I have good luck with morning glory seeds when i soak them in warm water, drain the water off and put them on a damp paper towel inside a zip lock bag, when they start sprouting I put them in a mix of peat moss and sand and keep them lightly watered, they get a little sun but not all day, (TEXAS HEAT!!) when they get some leaves (4-5) I plant them in the ground so far that system has worked better for me than anything else I have tryed

The photo you posted is what I would term a 'picture perfect marketing photo ' example , and frankly most doubles will not consistently produce a flower that looks like that...it amounts to false advertising and misrepresentation in my honest opinion. The Ipomoea nil shown is an example of where the pistil and the stamen turn into 'regular flower petals' and when this occurs the stigma and anthers are unable to function as reproductive organs , hence no seeds can be produced... So , there is always going to be a certain graded percentage of the repro parts turning partially or fully into non-functioning repro parts...the various gradations will be more or less developed , geometrically aligned / visually appealing and if there weren't the various degrees of intermediate blooms produced , then there could be no seeds produced... I have never encountered a strain that will consistently produce a flower that looks like the one you posted...just isn't in the realm of reality...and , so I could not recommend any suppliers who purportedly 'have' what doesn't really exist... Hope that helps to understand the nature of the double Ipomoea nil. regards, Ron P.S. What does the LF in your description represent (?)...Looking for (?) This post was edited by ron_convolvulaceae on Sat, Apr 20, 13 at 7:42

You could give it a severe hair cut and allow it to become a bit shrubbier. Grown inside like that, even with a 'gro-light', it will always be a bit leggy. Good for you for encouraging it to do so well.

Thanks true-blue! I've been refraining from watering them lately. Unfortunately much of my patio gets watered each night by the sprinkler system. I think they're over-potted for the soil mix they're in, besides the limited sun. I think if i wanted to plant them directly into pots that large, it might have been wiser to start with a soil-less mix (at least that's what I've been picking up in the container gardening forums). But who knows? I can't undo what I've done so far, so for now I'm doing exactly as you suggested: I'm only watering them when they've completely dried out, and I'm giving them as much time as they want to get going. The only thing I might try beyond this is getting some sort of wick (even just a thin length of rolled-up paper towel) in through the drainage holes to help pull out more moisture. In the mean time I'm also hedging my bets. I've started germinating a couple new seeds at a time, and getting them going under artificial light indoors. If they get a really healthy start indoors, I hope to be able to acclimate them to the outdoor conditions later down the line. Originally my goal was a moderately lush border for my patio, but even if my morning glories become healthy, I don't have huge confidence they'll grow to be that lush. I've been thinking about what I might do further down the line, and I think I might try to focus on growing them in smaller pots the way you see in Japanese flower shows, and bordering my patio with another plant. In any case, thank you kindly for your encouragement, I definitely appreciate it! For me it seems like waiting is going to be the hardest part of gardening. Cheers, Nik