They are beautiful!

Karyn, I may steal your idea for next year. That looks great!
I think I will grow the MG's in the ground though. I'm having trouble keeping the pots watered in the heat, too.
Alana

If next season is anything like this one I'm going to have a number of dead container plants! I have well over 400 containers and this daily watering is taking up too much time. It wouldn't be so bad if I could use some kind of sprinkler but the water just hits the foliage and little gets to the soil. I'm also having to fertilize more then normal because all this watering is just constantly flushing the soil. I wish I had more space for inground plants but we have a huge multi-level deck that takes up a good portion of the backyard and a pool. I'd fill in the pool in a NY second to have more garden space but DH and the kids won't go for it. lol

Karyn,
Buy a drip hose that is flat and put it in those pots at the top. Then you could just turn it on, and all the pots will be watered at once.
400 containers, OMG.
Drip hose. Anywhere, try it.
They're not expensive.
Your plants are beautiful!

I've tried that and it doesn't work well. The pots aren't in straight rows and as much water falls on the deck as goes into the pots because of the spaces in between them. Actually it's not the MG's that are so difficult. At least they are all close together. I keep a 10 gallon tub nearby that I fill up with water. I also have a rain barrel. Too bad we've had almost no rain this summer : ( It's all the other container plants scattered all over the deck that make it a chore. Watering everything takes at least 30 minutes and when I have to fertilize it takes a lot longer. We have a small farm a few miles from our house with plenty of room for planting along with an irrigation system but I don't get to enjoy the plants when I keep them there.

Your morning glories look great. I planted many Heavenly Blue, some purchased at a local nursery, and some I grew from seed. They bloomed sparingly a couple of weeks ago, but now they are not blooming at all. We are also having temps in the 90s for weeks now. I don't know if that is the reason for no blooms, and the vines are not looking great, either. I have mine planted in the ground to climb on our split rail fence, a light pole, a trellis and in pots. No blooms in sight.

As far as watering, every morning before I leave for work I water all my potted flowers, and some of the annuals. It is a chore, but it needs to be done. I could never handle 400. The weeds have no problem thriving in this weather though.

Jane

Karen, I hear you about the lack of rain fall this summer. Almost every single storm has missed my area and to add insult to injury, my town is on a permanent mandatory stage 2 water ban. that means I get to water every other day and if caught watering on the wrong day, it's a $50 fine for the first offense and $100 for every one after that.

And, the heat and humidity has been unbearable and the sun beating down on everything really makes for water challenges.

One thing I've found though, over the years, is to add at least 1 inch or more of bark mulch to the top of the soil in the pots. It really does help to keep the moisture in the soil. I don't find my pots drying out to fast with it there and using the regular miracle grow potting mix.

I thought of using the one with the moisture control, but the past 2 summers where extremely wet, one month of rain 2 years ago, last summer 2 months of nothing but rain and I saw how the plants rotted in the containers that neighbors had using it.
So stuck with the regular kind and so far, with the mulch it works well.

My containers range from 6 inch pots all the way to huge ones that hold 1 cubic foot of soil and they are not drying out badly on me.

I have no where near the number of pots you have though, only about 70 of them, but when I water, it's a combination of the beds and the pots and it takes me about 2 hours to get it all done.

Try the mulch on the soil and see if that helps.

Fran

I use a layer of mulch on most of my containers and it's so damn hot that the pots are still drying out. I also have pots that range from 4" to 30" diameter. Usually my larger containers don't dry out but in this heat even they are bone dry by the afternoon. I also use very well draining soil in all my containers which doesn't help in this heat. By 7 am it's already in the 80's. I love the heat but this is a bit too much. It just sucks the life from you.

We were on water restrictions when I got back from vacation and I didn't know about it. Of course I'm outside watering everything. I'm glad that I didn't get turned in! lol We were on restrictions due to a water main break. I'm kind of surprised that some type of restriction hasn't been imposted due to the lack of precipitation as we are several inches below average.

Beautiful selection. One caution though, unless you are already aware and have planted MGs before, you might want to deadhead blooms as much as possible or you will have thousands of babies next year under and around you trellis. Some varieties are worse than others.

But maybe there is no soil under the pots? It looks like you have them sitting on a deck, so I could be mistaken about a potential seeding down problem.

I've been growing MG's for several years and made the mistake of letting Granda Otts/Star of Yelta go to seed the first year. I've been pulling up trash bags full of seedlings since! BTW this trellis is on the upper level of the deck so even if seeds drop they won't grow through the spaces.

A few new MG's have begun blooming but there's a couple that I don't know the names of, 1, 5 and 6.

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Karyn - Relative to what I see as per cultivars in the photos that you mentioned :

#1) Ipomoea tricolor - Blue Star

#5) Ipomoea nil - (youjiro) Maisugata

#6) Ipomoea nil - (speckled) Fuji Shibori

hope that helps...

Thanks!

More MG's. Some are the same as varieties already posted but the blooms are a bit different.

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Love number 4! I don't think I have ever seen a pink picotee edge on a blue blossom.