# Invasion of the Morning Glory



## AngieR (Jul 12, 2011)

i live in a townhouse and have a rather small backyard that i have put an awful lot of work into.  my one neighbor decided to plant morning glory along a shared fence and before i knew it i had a majority of the plant growing through the slats and over the top of the fence and into my garden.  the tendrils grabbed onto my grasses and anything else within reach, it became a nightmare plant for me.  as much as i could i would cut back whatever part of the plant that hung in my yard, but what i didn't realize is that a very large number of seeds fell into my garden and grass and are sprouting up all over the place this year.  i pull out at least a dozen shoots from my grass garden every other day, and just cut down whatever is coming up in the lawn.  my question is if i don't allow it to flower and seed will they eventually stop growing my backyard?  it looks like my neighbor pulled up most of her plant but i can't tell for sure.  If i had wanted morning glory in my yard i would have planted the darned thing myself


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## EdiblePlanet (Aug 8, 2011)

Correct.  If you keep it from seeding and continue to pull the top growth the roots will die eventually.  Good Luck!

Scott


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## AngieR (Aug 8, 2011)

thank you Scott, from what i can see it's a very resilient plant.  i'm still pulling out seedlings from my garden, but at least now i have hope.


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## UhOhChongo (Aug 9, 2011)

THose morning glorys are pretty invasive....beautiful flower though!!


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## AngieR (Aug 9, 2011)

i agree, they are very pretty flowers but really don't fit in with my garden theme, which I've worked for years at.  The vine creeps over the fence and onto my grasses, and has actually dwarfed my garden.  my neighbor has cut back the plant quite a bit this year so it's not nearly as heavy a plant.  Still, would rather not have to deal with it.


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## EdiblePlanet (Aug 9, 2011)

About 15 years ago my wife Donna loved the vining nature of morning glories as well as the beautiful flowers and thought it would be a good idea to grow them up the 6 foot chain link fence that bordered the back of our vegetable garden so that they would shade the tender crops from the hot afternoon sun - OOOPS!  She was relatively new to gardening then and learned a huge lesson - whatever you do, don't let them go to seed.  We were able to till them under eventually but still had to work to keep them at bay until the eventually died off.  Lesson learned the hard way.


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## AngieR (Aug 9, 2011)

yes...lesson learned.  I'm afraid this experience has put me off the plant, and my neighbor too


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## DepotProTom (Oct 25, 2012)

I am in charge of taking care of a large assortment of gardens of all types in one of the largest cities in New Jersey and do believe that the morning glory is as big of a nuisance as poison ivy if not even worse! Here are a few tricks that I have learned over the years. If you have a lot of the plant growing on a fence try to cut it at the base before it goes to seed. just a quick shot with a weed wacker should kill most of the plants and a second visit a few days later will show you which other ones to clip or pull by hand. Don't waste your time trying to pull all the plant off the fence at this time. It is best pulled off mid winter when it breaks easily. Next spring pull, cut or spray as much as you can throughout the "entire" growing season and DON'T let any of the plants grow enough to make more seeds. The second year a few more seeds will sprout and even the third year a few old seeds will sprout. Keep up your job in stopping them from growing ie producing seeds and you should be o.k. by around the 5th year!   lol   Good luck; your going to need it>>>


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## lesliemorris85 (Feb 19, 2013)

[FONT=&quot]great advice you guys! I have the same problem at home too, Ill try some of the tips mentioned here. [/FONT]


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