The autumn weather may still be a bit warm for some deciduous trees to start changing color, but it’s ideal for prolonging the bloom of many annuals and perennials. The perennial ground morning glory, botanical name Convolvulus sabatius (mauritanicus), typically begins blooming in summer and continues until the temperature turns cool in autumn.
For now, though, morning glory continue blooming with abundant, inch-wide, pale blue flowers against a backdrop of grayish, inch-wide leaves. This soft, slightly fuzzy, evergreen foliage can get tinged darker by cold weather.
Although the plant will be blooming less in a month or so – and probably will not bloom much through winter – now is a good time to plant ground morning glory. During the winter they seem to be doing nothing but waiting for spring, but ground morning glory actually are dispersing their roots. Because weather is cool and damp, morning glory should not dry out while their roots are still confined like some plants do when planted during warm weather.
Like many other Mediterranean plants, ground morning glory does not mind rocky soil as long as it drains well. It can also live in dense soil if not watered too much. Mature ground morning glory are not much more than a foot tall, but they can spread to 3 feet or more. After a few years, they can become woody. Late-winter pruning rejuvenates them.
Ground morning glory is not a very common plant, so it is not found in every nursery or garden center that stocks the basics. Once it becomes established in the garden, though, it is easy to propagate by “layering, which means rooting stems in the surrounding soil while still attached to the parent plant. Or, simply separate out any stems that are rooted where they lay on the ground.
Tony Tomeo is a consulting horticulturist and arborist for New Image Landscape of Fremont. His weekly radio broadcast, “New Image Garden Report,” can be heard at 8:10am on Friday mornings on KSCO, 1080 AM of Santa Cruz. Tony can be reached at (888) 226-9191 or tt****@***************pe.com.
