I have had blooms on both the selfseeding purple morning glories I planted about 4 years ago and on the wild pale blue morning glories (that I weed out of the asparagus but always seem to miss a few) for a month now. Perhaps yours got planted too late? Or get too much shade. Hope they show up for you soon. Dorothy

Thanks Dorothy, I probably got them planted too late, they
are in full sun all day, and have enough water, but no
fertilizer. caroline

Whoopie, I am glad to hear than, I think they will start
blooming soon then, thank you Helen for the info.

I had them one year and so many vines , I couldnt see the
blooms, so this year a couple came up on their own, so I
didn't want to put too many on the trellis. But it is
covered and lots on top , the trellis is over 5ft. :-))
caroline

The Smart Alec in me desperately wants to answer this question, "In the morning, of course! When else would morning glories bloom?" Sorry, I couldn't help myself!

And I don't even know the "real" answer... D'oh!

Steve

Caroline,

I don't remember when my Morning Glories started blooming, but it was probably early in July.

How early or late they bloom varies depending on several factors.

First of all, some do bloom earlier than others. In my garden, Grandpa Ott's is almost always the earliest, and it seems to bloom about 6 to 8 weeks after I first notice it has sprouted (it reseeds itself annually--I don't plant it). Unlike my other morning glories, it will bloom while the vines are still quite small. Heavenly Blue is later than most, but it usually blooms by early to mid-August....it starts blooming at about the same time that my moonflowers do.

Secondly, Morning Glories bloom best in poorer soil, with little to no fertilizer, and with decreasing amounts of water as the season goes on.

In a rainy year, they will grow and grow and grow and become huge monsters with thickly intertwined foliage, and may even cause trellises to collapse under their weight. In a rainy year like that, blooming is often delayed because the plants are so busy making tons of foliage.

In a dry year, they will struggle a bit and generally don't look as lush and as healthy, but they will bloom like mad and often will seem to have more flowers than foliage.

In any year, they often reach their peak in September-October and are so spectacular then that they practically stop traffic.

To understand why they often bloom best in poorer soil and with less water, remember what the purpose of a flower (any flower) is. A plant produces flowers for one reason, and one reason alone--to produce seed so that the species perpetuates itself. In "good growing conditions" the plant doesn't feel threatened at all....it has tons of food and water and is in no hurry to set seed, although it eventually gets around to it. In "bad growing conditions", though, the plant knows it must hurry up and set seed in order to perpetuate itself before it dies. So, you get the best/earliest flowering when the plant knows it is in a struggle to survive. Once you understand that, you know how to manipulate your morning glories into blooming earlier.....withhold water and don't feed them, esp. nitrogen.

I will water my morning glories for their first 4 to 6 weeks of existence if rain is not falling, but after that they are on their own. And I tend to plant them in unimproved or only very slightly improved soil, and not in my richest, most well-improved soil where I grow veggies.

Since it has been a very dry year here, my morning glories bloomed early and have had a lot of blooms. Last year, though, they were late to bloom because we had a lot of rain here through mid-July, although very little after that.

If you grow morning glories in containers, they often will bloom very early. I had a morning glory sprout in a pot in early July (the pot had a tomato plant and basil in it) and that morning glory (a white one with a red or pink star center) has been blooming for a couple of weeks now.

And, Simon, the real answer is that they bloom when they are good and ready (LOL) and not before! (But, yes, basically in the mornings, often closing by noon in hotter weather but staying open later on cooler or cloudier days.) I guess, then, you also could figure out that moonflowers (closely related to morning glories) bloom at night!

As the days cool off in the fall, both morning glories and moonflowers stay open for longer and longer periods of time. As the first fall freeze nears, they often stay open almost the entire day.

Dawn

Dawn, I want you to know your info is the best and most informative answer, I appreciate it all very much, I will be expecting blooms before too long. We to have had dry summer, but not as dry as you.My bell peppers are still green and producing but I had to pull the tomato vines, no
amount of water could keep them green. I got a few, late and not as large as usual. My flowers have done pretty good
but are begining to look like "the last rose of summer" :))
I just reworked one of my beds, and planted hosta there,
in the shade. My morning glories had no fertilizer but got water from the sprinklers.
Hope you get rain soon. Happy gardening. Thanks, caroline

Hi Caroline,

I'm glad the info was helpful and I hope you get flowers soon. I love all morning glories, but especially Heavenly Blue.

If rain falls soon, maybe we'll all have something blooming into fall. Big IF, at least here in southern OK.

I was thinking the weather forecast for the next few days was going to give us a good shot at some rain here....as recently as yesterday, they said we could get 2" to 4" of rain here. Now, it looks like they are backing off that forecast somewhat.....and it just figures!

Not all of my tomato plants are dead yet, but about 80% of them all. (Think of this year as SURVIVOR: THE ISLE OF TOMATO.) If we could get just a couple of good rains, in combination with the lower temps (93 or 94 sure feels better than 106 or 108), I think my garden might pull through and surprise me. I won't water it thought, because as you noted earlier, there is just a certain point at which you cannot pour enough water onto the plants to keep them going.

Happy gardening to you, too, and let us know when the morning glories bloom.

For me, one of the saddest days in fall is the morning I wake up to find frozen morning glory plants and I know that the growing season is really and truly over.

Dawn

Mine haven't bloomed yet, either. I remember being impatient with them every year and that they may have finally bloomed in September last year. Mine get morning sun. I'm holding on to hope that they will start blooming when the cannas finally give out entirely. Mine are planted in the same bed with the cannas.

Hello okprairie, well my cannas are still blooming. I think
next year I will plant the grandpa otts, I never had heard of them, and now I have a lady that said she had billions and would send me some seed as soon as she can get them.
They are to bloom earlier. There are so many vines I may not see the blooms :-) My two trellis are in full sun.
Thanks for replying, Happy gardening. caroline

Y'all, there's something I forgot to say about morning glories, amd black-eyed susan vine and ornnamental purple (or white) hyacinth beans as well. When I plant them myself, it doesn't matter if I start them inside really early in paper cups and transplant them outside, or if I direct sow them--either way they usually don't bloom until early July no matter how much it does or doesn't rain or whatever. When they reseed themseves, though, they will often flower VERY early....sometimes when the plants are a few inches tall, and as early as late May if they sprouted in April. I don't know why this is true, but it is.

And, if you are wanting the earliest blooms, I think that Grandpa Ott's and Early Call always bloom earliest for me, followed by most of the others like Milky Way, Pearly Gates, Sunrise Serenade, and Blue Star, and ending with Heavenly Blue, which is late but well worth waiting for.

Pat, Some years it seems like they don't bloom until I stop expecting the blooms and more or less "write off" the plants and ignore them. They are sort of like stubborn children!

Thanks Dawn, that is interesting. The last time I had MG they covered the trellis and I kept waiting and waiting and
waiting, and finally decided they were not going to bloom
so ever time I passed by them I yanked a hand full of
vines off , well you guessed it, they were just starting
to bloom about the time I got the vines all pulled.
So I will wait on these, as I know they are going to
to be late. I didn't know there were so many kinds of
them, so will keep my eye out for some next year. Glad
you had some rain.Thanks & Happy gardening. caroline

Caroline,

There are oodles and oodles and oodles of morning glories, many of which are old heirlooms (quite a few were AAS selections decades ago) but also new hybrids and quite a few from Japan, which used to be rare but are easier to find now.

I've grown about 3 dozen different varieties over the years.

If you want white flowers, watch for "Pearly Gates". Interplant them with moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) and you'll have white flowers in the morning and in the evening.

If you want bright pink flowers, try the the new Candy Pink, which is slightly darker than pink cotton candy. There's also Tie-Dye Pink, which does indeed have a pink-and-white tie dye pattern, and Mini-Bar Rose, which is a dwarf morning glory great for pots and it has variegated foliage.

If you want blue, there's always Heavenly Blue, but also Tie Dye Blue, Mini Blue Sky, Giant Flying Saucer/Flying Saucer (white with a blue star), Milky Way (similar to flying saucer), Blue Star (light blue with dark blue star), and Ismay (light blue with dark blue star).

If you want red, there's Scarlett O'Hara, a normal morning glory, or the more exotic Sunrise Splendor/Split Personality (same flower, I think, sold under 2 different names), which has split petals, Rosita, which is red with a white star and white picotee, or Crimson Rambler (carmine red with white throat).

If you want an orange to orangey-red, there's "Sunspots" which has TINY tubular flowers and looks different from other morning glories.

If you want purple, there are many, including Grandpa Ott's (deep purple with red star and a glossy pinkish-red throat), President Tyler (dark velvety purple with a white throat and deep maroon star), Star of Yelta (deep bluish-purple with pink eye and purple throat), Kholian's/Kinolian's Purple (very deep purple, almost maroonish-black). Grandpa Ott's blooms very early, but President Tyler blooms ever earlier.

Then, there's the mixes, which tend to combine many colors (generally in shades of blue, lilac, purple, violet, red, white and bi-colors, picotees and streaked flowers). Some of the mixes available are Tall Mixed Colors, Early Call, Old Heirloom Morning Glory Mix, Tricolor Mix (a dwarf), Celestial Mix, Zeeland Mix, Sunrise Mix. The most special mix of all is Mt. Fuji mix, which combines sky blue, violet, royal purple, pink and deep crimson with white, and all these colors have a white picotee.

One of the more unusual ones is Chocolate (Ipomoea nil) which is a pale chocolate color and has huge flowers.

Another unusual one is Carnevale venezia, which has striped blue and striped pink on white.

There's also convolvulus, a dwarf bushy type, often sold under the Ensign line (Ensign White, Ensign Blue, Ensign White, or Ensign Mix) and these are the colors named but with a white/yellow throat. There's a similar Convolvulus Enchantment Mix.

There are others, but the one's listed above are the ones most commonly found in seed catalogs. Most retail stores or nurseries, though, only carry seed for about a half-dozen or so, usually the more common ones like Heavenly Blue/Clarke's Heavenly Blue, Pearly Gates, Scarlett O'Hara, Early Call Mix, Blue Star, Tye-Die Blue or Tie Dye Pink or Candy Pink.

Doesn't the above list make you want to grow morning glories everywhere?

Dawn

Yes Dawn, that makes my head swim, makes me think of allll
the cereal on the grocery store shelves. :-) I will print
the lists off and some day I may plant some of them. I do
appreciate your info. Thanks so much. Happy gardening.
caroline

I recently moved back to Texas from Florida. While in Florida, I planted Heavenly Blues in our backyard, which had the sandiest soil I've ever seen. They bloomed before they even grew many leaves, and the flowers were huge. Here in Texas, my mother has planted the same variety in her frontyard. She has very rich soil, which is great for growing anything, but with her morning glories, they have grown a huge bush of very small leaves, and small blooms that haven't even come out yet. On another note, this morning glory 'bush' was thought to be dead and gone, frozen over and grown over by the grass, but when it warmed up, we saw the leaves poking up out of the ground, and now it is growing like crazy. I planted mine again, from Florida, and so far I have a giant creature of a plant growing all over the fence and reaching towards the stop sign, but no flowers yet. I was wondering if there is anything I can add to the soil just around that spot to make it better for blooming, like a home remedy or something.