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jaundriss

Morning Glories

Jaundriss
12 years ago

Well I've never planted anything before (unless you count the couple plants I did in 4th grade) but I was wondering if it was possible to plant multiple varieties of morning glories in one location. The ones I would like to plant are the Grandpa Ott, Heaveny Blue, and Flying Saucer. (open to other options for the latter two) However im not sure if the grandpas are going to overrun the others. I kno that in order for the others to bloom each year I will have to replant them but I at least want the grandpas to stay a while.(which im sure they will) Also i wonder if its possible that the vines will climb a wooden fence, and if now would be too late to try to plant them. By the way I live in New England.

Comments (3)

  • Julia WV (6b)
    12 years ago

    Looks like no one responded so I'll give you my opinion. Grandpa Otts which I just grew this year (a mistake in seeds sent to me)and Heavenly Blue are very vigorous growers. I have mine in pots (separately) vining up a piece of hardware cloth(plastic fencing). I personally don't see why they all can't be planted together in the ground as long you have enough room.
    As far as starting them now, I'm not really sure they would survive as winter is closing in soon and if MG's reseed, I'm thinking they won't have enough time to flower and reseed. Right?
    Climbing a fence means they have to have something to grab onto in order to vine. A plain wooden fence would, ( I'm thinking of flat surface wood)would not provide anything for them to grab to. You'd most likely need some type of hardware cloth or wire fencing attached to the fence with a little room between the wire fencing and wooden fence. Perhaps someone who has done the wire fencing to wooden fencing can comment. I just know that when I did mine the leaves show on both sides of the hardware cloth. If yours is up against tight to the fence, I'm not sure if they would have enough space to grab hold.Just a thought.

    Good luck. I am a newbie to growing these but enjoyed it so much this season that I'm doing it again next year.

    Julia

  • littleonefb
    12 years ago

    First off, it's way, way to late to start any morning glory seeds now in New England. The seeds need to either be started indoors to plant out in the spring, sown directly in the ground well after the last frost or winter sown (see the winter sowing forum).

    You could, if you want to give it a try, just toss out some seeds in the ground in Nov. before there is any snow on the ground and hope that they will germinate in the spring, but I would just wait till spring and winter sow the seeds like I have been doing for 8 years now.

    Grandpa otts has a strong tendency to self seed everywhere and sort of take over an area as the majority morning glory vine in that area, but you can combine them with other MG vines.

    Heavenly blue and flying saucer are from the tri color group of morning glory vines and, in my experience growing them in MA, can bloom relatively late in the season towards the end of August and Sept. but have also had them bloom much earlier as well.
    The flowers from both heavenly blue and flying saucer are quite large, as much as 4-6 inches in size and the grandpa otts are much smaller.
    Heavenly blue can and will bloom in various combinations of streaks of the blue and white colors that is the trademark of flying saucer; whereas heavenly blue is just one solid blue color.

    Any vine will have a problem climbing a solid wooden fence if it is the stockade type of fence, as it will have nothing to climb on.
    Picket fences where there are spaces between each post make it much easier to climb as the vines can attach to each other and make a mat to work their way up the fence.
    I have neighbors that have done this with heavenly blue MG. The plant a group of 3 or 4 vines together in a trench, each about 2 inches apart and let them tangle together and help them vine up and over the fence.

    On solid wooden fences, as Julia stated, you will have to provide something or them to climb and hold onto.

    I've seen large sunflowers planted in front of fences and MG planted and the base of the stem and they climb up the sunflower stem.

    I've seen garden cord tied to some good size rocks and then nailed to the top of the fence and the vines easily wrap around the cord.

    I've seen green plastic stakes used for the vines to climb up.

    I've even seen the mattress support from old cribs that is criss crossed put into the ground and used for vines to climb on, including MG vines.

    I've seen chicken wire placed in front of wooden fences used to have MG vines climb on as well.

    Fran

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    12 years ago

    Is

    the look you're looking for (the vines, not the fence?)
    . If not for these vines, my view from my kitchen window right to this area would be of nothing but the burned-out shell of what used to be the house next door. I don't know what's taking so long to knock that down.

    The blue ones came from seeds I put in the bed. The pink and purple ones planted themselves there. They come up all over every year, I assume they're grandpas...? For the first couple months, I spent a few minutes at least every-other day directing the vines back down the fence. I don't know about saucers, but the heavenly blues have bigger leaves and seem to grow faster than the grandpas, although the HB's are less flexible and easier to break when trying to direct them. Not a problem, of course, but I just don't like getting the sap on me.

    I don't understand when people say they don't like these anywhere because of the seedlings. At any point in its' lifetime that it is pulled, a (annual) MG dies. You can pretty much count on it. (I don't know if it's so easy when/where they are perennial, probably not but that's not the usual complaint.) I don't mind seedlings like that, so easy to pull and a nice contribution to the compost when you decide it's running away too fast in the wrong spot.

    Just because it's wood, it's hard to say if the fence would be a good MG support by itself. Is it a picket fence? Or a solid privacy fence? For the former, I'd say they don't need extra support. For the latter, they would.

    For an "invisible" support, you can use fishing line, which you can tie or use nails or screws to attach it to your fence. You could also use some type of hooks to attach your lines near the top of the fence and use hanging baskets from those to add another dimension to your fence display.

    Whatever support you consider, also consider that when MG's die, they don't just disappear. All of the dead stems and leaves need to be removed or it will just cling there for a LONG time. It's not hard to do but it is time consuming to remove that stuff from my CL fence. The fishing line can be cut and that would remove the debris. Something more permanently attached to the fence would require you to spend much more time/effort manually removing the debris.

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