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Morning's Glory

© Audrey Stallsmith

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Unusual morning glories have become the latest rage on seed trading sites. As with the similarly showy daturas which were all the fashion before them, the modern morning glories spring from a very unpopular weed. Gerard wrote of convolvulus that “it is not fit for medicine, an unprofitable weed and hurtful to each thing that groweth next to it, and only administered by runnagat physickmongers, quacksalvers, old women leeches, abusers of physick and deceivers of people.”

I understand his bitter tone. My brother, when he was quite young, once planted bindweed in one of our garden plots because he found it “pretty.” In late summer, when the impossible-to-eradicate interloper has strangled all other flowers in sight, I could happily strangle my brother!

The name “convolvulus” derives from the Latin “convolvo” which means “to twine around.” There are a large variety of these despised clingers-on in ever conceivable location. They include convolvulus sepium (hedge bindweed), convolvulus soldanella (sea bindweed) and—the one with which we are plagued—convolvulus arvensis (field bindweed). Some say that it only takes the latter vine 1 ¾ hours to make a complete twist around the stem of a garden flower. That probably explains why the pernicious plant appears to take over within a matter of days. Bindweeds have also been known as calystegias as well as shepherd’s clock, cornbind, ropebind, withywood, bearwind, Jack-run-in-the-country, and devil’s garters.

Fortunately, the convolvulus family does have its share of more beautiful and less bullying members. Most modern morning glories are either ipomoea purpurea or ipomoea tricolor varieties. Ipomoea takes its name from the Greek “ips” (“bindweed”) and “homois” (“similar to”).

Morning glories have always been very popular in the Orient. In Japan, they are known as asagao or “morning face.” And some Japanese web sites show photos of exotic varieties that make we American gardeners drool with hopeless envy. Now that the plant is becoming so popular again in this country, however, perhaps seed companies will start importing more types. In the meantime, if you find any old packages of now-rare varieties such as Wedding Bells or Cornell, don’t throw them out! Morning glory seeds remain viable for a very long time, and it’s possible that you still might be able to sprout a few of the antiques. (They germinate best if soaked overnight before planting.)

The plant received its name, of course, because it generally blooms in the AM and fades before noon.

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