Yes, they are S-L-O-W to germinate directly in the ground. If you sow seeds in the garden, wait until the night temps are stable at 50 degrees or more and days temps are as Herblady49 stated. That is why I said mine were slow to get started - I grew them from seeds! Of course if you buy the plants, well that's a horse of a different color. They are definitely a "warm season" plant. They did not reseed for me. If they made seeds, I didn't find any. None came up the next year. For me, that was a god send. I love MGs but they grow too da*ned well here and take over. They even climbed up into my weeping willow tree. It was pretty, but the blueberry plants underneath were bombarded with the seeds in late summer and what a pain that was...and still is. Zillions of seeds coming up in that fertile, moist soil. Aaah! Here is a link to my Sunflower Morning glory photo site: Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Sunflowers and Morning Glories of Past Summers

Yes I did. Okay. I will be more specific. I grew mine together and they did splendidly together. I cannot know whether your MGs will overtake your BES vine. I only had a few MG vines mixed in with mine. They decided to grow together - I didn't plant them together. I didn't even plant the MGs! But if you have lots of MGs, they quite possibly could crowd out the BES. It is their nature to grow rampantly in order to reproduce. So, too much of anything is often too much, especially in a garden. MGs are more, shall we say, VIGOROUS, so keep that in mind. They take over everything if not thinned, and thinned a lot. I don't recall whether BES vine flowers are one day bloomers like MGs. MGs flowers open, then close up and then shrivel up and begin making seed pods within a day or two. Very short lived flowers. That is their way. As for the BES flowers, you might mark one with a piece of bright red string or something and see if it is still open the next day. Write it down and see how long it stays open. Then you will know. I just can't recall. I only grew them one time and that was about 10 years ago. Anyway, I wrote what I did above because I thought it was so funny (strange) that it worried or bothered you so much. I wouldn't have thought anything about it. That is what struck me as funny. As long as the leaves look healthy and it keeps making more flowers, I wouldn't care how long they stayed open. Look it up on the web. "Life Cycle of Black-eyed Susan vine flowers", or something like that for instance. I just don't know sweetie. If you think the MGs are strangling them out, remove some of them. Cut a few off at the ground and the next day when they are all shriveled up, you will know which ones to pull out of the mix. Just be careful not to cut your BES vines when you do it. Uh oh. :0 Hope this answers your questions. ~Annie

The morning glories are indeed annuals, and prolific self seeders. You may have a lot of small plants starting up all over the place. These you can dig up, and trade. I am not 100% certain about the black eyes susan vines, but I suspect that you will have to cut them down for the winter, and replant in the spring. I would lop the top off to about 9 inches, and see what happens. If it comes up next spring then you know you have a perennial. If it dies, then you know it was an annual. Save any seeds that have come, just in case.

The seed pod is where the bloom was. It will turn brown and generally there is 3 seeds in each pod. As it ripens it will burst open, so keep an eye on them! They are enclosed in between 2 green leaves. There are two above the blooms. In the pic, I have pulled the leaves apart to let you see what the pod looks like. Hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: