Some of us have planned our landscape to include areas of no greenery. Remember selling your lawn when water was scarce? Well, you may have tired of the cubic yards of bark or, worse yet, the crushed rock you replaced it with. It is comforting to know that neither of those replacements need water, fertilizer, or much help from us. However, too much of a good thing can just be too much. All that crushed rock raises the temperature of your garden beds, so please be mindful. Do you have pets, toddlers, or young children. Have you noticed that everything they touch goes in their mouths? I'm warning you! Some of the wood chips are dyed which may be dangerous to our four-footed family members.
While I love adding new things to my garden as the weather warms up. I'm not looking for trouble or even a lot of extra work. My life has been filled with multiple morning glory vines, Ipomea purpurea, unwanted and unneeded offshoots of the ONE SINGLE 6” pot I planted almost twenty-five years ago. I've tried so many ways to rid my yard of this wayward offspring of the “mother plant”, but I've failed. The plant must have been the evil Superman of the plant world! I can easily recognize the heart-shaped, dull green leaf. In June, the beautiful blue flowers appear all over the sound wall behind my house. The stone sound wall is easily twenty feet from where the original plant sat above ground in earlier times. The sound wall is ninety feet long. This flowering devil plant has threaded through all the creeping fig plant, all from one little 6 inch pot. Is there a trend here? The morning glory proceeds down about thirty feet on my wooden fence. I should probably bite my tongue since the tendrils might be the only thing holding the fence upright! I'm not going to say much more about the beastly Morning Glory other than it spreads in several ways.
The devilish blue flowering morning glory has a second name, its botanical name, Ipomoea purpurea. Well, it sounds pretty. There are over 1,000 varieties of Ipomoea. Yikes, what had I gotten myself into all those years ago? That's a big family to invite to Sunday dinner.
Give me a few minutes to educate you about this ghastly plant.
That little nothing of a plant with sweet blue 2-3” flowers will always make my heart beat a little faster. But I've sworn off morning glory vines. I can't even get rid of them in my dreams.
Much as I hate to admit this, my sloping backyard has been whispering the words “ground cover” to me almost every evening for far too many years. I tried to accept that landscape cloth and bark were my style of ground cover. In my heart I knew I lied. Even with the landscape cloth, the tendrils of the single morning glory were escaping under and over my non-living ground cover. It rooted everywhere it touched bare ground. It clung and coiled everywhere possible, it scaled the walls, wrapped itself around fence posts, reached out and made friendly gestures to an oak tree, and wove its way around my rose bushes. Those barren places deserve better than what I have given them which is landscape cloth and medium sized bark.
Be strong of heart before going into battle against a Morning Glory vine. This plant not only invaded my life via roots, but by seeds that fell from the plant and found maniacal ways to bury themselves into the ground and sprout more roots! Most of the varieties put out 10'-15' tendrils with numerous flowers bearing seed. The tendrils attach to anything to creep up hills and walls and all the tendrils bear more seeds. Oh, those foul seeds!
It is extremely difficult to find any author that mentions that a Morning Glory plant as invasive.
Pardon me right now because the tears of very hearty laughter are rolling down my cheeks. It's because almost every resource I used in writing this blog mentioned that the morning glory vine isn't invasive. I beg to differ. It is invasive AND indestructible. It becomes a permanent part of the landscape – yours and your neighbors. I'm warning you! There must be a garden writer's conspiracy out there.
Where morning glory vines touch the ground, they sprout roots and the roots drive themselves into the ground intending to become permanent. If that permanency was not part of your plan, the garden writers were not being honest. The vine is permanent, and the only alternative is to sell your home and move far, far away.
Hey there, I think the non-invasive Morning Glory just invaded and took over my intended blog about ground covers!
Sources:
1. insteading.com › blog › how-to-get-rid-of-morning-gloryHow To Get Rid Of Morning Glory • Insteading
Jan 28, 2021 · Morning glory (Ipomoea lacunosa) is a flowering vine that is native to the eastern and Southeastern United States. On the East Coast and in the South, it's a well-loved and beautiful part of well-tended gardens. But on the West Coast, it's an invasive, pesky weed. When I moved into my new house, the yard was infested with morning glories.
2. www.bobvila.com › articles › morning-glory-careMorning Glory Care 101: How to Grow Morning Glories - Bob Vila
Mar 17, 2023 · Ipomoea tricolor: The species responsible for blue morning glories such as the ever popular Heavenly Blue cultivar, tricolor typically grows to about 10 feet with blooms at least 3 inches in ...
3. www.allaboutgardening.com › morning-glory-removalHow to Remove Morning Glory From Your Garden
May 3, 2022 · Ipomoea indica is a noxious weed, that spread rapidly and causes leaf and stem lesions. This species of Morning Glory has been declared a noxious weed and invasive
Other Sources:
1. bloomscape.com › plant-care-guide › ipomoeaIpomoea Care Guide | Bloomscape
A comprehensive plant care guide for Ipomoea. Learn about watering, light, nutritional, and additional care requirements.
2. www.britannica.com › plant › IpomoeaIpomoea | Description & Major Species | Britannica
Ipomoea, genus of about 500 mostly warm-climate trees, shrubs, and twining and trailing herbaceous plants of the family Convolvulaceae. Several species are known as morning glories