My seeded morning glories are starting to pop up and get ready to climb.
I have several different vines going on different trellises. For one
trellis, I strung a rope across the sidewalk connected to an adjacent
tree of heaven. Today it suddenly occurred to me that these morning
glories might not want to grow along that rope since it would be growing
away from the sun. Here's a picture of the situation:

http://www.brandylion.com/images/mg3.jpg

I'd like the plants to grow along the right rope. There's another
container that has more that I want to grow along the left rope. The
sun, however, is behind the camera in the opposite direction. Is it
possible to train these plants to grow in the other direction? This is
my first year growing morning glories and moon flowers vines.

BTW: The seedling in the front is a Chianti sunflower.

Generally, morning glories like to grow upward. I noticed you only had two
in the pot. You may want to have more depending on the bird species in your
area. Some of them here in NJ like to pick the seedlings for nest material.
Morning glories are pretty hardy and agressive plants once they are firmly
rooted and established (usually after a month or two of slow growth). Then
they are fecund, flowering multiple times daily all summer long. You are
right, they will like the sun, but if the rope is "upward" then the mg's
should latch on with no problems.

-Matt

"Mark Anderson" wrote in message
.net...
My seeded morning glories are starting to pop up and get ready to climb.
I have several different vines going on different trellises. For one
trellis, I strung a rope across the sidewalk connected to an adjacent
tree of heaven. Today it suddenly occurred to me that these morning
glories might not want to grow along that rope since it would be growing
away from the sun. Here's a picture of the situation:

http://www.brandylion.com/images/mg3.jpg

I'd like the plants to grow along the right rope. There's another
container that has more that I want to grow along the left rope. The
sun, however, is behind the camera in the opposite direction. Is it
possible to train these plants to grow in the other direction? This is
my first year growing morning glories and moon flowers vines.

BTW: The seedling in the front is a Chianti sunflower.

In article says...
Generally, morning glories like to grow upward. I noticed you only had two
in the pot. You may want to have more depending on the bird species in your
area. Some of them here in NJ like to pick the seedlings for nest material.
Morning glories are pretty hardy and agressive plants once they are firmly
rooted and established (usually after a month or two of slow growth). Then
they are fecund, flowering multiple times daily all summer long.

Yes. I paid $4 for a flowering morning glory in a 4" pot and
transplanted it to a bigger one. One day, I took it off the ledge and
put in on the floor of the roof garden. I left for an hour and came back
and the entire plant was violently shredded. Having two dogs, I didn't
know which one to blame but it was shredded so badly that it had to have
been something else. I suspected a squirrel but perhaps it was a bird.
I have since planted a packet of seeds and have morning glory seedlings
in lots of different containers.

You are
right, they will like the sun, but if the rope is "upward" then the mg's
should latch on with no problems.

I can rig something for them to go up initially but will they keep
following the rope if it starts to go down? There are people in my
neighborhood who have these things covering their fences so it appears
they do sometimes go sideways. I really wanted to get them to go over
the sidewalk but the higher branches of this tree are too unstable in
high wind conditions. If I attach the rope to them it's likely that
everything will get knocked over in a storm.

Mark Anderson wrote:

In article says...

Generally, morning glories like to grow upward. I noticed you only had two
in the pot. You may want to have more depending on the bird species in your
area. Some of them here in NJ like to pick the seedlings for nest material.
Morning glories are pretty hardy and agressive plants once they are firmly
rooted and established (usually after a month or two of slow growth). Then
they are fecund, flowering multiple times daily all summer long.


Yes. I paid $4 for a flowering morning glory in a 4" pot and
transplanted it to a bigger one. One day, I took it off the ledge and
put in on the floor of the roof garden. I left for an hour and came back
and the entire plant was violently shredded. Having two dogs, I didn't
know which one to blame but it was shredded so badly that it had to have
been something else. I suspected a squirrel but perhaps it was a bird.
I have since planted a packet of seeds and have morning glory seedlings
in lots of different containers.


You are
right, they will like the sun, but if the rope is "upward" then the mg's
should latch on with no problems.


I can rig something for them to go up initially but will they keep
following the rope if it starts to go down? There are people in my
neighborhood who have these things covering their fences so it appears
they do sometimes go sideways. I really wanted to get them to go over
the sidewalk but the higher branches of this tree are too unstable in
high wind conditions. If I attach the rope to them it's likely that
everything will get knocked over in a storm.


They won't go down. They really don't go sideways either, they just
kind of keep going up without support and then fall sideways.

I'm trying to train mine this year. I have one in a pot indoors that
I'm trying to twine around a deep window well. I also made a twine
"fence" between two stakes outside.

If you can angle the rope up slightly, they will more or less twine
themselves. Or you can twine them sideways yourself once or twice a
day. Let them grow loose a few inches, then twine in the same direction
they've been turning. Grow some more, twine some more.

Janine