morning-glory
A climbing plant of the genus Ipomœa, having handsome, funnel-shaped flowers, usually purple or white, sometimes pink or pale blue. (Webster, 1882)
All around that door green vines were growing out of the grassy bank, and they were full of flowers. Red and blue and purple and rosy-pink and white and striped flowers all had their throats wide open as if they were singing glory to the morning. They were morning-glory flowers. – On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 2, "The House in the Ground"
There are two kinds of morning-glories, bush and climbing. The morning glory of On the Banks of Plum Creek was Ipomœa purpurea - a climbing plant that grows rapidly and
is covered in a profusion of trumpet-shaped flowers during the summer months. As the name implies, flowers open each morning; these close and wilt during the heat of the day but are in full bloom again the following morning, to be seen in all their glory. Flowers can be blue, purple, red, white, pink, and multi-colored or striped.
While morning glories can self-seed and become invasive and a nuisance, they remain a popular garden plant because they are easily started from seed. To speed germination, the seeds should be soaked in warm water for 24 hours prior to planting. The softened seedcoat can also be nicked or scratched with a file. Earlier bloom can be obtained by starting the seeds indoors. Germination takes about a week at room temperature. The seeds of the morning glory are encased in a pod (seed pods are dark purple-green in the photograph above), with three seeds found in each pod.
Morning glories are excellent for covering fences or unsightly walls; a trellis, poles, or strings for climbing vines should be provided as soon as the seedlings emerge. They can also be planted in window boxes to trail downward. The plants grow quickly to 10 feet or more and are covered with heart-shaped leaves. Morning glories will grow in any soil in a sunny location, but too much fertilizer causes more leaves and fewer flowers.
An interesting effect can be obtained by mixing morning glories with moonflowers, Ipomœa alba. Moonflowers have large, white, fragrant blossoms which open in the evening and remain open until morning.
morning-glory (BPC 2-3, 5)
