Purple morning glory seeds (Ipomoea purpurea)

Ipomoea purpurea

Purple morning glory, purple bindweed, common morning glory: it was on this species that Gregor Mendel, before his famous peas, observed the transmission of flower colors. Its purple corollas with lighter throats, widely opening into funnels, are among the most generous of annual climbers—and renew themselves every morning for months.

Characteristics:

• Deep purple: large funnel-shaped corollas with paler throats, from July until the first frosts.
• Exuberant climber: reaching up to 3 meters in a season, it quickly covers a support.
• Easy to grow: few plants create such an impact with so little effort.

Precautions:

• Morning glory seeds are toxic if ingested: they contain alkaloids and must never be eaten. Keep them out of reach of children and pets.
• A frost-tender plant, grown as an annual in our climates. It self-seeds easily: pull out unwanted young plants in spring if you do not want it to spread.

Sowing advice:

• Position: full sun, in a warm spot sheltered from strong winds.
• Soil: rich, moist, loosened, and well drained. This is a nutrient-hungry plant: adding compost or using enriched potting soil genuinely benefits it when grown in a pot. Avoid overly dry soils, which significantly shorten its flowering period.
• Method: no stratification required. Its hard-coated seeds benefit greatly from soaking for 12 to 24 hours in lukewarm water, or from light scarification. Sow in spring after the last frosts, 1 cm deep, directly in place or in pots. See how to sow your seeds.

Planting advice:

• Install the support before planting: trellis, arbor, fence, window frame, or stake. It twines by itself, but needs something to grasp from the first few weeks.

Care advice:

• Water regularly, especially when grown in pots, where it is particularly thirsty.
• Do not overfertilize with nitrogen: you will get a curtain of leaves without flowers.

Beneficial combinations:

• Grown on the same support as the blue morning glory, it creates a spectacular blend of shades from purple to blue. It also pairs well with black-eyed Susan vine for a warm-cool contrast.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its flowers, open from dawn, are a valuable morning resource for bumblebees, often among the first pollinators to become active.
• Its curtain of foliage provides shelter and a travel corridor for beneficial garden insects.

Uses:

• Trellises, arbors, fences, balconies, window frames, and trailing container displays. Perfect for quickly screening an overlooked view or covering an unattractive wall.

Symbolism:
Like all morning glories, it symbolizes ephemeral beauty and attachment: its twining stems, which wrap around their support, have made it an emblem of affectionate bonds.

Harvesting your own seeds:
Let a few flowers develop their round seed capsules, then harvest them when brown and dry, before they open. Caution: morning glories of the same species cross-pollinate easily. Isolate your seed plants if you also grow blue morning glory and want to preserve pure colors. See how to store your seeds.

Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Volcanoes of Auvergne, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatments. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.

Cover a wall or fence in a single season with these purple morning glory seeds.