Welcome! If you are in Oklahoma, you've definitely come to the right place, as we face all kinds of challenges that it seems only fellow Okies can understand. If you're not in Oklahoma, that's OK, too, as we're a friendly lot and can't help but try to help! A stranger is only a friend we haven't met yet.

Sounds like you've got lots of things going, which is exciting! I'll chime in with my experience with morning glory. My mother-in-law gave me my first packet of morning glory seeds (not that I'm blaming her, but, well, mother-in-law) and I'll share that they are rampantly re-seeding plants. Beautiful, hardy, cast-iron bloomers that took over my whole chain link fence and gate (until I could hardly get it open) but for a first-time gardener, morning glory made me feel ten feet tall. SUCCESS! The second year, morning glory tried to drown all the other plants, so we had to get tough with pulling it out. Third year, I learned never to let it set seed, so I had to stand by the fence for good stretches cutting off seed pods and disposing/saving them to prevent having ONLY morning glory in my landscape. Still, a beautiful plant.

Now that I know how tenacious it is, I laugh when I remember knicking them with a knife, soaking seeds, starting in a soil pellet, babying them, etc. I think had I scattered a packet of seeds on concrete I would have had tons of morning glory! :)

That's my trip down memory lane for the night. Again, welcome, let us know if you need any advice and we'll do our best.

MelDawn, welcome.

It sounds like you have a lot of work and fun ahead of you. I dont plant morning glories, I still have flash backs from when I was a child and had to hoe them out of the corn rows. I think they are beautiful, but I plant a sweet potato that blooms much like a morning glory but does not reseed.

Larry

MelDawn: Welcome!!! We love questions, ask away!

Everything they are saying about morning glories is true, but I still let a few live every year! I do love them, and so does my neighbor. I have some of the wild morning glories in one of my flower beds that is the absolute BANE of that bed. I noticed them up again the other day. I need to get out there and take care of them now.

Balsams flowers are pretty neat! I think you will enjoy those.

Hi Mia, I am an okie, I live in Vian. I have heard a lot about morning glories taking over which I am hoping where I am planting them away from everything else and making my own trellis they won't get bad, but I could be very wrong lol. Our spirea that is taking over a small section of our yard is getting a major haircut so to speak when the leaves start to die back or I may do it now because they are so over grown they aren't blooming anyway. All the irises that we have are getting made into an iris garden with balsam along two of the sides. I think that would make a pretty distinction of flowers. There are some bushes that I have no clue what they are but were very beautiful and fragrant last year. They haven't really leafed out yet so im thinking of trimming them now so they are more shapely and pretty.

We have so much work ahead of us to do that even just thinking about it gives you a headache but then I picture what I want the final results to be and I think it will be worth it.

Thank you Larry and Lisa,

I am finding it fun but my husband is finding it exhausting lol. Although I laugh because he bought a variety packet of cactus seeds, packet says expect only 15 to grow, at last count we are at 37 and still not to the germination period of some lol.

Welcome to the forum! Vian is not too awful far from Tahlequah, where we live. It's a beautiful place, as you well know.

Enjoy the process, and... don't overwork hubby!

George

Welcome, MelDawn!

This is an awesome bunch!

bonnie

All "morning glories" are not the same, and not all MG' s are invasive. There are a lot of Ipomoea species on the market, including I. purpurea and it's descendants, e.g., Grandpa Otts, Milky Way, Star of Yelta, Crimson Rambler, and many more. Although I. purpurea varieties are annuals, they reseed abundantly. These are the MG' s that are invasive in gardens.

If you really want to grow MG' s, try a couple of the other species, I. tricolor and/or I. nil, commonly called "Japanese MG' s". These species are not invasive and IMHO are even more beautiful than the invasive I. purpurea.

A lot of people have grown at least one of the tricolor MG' s, 'Heavenly Blue'. Others include 'Pearly Gates', 'Flying Saucers', 'Wedding Bells', and more.

The nil that many may know of is 'Chocolate'. Huge brownish pink blooms that come either in solid colors or with a white picotee edge. There is also a "pinwheel" chocolate now, too. Others I have grown are Gray Morning Mist, Kikyo Blue, Purple Dragon, Kanoki Red Speckled, and Morning Glow. I get my seeds from EmmaGrace, who lives in Texas, growing and hybridizing morning glories. Check out her web store Emma's Morning Glory USA and click also on her eBay link. She has lots of other seeds, too. I'd just give it a look because the plants are so pretty.

The nils have ivy shared leaves, some of which can be variegated. Usually they bear larger flowers, with a few exceptions like the Kikyos, which are smaller vines as well. The nils don't reseed as prolifically either. I collect seeds from them for the next year to be sure I will have them available, and same with the tricolors.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Emma's eBay store

Welcome, MelDawn! I'm new back to the forum, also. A few years ago, when I had the opportunity of having a small vegetable garden, these folks were my greatest asset! Such a friendly & helpful bunch of people, I couldn't help coming back!

I have a lot of experience with morning glories! Everything being said is very true...every rent house we've lived at, we've had morning glories take over the fences. I drove past my last 2 places the other day & from the few packets I started with, they reseeded themselves & are still hanging brown & dried on the fence, probably 5 times as large a section as they started out on. I'm sure in a couple months, they'll be thick & green & climbing everything in sight.

In my experience, don't plant any other plants you really care about near morning glories. Except moonflowers, they get along together & climb all over each other. Other than another climbing vine, I've had morning glories strangle all sorts of other things near to death! (elephant ears, rose bushes, smaller trees) But they're so beautiful, I'm always compelled to forgive them. One of the coolest things I've ever seen, is watching a morning glory climbing shoot reaching out through the air in different directions until it finds something to wrap around & grab onto something you hold out to it (like a stick). Another interesting thing I noticed at my last place, I planted several different varieties of seeds & towards the middle of summer, they started cross-pollinating & producing new shades of colors.

We just moved to our newest rent house & I seeded the whole front section of our chainlink fence with morning glories & moonflowers. Some of them have sprouted up already, even the frosts we've had don't seem to phase them a bit! I'm hoping that by the summer, my whole fence will be covered with beautiful flowers & vines. There's nothing else planted up on the front fence, which is why I think it'll be a great place for them to take over.

Best of luck with everything, sounds like you have a beautiful spread already. :)

Thank you for the welcome everyone,

Yesterday I had the fun task of digging up tulip bulbs from a little pot of them that I was given at Easter. I now know why they didn't bloom well, according to my husbands grandma they were in that pot a long time because there were 32 bulbs that had spawned in one little pot. So I separated them and now they are sitting out drying.

I will try not to work my hubby to hard but I am a little person just getting over a leg surgery so right now there is a lot I can't do. On the other hand we are doing it together and it's slowly coming together. Still have probably months of work ahead of us because of the neglect in the backyard that comes all the way up to the back door.