of the house – a snippet of one was shared with me and it was easy to grow – but I like how you explained it here – you are some gardener

    Like

    Reply

  4. Pingback: Plantings – Manic Monday Update | MINDING MY P'S WITH Q

    1. Hi Susie, I have beautiful morning glories every year. They are also a very reliable ‘volunteer’ plant, self-seeding and popping up in unexpected places the next growing season. Yes, it never fails that the shiny, metallic beetles make meals of my leaves, but it never destroys the plants, just creates a very lacy look!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

          1. Maybe Ajinomoto- Chinese salt. Glad you are better. The stray cat came out yesterday evening and I saw her- so I was relieved. Today she came to feed and I gave her food mixed with some antibiotic- hopefully, she will be ok.
            Susie

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

Thanks so much for your comments. They fill my life with sunshine.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s