A few years ago, I planted some morning glory seeds beside a trellis in my yard. When I did I had to think my father would have wondered if I’d lost my mind after the way we’d always had to fight what he called morning glories in the crops and garden. In fact, I’ve probably yanked out no telling how many of those “morning glory” vines myself while always knowing they’d be right back the next day or week to need pulling again. And here I was planting seeds.
The morning glories I planted came up and were beautiful that first year. They reseeded and have come up every year since. This year, due to not being tended properly, they were almost smothered out by grass, but still they are blooming. One morning when I came back from my early morning walk I admired them and took some pictures. One thing I hadn’t really noticed before was how the center of the flower seemed to glow as if it had captured sunlight and was shining it back out. And then what about the star shape of the lines in the bloom? You can see that even better in the pink and white striped blooms. Those don’t seem to have the glowing centers but are still lovely.
That made me want to know more about these flowers I love seeing bloom in the early morning light. So I went out looking to see what I could find. First, there are a thousand different varieties of these types of flowers and are considered invasive plants in my area. For certain, the ones I’ve pulled out of the garden always seem very invasive.
As it turns out the ones I’ve fought as weeds are actually Field Bindweeds, one of the many varieties of the same plant family. That made me feel better about actually planting morning glory seeds. The ones I planted have a long taproot and have to be reseeded to come up. The field bindweed grows up from a meandering root that breaks off when you pull the plant and then shoots up more of its twisting vine. It usually has a white bloom that I’ve sometimes snapped a picture of out in the field where they climb up on bushes.
Morning glories put out new blooms each morning that close and die away as the day heats up, but because they bloom profusely, each day brings new blooms to admire. Another relative of the morning glory is the moon flower. We plant these beside our deck railing every year. While morning glories are awakened by the sun, the large white moon flowers bloom in the evening. With a little patience you can watch the buds open and unfold in a minute or two. They bloom through the night and fade with the sun in the morning. Aren’t flowers the most amazing creations?
Because morning glories bloom at dawn and die by night (or moon flowers at evening and fade away at daylight) they can symbolize the brief nature of life while at the same time show the resilience of nature through the fresh blossoms opening up each morning or night to continue the cycle of life. The delicate blooms of these flowers can make us consider the fleeting nature of beauty and perhaps teach us we should embrace each new day with fresh eyes and be grateful for every new sunrise or starry night.
I admit I’m a little relieved that the beauties I planted aren’t exactly the same as the vines I’ve fought as weeds all my life as a farm girl. I’ll admire those field bindweeds out in the wild far from my garden and be glad I have morning glories in my yard that somehow capture sunlight in their blooms.
Do you love seeing morning glories in the morning or moon flowers in the evening?
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Would you believe my latest post is about morning glories? https://joynealkidney.com/2026/09/20/septembers-morning-glories-are-worth-the-wait/
I love morning glories in the morning; we have deep purple ones planted on the porch and they’re so pretty. But they sure do multiply!
I love morning glories and moon flowers. They are growing in pots on my back deck. I am seeing some of the same colors of morning glories that you have pictured, I love the colors. The moon flower, just after opening up in the evening, has the sweetest scent but seems to fade away with the bloom in the morning. I also have those little white flowered vines growing in my yard that is very bothersome. I pulled up a long vine of those not too long ago.
We have purple ones that come up on their own every year beside our front porch and also at a bench we have in our yard. The porch leads to our driveway and is all stone but they still survive and eventually wrap themselves around our porch post and pretty much take over vining into my flowers on our front porch. It looks really pretty but are hard to get rid of at the end of the season because all of the vines have to be cut off and even when they are dead are pretty tough. They look really pretty, especially when they climb up my wooden bench. Not sure where they came from though, because we didn’t plant them.
Morning glories are beautiful. I love them. Now, I want to plant some in my garden. Thank you for bringing precious childhood memories of morning glories growing on the fence in the back yard. 🙂 Have a blessed week!
I love morning glories and moon flowers. I used to plant both, along with scarlet runner beans around my porch. I haven’t yet been able to plant any here where we live now, but am hoping to do so for next year.