Morning Glories
I love my yellow tulips, they are so cheerful! Michael brought them home for me last week. I don’t know if I will be able to transplant them after the blooms die though. I have read mixed results of doing that as the bulbs were probably forced in a greenhouse before shipping to retailers.
Regarding the title of this post though, mornings glories. Am I asking for trouble if I plant a morning glory vine under that window? It will have a window box outside it shortly. I remember my parents having morning glories when I was growing up and they were so incredibly beautiful. However I remember them getting enormous and unruly.
So, if I plant one will it be impossible to control or will I be able to keep it on a trellis? My front door is west facing and I live in a zone 4 area by the way.
I’m not sure what else I am going to plant in that little bed yet though I like plants that I can eat (I am open to suggestions here.) I mights have a rather prolific amount of basil, parsley and chives shortly as I decided to grow them from seed. (If you are local you might be getting seedling gifts from me for awhile…)
I have a separate question too, still flower related though. What are these?:
I saw them in a raised bed in a parking lot today. They were a thick carpet of the most beautiful tiny purple flowers (the photo does not do them justice.)
I have a feeling most of my favorite flowers might be weeds…
EDIT: The purple flowers are called Creeping Phlox. Thank you for the id Aunt Ruth!
April 28th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
My mother always plants them in barrels at the base of her steps to the porch, and then, get this, ties string up to the porch railing for it to climb, staking the other end in the ground with a bent paperclip, or nailing it to her big barrels.
They’ve never gotten that unruly, but they’re also treated as annuals in your zone, which is close to what it is where my Mom lives, so you’ll be replanting them, most likely. I think that contributes greatly to how crazy wild they get, and the species can probably also contribute to it as well. All my Mom really did was encourage the little creeper tendrils they send out to climb to go where she wanted them to, or trimmed them a little. If it were a perennial that your parents had (dont know where you grew up!) that probably contributed to them getting big because they could seed themselves and just keep going.
So no, I dont think you’ll have trouble, they’ll adore a trellis and go up it and if they can’t catch hold anywhere else I dont think it’ll climb the walls or anything, and you’ll just have to tend to the dead plants in the fall.
You’ll also probably have better luck getting your own bulbs to plant tulips (don’t forget hyacinths, they’re beautiful spring bulbs too and have a wonderful fragrance, I always associate them with easter) than these, since yes, they’re encouraged to bloom earlier, but Ive never had them personally. My aunt planted bulbs and they’re perennial critters even if you leave them in the ground (though I know some gardeners dig up their bulbs in the winter, but I think Irises are more fragile in that fashion) and you’ll see them poking up pretty early. Something else my family has had that are perennial are Lilies of the Valley, though they’re more shade lovers and can spread like crazy. Anyway, good luck on your endeavor!
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April 28th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I also remember my Mom soaking the seeds or doing something similar to help them start, otherwise they can be a pain in the rear and wont really grow. I’ll ask her what she does when I talk to her next, if you’d like.
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April 28th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I have heard you have to soak them for 24 hours prior to planting. Could you ask her next time you talk to her? I would appreciate it!
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May 1st, 2008 at 4:19 am
Yep, that’s what she did! Warm, or room temperature water is a good idea, softens them up and makes them go ‘Oh, hey, water!’ and they germinate, otherwise the little buggers take forever to come up. They’ll sprout regardless if you water daily, but a soak is a good, happy start for them. She forgot year before last, apparently, and they never really grew well, though they did eventually come up, it was just a lot slower than expected. They should go in about an inch deep, so to your middle knuckle, about, and keeping them watered once a day tends to be a good idea to keep them happy. When they sprout and start ‘crawling’, coax them onto your support (strings or otherwise) and they’ll just go from there, you can sort of train them along too if they’re creeping too close to something else you think they’d climb too much over. They shouldnt take over a planting box, but they’re pretty opportunistic and it was kind of funny seeing Morning Glories in with my Mom’s pansies.
Hope that helped! Im sure you can find stuff online too by searching for tips regarding the specific flower you’re looking to plant, too.
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April 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Morning Glories should not get too unruly in the north as they die with the winter frosts. In a warmer climate they can be a problem. The lovely spring blooms are Creeping Phlox. They come in purple pink or white and one of my favourite sights in the spring. They are a perennial plant and spread nicely most of the time, but they have never grown well in our poor soil.
I would throw the tulip bulbs in the ground and see what happens. I have always done that with potted bulbs and they do come up again the next spring.
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April 28th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Those flowers resemble some pansies my mom loves to plant. Unfortunately, it’s the only guess I’ve got for ya.
As for morning glories, my mom would cover up her yearlong plants during the winter time to try to keep them from dying. I know it gets colder where you live than where I used to, but I dunno. I have very little skill with flowers. XD;
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April 29th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I keep trying to get in touch. I grew morning glories in Kitchener. They grew up our telephone line to the 2nd story. Then the line went dead and I was scolded by the repair man. They were beautiful.
Can hardly wait for the great grand baby. You cousin, Damara, is expecting our 2nd great - a girl on July 5
Love Nana
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April 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Aunt Ruth beat me to it to tell you the name of the purple flowers. Those will always be special to me because my best friend who passed away about 8 years ago had them in her yard when we were all young. The ones she had come from her own mom who had passed away a few years earlier. I took some cuttings and planted them in my parents yard where they still come up every year. I think it is my friends way of letting me know she is still around.
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