More Morning Glory questions and general viney things questions ;-) I'm in Zone 8a - North Texas, Clay soil. This is my first year trying vines and like all things garden I went full blast. I planted Grandpa Ott MG's first in starter trays - I know the authoritative sources (one web article mercilessly copied and pasted 100 times) all say they don't transplant well but I guess they can't read very well as they are growing like mad. I have several other varieties that I just stuck in the dirt and they are coming up just fine so looking forward to lots of vines soon. I've planted: Morning Glories Moonflower (2 seeds, I soaked them as advised and they appeared to have 'blown up' so I don't know if they will still germinate but only planted a couple days ago. Cardinal Climbers Cypress Vine Cup and Saucer (neat neat neat growth habit) Hyacinth Bean Vine So I am starting to get my first flowers on the grandpa Ott's. One five days ago, 3 the next, 20-30 blooms this morning. BEAUTIFUL. The other stuff is just starting to climb but the MG's 'eat' another 6"of string daily. I have some of each in pots, along a fence, along brick wall and climbing up from hanging baskets on my patio. Questions: 1. I've read that MG's will grow in any soil and that they don't need much fertilizer (too much Nitrogen means lots of vine and leaves and few flowers). They seem to be growing REALLLLY nicely though and flowering just fine after I mulched with a few inches of a pretty rich compost (2/3 finished, aged, homemade compost and 1/3 "moo-Nure" from home Depot which is a little hot out of the bag if used straight. Any of you longtime MG growers care to comment on whether MG's really LIKE crappy soil or if they TOLERATE crappy soil and like everything else do much better in good soil? 2. I found this thread while looking for info on how to get them to spread - it seems like some are throwing off secondary growth tips so I am wondering what is typical??? If I can get them to spread sideways I won't plant as many/close. Using string for support but after reading the above stuff I realized I have poly bird netting in the garage that would be easy to pop up with a few staples. Narrowing the question - right now the vines are mostly one growing tip racing for the sky - will they start throwing off more growing tips I can angle off to the side then up to fill in the gaps? Looking to cover the fence. When they get to the top will they grow back down (trailing)??? 3. On those moonflower seeds, I soaked them overnight and they were swollen and split - still viable or did I blow them up? 4. Anyone else have tips chewed off and do new growing tips emerge pretty fast? Turns out we have roof rats that run along the fence rails and it must be them but boy was I pissed. That 'path' is now spiked with nice sharp nails but rats are resourceful - anyone try hot pepper spray or anything that doesn't bother vines but makes rats unhappy? 5. I have several vines growing out of hanging baskets and they ran straight to the top of our pagoda over the patio... will they spread along the roof or does growth stop when they can't climb? Some of each vine here - MG, Hyacinth, cypress, cardinal climber and cup/saucer. Tips, advice, lessons learned appreciated. Right now I am feeding and watering frequently - don't mind if I get a lot of foliage and few blooms until the patio and fence get covered. Appreciate any advice of the "well if you want vines to go entirely little shop of horrors on you then just...." sort.

No, don't use a towel..get a coffee filter, easier to handle..and put your seeds in it. Drop the whole thing into a shallow dish like a custard cup and cover with water. Let them soak there until they show some white bits. I pour off the water the next day and pour fresh water over them, but I use the same filter. I've had some in a filter for a week or more, and they are still good to go. But they are no longer in water, just the damp filter. In that case it's like a damp towel. But I'd start them COVERED in water for more than a couple of days. I'm sure you'll have great success as I did, unless the seeds are old. And you will know in a couple of days, I promise you. I just noticed looking at that pot, the new leaves make it look like dragon flies hovering..and I have it with the most beautiful little day lily tuft. Even now they are gorgeous to me! Just get a well draining good potting soil. You can set them out in the ground if you want once they have rooted well, but pots are so much easier to control, imo.

Caroline, I don't remember when my Morning Glories started blooming, but it was probably early in July. How early or late they bloom varies depending on several factors. First of all, some do bloom earlier than others. In my garden, Grandpa Ott's is almost always the earliest, and it seems to bloom about 6 to 8 weeks after I first notice it has sprouted (it reseeds itself annually--I don't plant it). Unlike my other morning glories, it will bloom while the vines are still quite small. Heavenly Blue is later than most, but it usually blooms by early to mid-August....it starts blooming at about the same time that my moonflowers do. Secondly, Morning Glories bloom best in poorer soil, with little to no fertilizer, and with decreasing amounts of water as the season goes on. In a rainy year, they will grow and grow and grow and become huge monsters with thickly intertwined foliage, and may even cause trellises to collapse under their weight. In a rainy year like that, blooming is often delayed because the plants are so busy making tons of foliage. In a dry year, they will struggle a bit and generally don't look as lush and as healthy, but they will bloom like mad and often will seem to have more flowers than foliage. In any year, they often reach their peak in September-October and are so spectacular then that they practically stop traffic. To understand why they often bloom best in poorer soil and with less water, remember what the purpose of a flower (any flower) is. A plant produces flowers for one reason, and one reason alone--to produce seed so that the species perpetuates itself. In "good growing conditions" the plant doesn't feel threatened at all....it has tons of food and water and is in no hurry to set seed, although it eventually gets around to it. In "bad growing conditions", though, the plant knows it must hurry up and set seed in order to perpetuate itself before it dies. So, you get the best/earliest flowering when the plant knows it is in a struggle to survive. Once you understand that, you know how to manipulate your morning glories into blooming earlier.....withhold water and don't feed them, esp. nitrogen. I will water my morning glories for their first 4 to 6 weeks of existence if rain is not falling, but after that they are on their own. And I tend to plant them in unimproved or only very slightly improved soil, and not in my richest, most well-improved soil where I grow veggies. Since it has been a very dry year here, my morning glories bloomed early and have had a lot of blooms. Last year, though, they were late to bloom because we had a lot of rain here through mid-July, although very little after that. If you grow morning glories in containers, they often will bloom very early. I had a morning glory sprout in a pot in early July (the pot had a tomato plant and basil in it) and that morning glory (a white one with a red or pink star center) has been blooming for a couple of weeks now. And, Simon, the real answer is that they bloom when they are good and ready (LOL) and not before! (But, yes, basically in the mornings, often closing by noon in hotter weather but staying open later on cooler or cloudier days.) I guess, then, you also could figure out that moonflowers (closely related to morning glories) bloom at night! As the days cool off in the fall, both morning glories and moonflowers stay open for longer and longer periods of time. As the first fall freeze nears, they often stay open almost the entire day. Dawn

this is what I am putting in. 3 Blue Tie dye 2 Split personality 2 pink Moonvine 5 blue silk 1 Milky way 1 rose silk 3 verigated rose 2 red and blue pekotee dbl 1 yellow trumpets mg 1 henka Asagao blue blizzard 1 lavender moonvine 1 jaquemontia tamnifolia 3 mount fugi several varieties I will be using as bonuses. hope we get more oddities and rare mg for this rr . We havent got alot of different mg's yet. Tho there are still several folks who havent sent in yet. I think I have a good system figured out for sending them back out.lol wish me luck Kelley