Morning Glories

When I think of my great-grandmother the first thing that comes to my mind is her beautiful morning glories. Each year she would plant the annuals in her yard and each year she would choose a different color than the previous. The magnificent plants grew quite large and I remember looking up at the seemingly endless plant that boasted flowers from top to bottom. I imagined that it reached the heavens like Jack’s beanstalk.

Morning glories are annuals and this means that they have to be planted from scratch each year. However, they grow very quickly even from the seedlings. They are the best way to get lush greens and beautiful flowers in a relatively short amount of time. The colors vary. My great-grandmother would rotate the morning glories. The colors available include pink, red purple and blue.

I think that my great-grandmother’s favorite was the blue variety, known as “Heavenly Blue” to many. She was very found of telling me stories about the morning glories representing the glory of the sky and heavens. This was reflected in the heavenly blue hue of the striking morning glories. It is amazing how close fond memories are tied to simple stories like that.

Like my great-grandmother, I choose to include the morning glories in my own garden. Perhaps it is because they are so easy to plant. Maybe I like the challenge of facing them when they get out of hand. One year I was overwhelmed with morning glories that reached nearly twenty feet in height. I had trouble getting the plants under control but it was kind-of funny and very reminiscent of the way I perceived the morning glories as a child.

I am someone who likes to keep things simple but I change the rules when it comes to morning glories. I feel a great bond to the traditional flowers that are favored by great-grandmothers who spend their days in the garden. I guess that I choose to take the time to break the general rule of only planting perennials to save myself time and money. Sometimes those things are not so important.

This beloved plant is the only annual that I plant in my garden. I am inherently lazy and I am also quite busy with a number of different projects that keep me from donating a lot of time in the garden. I do make sure to save enough time for morning glories. I think my daughter dreams of climbing the plant to reach the Giant’s castle while I tell her tales about her great-great-grandmother.