About Morning Glories
Wonderfully old-fashioned looking, morning glory’s heart-shaped leaves and trumpet-shaped flowers transport your garden to a simpler time, when decorations came in the form of vining flowers on trellises, arbors, and gazebos. Morning glory buds are twirled up tightly and unfold only when the sun warms them in the morning, giving them their descriptive name. Pink, purple, scarlet, blue, magenta, white, solid, and striped flowers share their fragrance with us and the pollinators that they attract. Morning glories can be prolific climbers, so plan out carefully where you plant this beauty!
When to Plant Morning Glory Seeds
Seeds can be directly sown once soil temperatures are 65°F or above, or started indoors four to six weeks before the final frost date for your area.
Where to Plant Morning Glory Seeds
Morning glory plants prefer full sun so be sure to pick an area that has direct sunlight for six to eight hours.
How to Plant Morning Glory Seeds
Morning glory seeds will benefit from scarification prior to planting. This is a simple process that involves nicking the seeds with a knife or rubbing them with sandpaper or a file. Learn more about the benefits of scarification here. In addition, we recommend soaking morning glory seeds for 24 hours to encourage germination. Learn more about soaking seeds here.
To sow directly outdoors, plant seeds 1/2 inch deep and provide 8- to 12-inch spacing between plants. Once vines reach six inches, provide trellis support unless you planted morning glories in a hanging planter, in which case you can leave the vines to spill over.
To begin indoors, sow your seeds in a seed starting mixture about six weeks before you plan to transplant the resulting seedlings into the garden. Morning glories are considered tender annuals, and therefore cannot tolerate freezing temperatures.
Fill your pots with soil and water well. Sow one morning glory seed about ½ inch deep in each pot. Cover each pot with clear plastic to help retain moisture and heat. Set pots in a brightly lit location that is consistently 60 to 85°F. The pots may become too hot in direct sunlight, so watch for and protect your seedlings. Morning glory seeds should germinate in one to two weeks. Remove the plastic once you see growth. Continue to provide the seedlings with six to eight hours of sunlight each day, keeping temperatures in the 60 to 85°F range. Harden off seedlings and plant outdoors at the same depth as the seedlings in the pots, spacing them 8 to 12 inches apart. Learn more about how to harden off seeds here.
How to Care for Morning Glories
Water the soil weekly at first or when it looks dry. Once established, only water as needed. Remove any spent blooms as they appear, and at the first sign of killing frost, cut back dead vines.
