Morning Glories, Love or Hate...

Here's the problem.  I love morning glories, but I hate their viney tendencies.  Is it too shallow of me to be a fairweather friend and curse them while they cloak my tabebuia tree, but sing their praises when the tree is covered in delicate blooms?  You tell me.

Anyways, allow me to show the pleasant side of my morning glories.

I have a variety of blooms in the garden ranging from dark indigo to "heavenly blue" to huge luminous moonflower blossoms.  While they messily cover everything they can get their tendrils around, they are good for recreating the "jungle" look in a short period of time outside the tropics... and isn't that what I'm all about after all?

While they do reseed, I usually have no problems pulling up the seedlings when I see them.  After the flowers wane and the seed pods are numerous, I'll be sure to collect some seeds before hacking the vines back to the ground. Morning glories aren't exotic or unusual, but they are cheap and readily available.  I've bought seed packets before just because I was itching to plant something and nothing else looked appealing.

They're also tolerant of different conditions, and in my experience, even soggy soil.  If you have a wet area and need a vine, a one dollar seed packet isn't too much of a risk.

My verdict:  Give them a shot, and give some for the kids to plant.  They're fast growing and fun, not to mention rewarding.  Now if only there were some interesting new varieties to play with...

Have any of you succumbed to these plain janes?
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