Heavenly

All things horticultural, the very best gardens the District has to offer can be found here
User avatar
Manalto
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2108
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 11:09 pm

Heavenly

Post by Manalto »

Every summer I grow a morning glory at the kitchen door. It scrambles up the railing and then, with a little guidance, along the canopy over the door. Usually, I grow from seed 'Flying Saucers' with its whimsical blooms with random blue and white rays, but this year time only permitted the purchase of a "start" from a garden center. The most popular morning glory, by far, is 'Heavenly Blue'. Blue is a sought-after color for the garden. It's soothing, elegant and combines with anything.

Common plants are popular for a reason, and 'Heavenly Blue' is an easy one to figure out. Vigorous vine and big, silky, true-blue flowers. After a month away, I returned to see the first bloom of the season this morning:

ImageMorning glory 'Heavenly Blue' by James McInnis, on Flickr

heartwood
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 1603
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 2:44 pm
Location: western mass

Re: Heavenly

Post by heartwood »

nature (sometimes with a little help from humans) offers quite the array of beautiful art!

thanks for sharing!

Olson185
Been here a good while
Posts: 251
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:36 am

Re: Heavenly

Post by Olson185 »

At our Levitt house nature gave us this and we just went with it.

Image
~James

Fourth generation in a family of artists, engineers, architects, woodworkers, and metalworkers. Mine is a family of Viking craftsmen. What we can't create, we pillage, and there's nothing we can't create. But, sometimes, we pillage anyway.

User avatar
Manalto
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2108
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Heavenly

Post by Manalto »

Nice. That's morning glory 'Grandpa Ott' - an heirloom variety that I thought was the first variety of the Seed Savers Exchange but can't find verification. In any case Grandpa Ott self-seeds and will show up year after year.

User avatar
Lily left the valley
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2170
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:07 pm
Location: Gardner, MA, USA
Contact:

Re: Heavenly

Post by Lily left the valley »

Lovely shot, James.

Olson (also James, hoo boys), that's just neat that it worked out that way.

Both of your posts have just given me an idea for next year for our new old porch swing--running vine wire across the top between the side frames since it has no canopy. Then I'll hang a vine plant (I'll pick which over the winter) on either side and let them make a leafy canopy of their own.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

User avatar
Manalto
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2108
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Heavenly

Post by Manalto »

Lily, plant morning glory in the ground. Combine it with moonvine, Ipomoea alba, for guaranteed coverage and fragrant blooms at night.

User avatar
Lily left the valley
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2170
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:07 pm
Location: Gardner, MA, USA
Contact:

Re: Heavenly

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:Lily, plant morning glory in the ground. Combine it with moonvine, Ipomoea alba, for guaranteed coverage and fragrant blooms at night.
Thank you for the suggestions. Should we trellis off that short side of the porch (above the rail) then to help support the vines? Would it be best to do so all the way across, or would a partial be ok? In case it matters, we put the swing on the east side of the porch. The home next door shadows the porch for a short time in morning.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

User avatar
Manalto
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2108
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: Heavenly

Post by Manalto »

It depends on where you want the bulk of the plant. Morning glory goes up. If you want it to cover a trellis, you can plant a few plants for more mass, and also guide some of the long unattached runners back down low on the trellis and they will turn and grow upwards again, tripling the coverage. If you want the bulk of the plant up high to shade something underneath, just let it climb and it will stop when it has nowhere else to go. I want my plant to cling to the canopy over the door, so just tie one length of twine between the railing and the awning, and the vine scrambles up onto it.

Five or six hours of direct sun is plenty for morning glory. It's a late-season (now) bloomer.

User avatar
Lily left the valley
Inventor of Knob and Tube
Posts: 2170
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:07 pm
Location: Gardner, MA, USA
Contact:

Re: Heavenly

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:It depends on where you want the bulk of the plant. Morning glory goes up. If you want it to cover a trellis, you can plant a few plants for more mass, and also guide some of the long unattached runners back down low on the trellis and they will turn and grow upwards again, tripling the coverage. If you want the bulk of the plant up high to shade something underneath, just let it climb and it will stop when it has nowhere else to go. I want my plant to cling to the canopy over the door, so just tie one length of twine between the railing and the awning, and the vine scrambles up onto it.

Five or six hours of direct sun is plenty for morning glory. It's a late-season (now) bloomer.
Good to know. I think we'll start with one next year and see how it goes so we don't over plant. We can always add another the year after if we want something fuller, but I doubt we want the entire area screened on that side since the view is lovely. Thanks again.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

Olson185
Been here a good while
Posts: 251
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:36 am

Re: Heavenly

Post by Olson185 »

Lily left the valley wrote:
Manalto wrote:Lily, plant morning glory in the ground. Combine it with moonvine, Ipomoea alba, for guaranteed coverage and fragrant blooms at night.
Thank you for the suggestions. Should we trellis off that short side of the porch (above the rail) then to help support the vines? Would it be best to do so all the way across, or would a partial be ok? In case it matters, we put the swing on the east side of the porch. The home next door shadows the porch for a short time in morning.


Whenever one has (or plans to have) vines on a house, I recommend "stand-off" brackets between the house and the trellis (if using wire, string the wire within a frame to which brackets are attached).

By "stand-off" I mean any bracket that allows the trellis to be a few inches away from the house. Brackets advertised for trellises tend to be 6" deep but, for against a house, I feel 3"-4" is fine, esp. if one wants it to appear the vine is on the siding.

Using them does not prevent vine tendrils from attaching to the structure but makes it easier to swipe a pole between trellis and wall (at least once a year) to discourage it. The brackets also help allow air circulation. Caution: do not underestimate the weight of vines.

I was going to do a search on bracket holding capacity and found this instead:
Trellises and mounting to house.
~James

Fourth generation in a family of artists, engineers, architects, woodworkers, and metalworkers. Mine is a family of Viking craftsmen. What we can't create, we pillage, and there's nothing we can't create. But, sometimes, we pillage anyway.

Post Reply