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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Some Morning Glory Pictures

I feel I didn't properly represent my garden in my last post as I neglected to post pictures of my favorite flowers this year, the morning glories. They grew like WEEDS, especially a few of the varieties. This is just a quick pic post, more to come later.



I do have a few quick tips for morning glories. First, I've found they grow great in individual small pots, which will also allow for maximum mobility in case you want to move one from say your front railing to your back porch. Certain varieties climb much better than others, and some varieties don't bloom a lot until August or later. Be patient - by the end of July you'll probably be wondering if you're going to see any flowers before the growing season ends - you will, and it will be worth the wait - if you can get up before noon and see them in their full glory! In my area, I've found that around 8am is the perfect time to see the most open fully.

You'll notice from some of the pics in my last post, a lot of mine are climbing the house. I have regular siding, and have not put one hole in it this year. How, you ask? Simple, I say. Elaborate, you say. Don't tell me what to do, I say. But I will anyway. The trick is, take a thin strand of hemp (twine will work though hemp is much stronger) and tie one end in a tight knot. Using very sharp scissors or a knife, press this up under the siding, and pull it down softly to make sure it is secure. It will take some practice, but you'll get the hang of it. Then, take the other end and very loosely tie it around a morning glory that is starting to climb, twisting the morning glory around the hemp to "train" it on its way. It's best to tie it right near a leaf node (below the leaf) so it can rest on the knot. Morning glories want to climb, so once you set up a few strands of hemp, you'll be amazed at how they take off. I've also trained mine around my front railing, my back porch, and you can even train them around other plants such as tall sunflowers (they're going to try to do this anyway, be careful)!

One more thing to note, because of how morning glories grow and allow you to lead them, you can get really creative with color combinations. There are a lot of varieties of morning glories, the three I have most prevalent this year are a very bright blue, a hot pink, and a soft purple/lavendar. I have each in individual pots, and then a rectangular pot with one of each planted. You can train different colors around each other, or up different areas of the siding, to create some interesting combinations and color patterns. Take a look at the following two photos.

  • morning-glories-front1.jpg - All of these are coming from four main stems in one rectangular pot, and are all trained with hemp under the siding (with a few pieces of hemp tied to the window frame for stability). Next year I will be building a trellis for this area.
  • morning-glory-front2.jpg - All the morning glories inside the porch (not including what's on the railing) is coming from just two stems, each in its own pot. The pots are only about 8" across and 8" deep, but the morning glories just keep growing. The longest "strand", I would say, if not twisted at all, would be at minimum 25' long.


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