Learn How to Grow and Trellis Morning Glory
Give your garden high-flying color with a morning glory trellis — this foolproof annual vine shoots for the stars.
National Gardening Association
Heavenly Blue morning glory is an heirloom type that opens sky blue flowers with white throats.
Set your garden sights higher with annual morning glory vine. All you need for a non-stop flower show is a trellis; morning glory does the rest. These beautiful bloomers unfurl trumpet-shaped flowers that open daily in early morning. Morning glories on a trellis offer the perfect backdrop for morning coffee.
How to Grow a Morning Glory Trellis
A morning glory trellis is a cinch to grow. Start with morning glory seed, which has a hard coat. Before sowing, you need to soften the coat by soaking it up to 48 hours in water or by nicking the seed coat—or using a combination of both. To nick the seed coat, use a file or nail clippers to crack an edge or tip of the seed. As seeds soak, the seed will begin to swell and the seed coat will crack, signaling that the seed is ready to go in the ground.
Where to Plant
Plant morning glory seeds in a sunny spot with average garden soil. If soil is too fertile, you’ll get all leaves and no flowers, so don’t make special efforts to amend and improve soil. Wait to plant until all danger of frost has passed and nights are consistently above 50°F. Cover seeds with half an inch of soil, and keep the planting bed moist until you see sprouts.
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Flying Saucers morning glory unfurls flowers in various combinations of blue and white that measure roughly 5 inches across. Twining vines climb to 10 feet high.
How to Trellis Morning Glory
Morning glory vines need a support to climb. The plants climb by twining and will grab the nearest object—including other plant stems—to hoist themselves heavenward. Choose a trellis for morning glory that’s at least 6 feet high, although higher is usually better. The seed packet should specify an ideal height. Make sure your support is well-anchored. In strong summer storms, a morning glory-covered trellis can act as a wind break and end up wrestled to the ground.
Julie Martens Forney
Celestial Mix morning glory features vines that showcase a trio of stunning flower colors: midnight blue, snow white, and lavender-blue. Each flower features a contrasting star in the center of the bloom. This annual vine grows 6 to 7 feet tall.
Types of Morning Glory Flowers
Morning glory plants boast striking flower colors. You can find blossoms in many shades, including red, pink, blue, purple and white. There’s also a host of morning glory vines that unfurl bicolor blooms.
On sunny days, morning glory flowers open around sunrise and close as the heat of the day arrives. On cloudy days, flowers linger open longer. Modern morning glory vines originate in Mexico or Japan. The Mexican ones come from Ipomoea tricolor, while the Japanese vines hail from Ipomoea nil. Japanese flowers tend to stay open longer on an average day. Check the seed packet of the variety you’re growing to see which type you have.
A famous heirloom, Grandpa Ott's morning glory greets the day with purple flowers having magenta-red throats. The original owner of this beauty ferried seed from Bavaria to Iowa.
Troubleshooting Morning Glory Plants
If your morning glory plants fail to bloom, the problem might be too little sun or too much fertilizer. A really wet summer can also lead to an overabundance of leaves and fewer morning glory flowers.
At the end of the growing season, cut down vines after frost. Some heirloom morning glories produce seed abundantly, which can lead to a garden takeover. Definitely take time to remove seed pods before they burst, flinging seeds everywhere. Remove pods when they're green and immature or right when they turn brown and haven't dried out.
