Morning glories are sensitive to cool temperatures and late frosts, and are typically grown as tender annuals in most areas. To get the most out of these plants, direct sow seeds outdoors as early as possible after the danger of frost is over. Don’t be tempted to start morning glory seeds indoors — I tried this once and had vines trailing all over my plant shelves before it was even warm enough to transplant!

Purple Morning Glories

Where to Plant Morning Glories

Morning glories are full sun plants that need a minimum of 6 to 8 hours to bloom bountifully. They also crave rich, well-draining soil and require trellising or other support to keep their vines tidy. Growing spots that are sheltered from strong, drying winds are helpful too, as these spaces make it easier for pollinators to feed and help to protect delicate monring glory vines from wind damage.

Depending on your growing style, you can either train twining morning glory vines over a pergola, fence, trellis, or arch, or use them as a dense ground cover. Once established, morning glory vines can easily grow up to 10 feet long in one season—and they self-seed easily too — so you’ll want to plant wisely!

How to Plant Morning Glories

To boost germination rates, scarify or gently file morning glory seeds just enough to break the outer coat. Then, soak the seeds for 24 hours before planting.
When you’re ready to plant, directly sow the seeds outdoors in your garden and lightly cover the seeds with 1/4-inch of earth. Space multiple seeds 6-inches apart and water thoroughly.
Seedlings should appear in about a week, although stubborn seeds may take 2 or 3 weeks to sprout.
If you want to grow morning glories in containers, choose a 3 to 5-gallon pot or grow bag that drains well and pot the seeds up using a rich potting mix or soil blend intended for raised bed gardening.

Growing

Watering

Morning glories are low maintenance and established plants only need supplemental water during particularly dry periods. New plantings and container-grown plants may need a bit more watering. Adding mulch over the soil line is an easy way to retain soil moisture levels and reduce watering, while keeping weeds at bay!

Fertilizing

Adding compost to planting sites before sowing morning glory seeds can help new plantings establish faster. After that, apply a balanced liquid fertilizer as needed, but take care not to overfertilize. Overly rich soil can cause vines to grow more foliage than flowers.

Pruning or Maintenance

Morning glories need support to keep their vines manageable. Vines will happily wind their way over trellises, pergolas, arches, netting, porch railings, and more. If desired, you can also skip the supports entirely and allow morning glory plants to trail over the ground.

If you don’t want plants to self-sow, pinch off the old flowers before they turn into seedpods. This can also encourage plants to rebloom.

Seasonal Care

In most areas, morning glory vines die back with the first frost and can be cleared away and composted when they do. If you live in a warm climate where morning glories grow perennially, cut back dead, damaged, and overgrown vines when the plant’s growth slows in winter, reduce watering, and skip fertilizing entirely until spring returns.

Purple morning glory vining over a wooden fence

Pests and Problems

Morning glories are fast-growing and are rarely bothered by pests or diseases to a significant extent.

Common Problems

Poor flowering may occur if morning glories are grown in low light conditions or overfertilized with high nitrogen fertilizers that favor leafy growth over flower development.
Aggressive spread can be prevented by deadheading flowers before they go to seed and pulling up volunteers in spring before their roots establish.

Common Pests

Aphids are small, sap-sucking insects that feed on morning glory plants and cause deformed leaf and flower growth and sooty mold. Small infestations can be knocked off with a strong blast of water, while more extensive infestations can be managed with organic insecticidal soap sprays or by companion planting morning glories with flowers that attract ladybugs and other predatory insects.
Leaf miners leave meandering blisters and lines on plant leaves after feeding, although the damage they cause is mostly cosmetic. The best way to manage these pests is to destroy infected leaves, weed thoroughly, and grow morning glories in a new section of your garden next year.

Plant Diseases

Rust is a fungal issue that can produce orange lesions on the underside of plant leaves and stems and leaf spotting on the upper leaf surfaces. Destroying infected plants, watering at the soil line, and disinfecting garden tools in between each plant you work with can keep this problem from spreading.
Fusarium wilt can cause plants to wilt during daylight hours, produce plant stunting, yellowing leaves, and potentially plant death too. To manage its spread, destroy infected plants, disinfect garden tools, and grow morning glories in a new area next season.

Types

Morning glories come in different colors, sizes, and bloom times, and mixing and matching a few different varieties can make your garden even more bewitching!

‘Heavenly Blue’ are the classic morning glories with rich azure flowers and white throats. These plants climb to 12 feet.
‘Scarlett O’Hara’ has bright red flowers with a white throat. It climbs to 15 feet.
Moonflowers are a night-blooming variety of morning glory with big trumpet-shaped, white blooms that moths and other nocturnal pollinators can’t resist!

'Heavenly Blue' morning glory — ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glory. Photo by Heike Loechel/Wikimedia Commons.

Flowers

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening, so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

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Comments

Add a Comment

Anonymous Fri, 03/22/2013 - 14:11

I've heard that if you plant a morning glory in a pot it should be a clay pot. Is this tru or can you use a ceramic pot?

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 03/22/2013 - 15:28

We haven't heard this. Just know that clay or "unglazed" ceramic pots --while more natural-- are porous so the soil will dry out more quickly than plastic containers and you need to water more often. When you plant edible flowers, be sure to use a non-toxic pot.

Anonymous Wed, 03/13/2013 - 13:36

How do mgs do in a container with a lattice to grow up on. How high should the lattice be? Thanks

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 03/13/2013 - 16:42

If you are growing morning glories in a container instead of the ground, just make sure it's a big pot (2 feet diameter, 1.5 feet high) as they need a lot of root space. They'll start out slowly take off by mid-summer. You need a tall lattice so that they don't twist around and choke themselves. Buy three four by four posts, and attach lattice panels of the appropriate size and number. Hope this helps.

Anonymous Fri, 03/08/2013 - 16:46

I have started my morning glories inside already, not anticipating they would sprout and grow as quick as they did. They are growing pretty quick and i was wondering is it too early to put them outside.... or a better question, what is the lowest temperature they can withstand? It's early march here in Carolina, and the temps are only in the 60's during the day, and gets down in the upper 30's/lower 40's at night. I think i might have jumped the gun on this one

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 03/11/2013 - 10:24

Yes, it is too early to set your seedlings outside. Morning glories need soil temps of at 65 degrees.

Anonymous Wed, 04/17/2013 - 13:46

I've heard morning glories do not like to be transplanted. Almanac staff?

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 04/18/2013 - 10:53

There is both an "annual" as well as the wild plant. Wild morning glories don't transplant well. The annual morning glories can be transplanted as long as you do not disturb the root ball once they start growing. One idea is to seed them in peat plants that you can simply plant in the soil. It is important to wait until the chance of frost is long gone.

Anonymous Fri, 03/08/2013 - 13:31

I have an area on the north side of my house that has a very glaring white fence that I was hoping to have a flowering vine growing on. The base of the plant will be always shaded, but the vine will receive sunlight about 3 ft. from base. Any chance for Morning Glory?

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Tue, 03/12/2013 - 15:44

As long as the sun hits the leaves, that should be fine. Morning glories prefer about 5 hours of direct sun to flower well. They do better with morning sun rather than afternoon sun. The more sun, the better! The seeds are easy to sow so you may need to experiment and find out how it works in your climate.

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How to Plant and Grow Morning Glories