Morning glories are beautiful flowering plants that produce trumpet-shaped flowers in various colors. They are easy to grow and can cover fences, trellises, or walls with lush foliage and blooms. However, sometimes morning glories may fail to bloom for various reasons. This can frustrate many gardeners who want to enjoy their beautiful flowers.
Some of the common causes of morning glories not blooming are:
- Soil: Morning glories thrive in poor/average soils. If the soil is too rich, they may produce more leaves than flowers.
- Sunlight: Morning glories need full sun to bloom well. If they are planted in shade or receive less than six hours of sunlight daily, they may not flower.
- Moisture: Morning glories like moist but well-draining soil. Too much or too little water can affect their flowering1.
- Fertilizer: Morning glories do not need much fertilizer. Too much nitrogen can encourage leaf growth at the expense of flower production.
- Pests and diseases: Spider mites, leaf miners, black rot, and rust are some of the pests and diseases that can damage morning glory plants and reduce their blooming.
To fix these problems, you can try the following:
Amending your soil with sand or gravel to improve drainage and reduce fertility. Transplanting your morning glory plants to a sunnier spot or pruning nearby trees or branches to allow more sunlight.
Water your morning glory plants regularly but not excessively. To determine the soil moisture level, use a soil moisture meter. Avoiding adding fertilizer or using a low-nitrogen fertilizer. You can also use a bloom booster fertilizer to promote flowering.
Inspecting your morning glory plants for signs of pests or diseases and treating them accordingly. You can use insecticidal soap or neem oil for spider mites, leaf miners, and fungicides for black rot and rust.
These tips can help your morning glory plants bloom better and enjoy their beautiful flowers. In our guide, you can find out more on why Morning Glory not blooming. By the end, you’ll see one of the most common reasons they are not blooming is most plants lack enough sunlight to produce flowers. (Read Yellow Leaves On Oleander – What To Do)
When Do Morning Glory Plants Bloom
When you ask when do morning glories bloom, it can be for an extended period. However, when morning glory not blooming, providing the proper conditions for them is vital. For example, the soil should be moist but well-draining.
Morning glories prefer slightly acidic soil with a pH range of 6.0-6.5, encouraging more vigorous growth and blooms. If necessary, you can amend the soil by adding compost or manure to make it more nutrient-rich before planting or supplementing it with an organic fertilizer throughout the growing season.
Finally, morning glories need regular watering, especially during dry periods but do not allow them to sit in standing water as this will cause root rot and eventually death of the plant.
Why Aren’t My Morning Glories Blooming
The morning glory plant will not flower in extremely rich soil or in soil that has been overwatered. The Morning Glory plant won’t flower if it doesn’t get enough sunlight, and phosphorus deficiency can induce blossom failure.
Even though it sounds like established morning glory plants have little chance of flowering, it’s not as bad as it seems.
Here are several problems you could encounter when planting morning glory.
Soil Conditions
Morning Glories grow and thrive in poor soil to ordinary soil. The plant will, however, produce more leaves than flowers if the soil is richer than required. This typically happens when there is too much nitrogen. Avoid using manure, and don’t fertilize this plant.
If you must fertilize, think about using a product with less nitrogen. The fertilizer “Bloom Booster” works nicely on morning glory plants.
To survive and reproduce by dispersing morning glory seeds directly, they cultivate blossoms in unfavorable soil. Because Morning Glory vines hardly ever require it, fertilize them lightly.
Sunlight Issues
Full sunlight is the most important external aspect when growing morning glories to ensure they produce flowers. Your morning glory plant does best when exposed to direct sunlight in a sunny spot. Check the location of your plant to ensure it is in a sunny area where it can receive full sun for most of the day. If your morning glory vine is young and receives insufficient sunlight, transplant it.
Ensure your morning glory flower receives at least 6 or 7 hours of direct sunlight daily because morning glory plants cannot thrive in partial or complete shade. Use pruning shears or a pruning saw to cut back the tree’s branches if it is overhanging your Morning Glory flower. (Read Why Is My Japanese Maple Dying)
Moisture Problems
If morning glory vines are overwatered, your morning glory may not bloom. As a result, water your plant as much as required. Don’t let the soil become dry or wet when growing morning glories. Give your Morning Glory one deep watering once weekly, and ensure they sit in well-draining soil.
Reduce surface watering since excessive watering might lead morning glory vines to surface root. Water your morning glory flowers when you can touch the soil with your finger, and it seems dry. A plant’s leaves droop and turn yellow when given more water than it needs. The damaged plant cannot take up the nutrients required for flower development.
Why Won’t My Morning Glories Bloom – Top Tips
Midway through the spring, late spring, and all the way up until the first frost, morning glory vines are in full bloom. The late summer is when these plants often show off their full bloom size.
A gardener can do a few things to ensure continuous blooms from their morning glory display. (Read Creeping Fig Problems)
Start Reproductive Growth Before The Season
One of the best ways to get your morning glories blooming early in the season is to start your morning glory seeds early. You can plant morning glories indoors for up to two months before the last frost. A seedling mat stops temperature swings that stunt the growth of new plants.
Use Biodegradable Bags or Pots
By starting your morning glory seeds early, you’ll end up with stronger plants when you plant in the ground. For successfully transplanting morning glory, it is best to use biodegradable grow bags or pots that naturally disintegrate.
Plant 6 inches apart in early summer as the moist soil warms in your garden if planting from seeds.
Plant Morning Glories In a Sunny Place
The morning glory plant has a reputation for taking over backyards. Plant morning glories in the spots where they will thrive for the best results. Morning glory vines love direct sunlight and thrive in full sun; these long days help them bloom.
Don’t expect many flowers if your morning glory vines are excessively shaded or only get partial sun most of the day—plant morning glory where it gets morning and afternoon sun.
Once fall comes, you’ll naturally see fewer flowers.
Fertilizers
Make sure the morning glory plants you intend to put in your garden have the best possible environment before you plant them. Use good-quality in-ground potting soil, and don’t start adding fertilizer. Morning glory grows best in poor soil, and adding fertilizer doesn’t make them grow better.
It’s a great idea to add mulch around the stalks. Mulch draws excess nitrogen from the moderately fertile soil and helps prevent weeds and over-watering. But, as we have seen, they don’t like high nitrogen levels.
Can I Improve The Color Of My Morning Glory Plant?
Morning glory flowers are known as one of the most fantastic plant displays as the color of a morning glory flower changes if you take a picture of it when it first opens in the morning and then several times during the day.
The morning glory blossoms’ color will shift from bluer to redder. Reactions to pH level variations create this color shift. The pH of the soil lowers as the temperature rises, making the environment more acidic. If the soil is more alkaline, the blue of the morning glory blossoms will be darker. (Learn How To Harvest Chives)
How to Care for Morning Glory Flowers
Here are some additional pointers to help you take care of your morning glories.
- Morning glories are easy-care plants that can still bear flowers. If they don’t start flowering, you could be worried.
- The best thing you can do to ensure their undisturbed flowering and flower buds is to build a structure for them to climb, such as a fence or any other building, which gives your garden an old-fashioned elegance.
- As morning glory climbs towards the light with a strong structure, flowers, and additional foliage will appear sooner.
- The length of the day also affects how early morning glories bloom. The longer days will prevent your flowers from blooming as intended. You will need to wait for your flowers to bloom instead.
- Ensure the area has good drainage if you are not planting morning glories in hanging baskets.
- You might think you need plant food or bloom food to get rich soil for the abundance of morning glory bloom leaves or the blue to pink flowers you long for.
- When pests like leaf miners, spider mites, or others pose a severe infestation and attack the heart-shaped leaves or thin stems, spray with an appropriate insecticide.
- If you want more flowers from your morning glories, fertilize at the end of the growing season.
- If you don’t want the last annuals to reseed in early September, nip off the old flowers because the plant can self-seed, and you could keep doing this for over a decade without too much effort.
