The Morning Glory Flowers Project
I documented this project for those who are, like i was in late summer 2009, considering planting Morning Glory flowers, and are curious about what to expect. When I first planed the Morning Glory Flowers, I had never grown anything, and I had spent many hours on the internet searching for information about Morning Glory flowers.
I planted the Morning Glories not because I was that interested in growing flowers, but because I wanted to create a time-lapse movie with my Nikon D40 digital SLR camera and my newly purchased Apple MacBook Pro. I had already experimented with creating cloud time lapses, and I thought that flowers might be a more stationary and predictable object to focus on next.
I read that Morning Glory flowers opened with the sunrise in the morning and then closed after having bloomed. I got the idea to plant the Morning Glories rather late in the summer, and I was not sure if it was too late in the season for them to bloom, but I decided to give it a try.
I bought my morning glory seed from Amazon.com, and I actually purchased three kinds: 10 Picotee Blue Morning Glory seeds, 10 Sunrise Serenade seeds and 10 Rare Kniolas Black Night seeds. The Sunrise Serenade and Rare Kniolas Black Night seeds came in small clear plastic bags, and the Picotee Blue seeds came in a regular seed packet. I also received some general information and tips for seed germination.
The tips for seed germination stated that, because Morning Glory are hard seeds, it is helpful to nick the seeds and also let them soak in water for at least 24 hours. I nicked the Sunrise Serenade and Rare Kniolas Black Night seeds and let them soak in water for 24 hours. The instructions on the Picotee Blue pouch did not emphasize the nicking as much, so I only soaked them in the water for 24 hours.
After 24 hours had passed, I planted all of the seeds one half inch below the soil in various places around the yard, but I mainly planted the Picotee Blue seeds in the planter shown above. I made that decision because I didn’t nick those seeds and I thought what I considered to be the “regular” seeds should get what I thought would be the best dirt.
Over the next few days, mostly all of the seeds began to sprout, but the Picotee Blue seeds in the planter seemed to grow particularly fast. Most of the yard is covered by shade most of the day and, while the planter is also in shade most of the day, it probably gets the most light of the areas that I planted the seeds.
In under a couple of weeks, the seeds in the planter started growing up the trellises, but the seeds planted in the other areas of the yard did not grow nearly as fast. During all of the time the plants were growing, I did no watering or anything special. I just watched nature take its course.
After about a month, the Picotee Blue flower vines in the planter were really spreading, and I bought a third trellis for the planter. At four feet, the trellises I bought might not be tall enough, as I read that Morning Glory flowers grow to 8 to 10 feet or more. At the time I bought the trellises, I just wanted something for the Morning Glories to initially grow on, and I figured I would worry about anything else later.
The first blooms appeared on the Picotee Blue Morning Glories in the planter around the end of September.
As of October 6, 2009, the small Sunrise Serenade and Rare Kniolas Black Night sprouts that did not grow as well showed no sights of blooming, and the falling October leaves are beginning to cover them. I guess I will have to wait until next year to see what happens with them
The blooming Picotee Blue Morning Glories in the planter, on the other hand, have given me plenty to observe; the first thing being that the flower bloom does not look like the flower on the front of the seed packet. I’m not versed enough with flowers to know if the Morning Glories I have are actually Picotee Blues, but I am actually just happy that they seem to be thriving.
The next thing I noticed is that each flower seems to stay open after blooming for a different length of time. For example, I had intended to capture the Picotee Blue Morning Glory in the time-lapse video closing, but, after 4 hours of remaining open, I ended the time lapse for the afternoon. The next morning, the flower was still open. It did not close until later that afternoon. Many of the flowers that bloomed prior to me taking the photos opened and closed within a matter of hours. I don’t know if this is typical for Morning Glories, or if it is possibly because of the season.
The flowers are still blooming into October, but the vines don’t appear to be growing as fast now. From what I’ve read, come next spring, the Morning Glory flowers should really start to spread.
If you are considering planting morning glory flowers, I hope you have found the information and photos on this page helpful.
