Frankly anything i plant anywhere near MG's ends up strangled and then the MG's just trail along through the plants all around and through the gardens. So i was constantly pulling them out of Gerber's Hostas and the like. The only place i will have MG's anymore is right on the chain link fences. They don't bother trailing through the grass, because their trailing vines are all well above the grass line. The only problem with them on the fences, is they look like crap in winter or i have to clean up the fencing, one or da tuther.

I'm wondering about the kind of mg's you're all referring to (the unwanted re-seeders). I plant 'heavenly blue" every year because I adore it, sadly, it never reseeds. I know the "purple ones" are the kind that can re-seed though, and perniciously (grandpa ott?). I grew 'heavenly blue' on a trellis with warsaw nike and it worked out because the morning glories tend to be baldish until the are about 5-6 feet high. So they went way up high and flowered and warsaw nike flowered just below. Not that 'heavenly blue' and 'warsaw nike' were an inspired color combination....

Carol, give it a shot, what do you have to lose? As far as I know, Morning Glories are best direct sown. You might want to soak them over night or nick the seed before you sow them. They have a tough outer coating and soaking or nicking them helps them germinate better, or so I've been told. ;) Have fun! Diann IA Z5a

Hi, welcome to GardenWeb. I am concerned about starting it and never being able to get rid of it. A valid concern! Ivy would ruin the fence, go up the trees, over the building to the left, and attempt to take over the whole area of grass as well. Will Morning glory grow in shade? Some shade, but they need at least 5 hours of direct sun to flower well. Easy & cheap enough to buy some seeds & find out. Are the morning glories started from seed as invasive as the bindweed vine that people talk about. Absolutely not, especially in your zone. Bindweed is a perennial that grows back from the roots every year and morning glories drop a lot of seeds (that are easy to pull out) but the roots will be killed by the cold. There are many more well-behaved vines, like Clematis, that grow more slowly but don't end up causing a lot of problems later. You should look for the kind that dies above ground every year because woody perennial vines and chain-link fences are not a good mix. Too much shade will severely limit your selections of vines. You might consider other tallish shade plants that aren't vines. Before planting anything, I would establish a border around it so it doesn't get mowed or stepped on too much, and so you don't have to try to figure out how to keep the grass neat at the bottom without harming whatever you plant there.