Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’ Seeds | Morning Glory
LATIN NAME: Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly blue’
COMMON NAME: Morning Glory
Plant Profile
Morning glory ‘Heavenly Blue’ opens its broad, sky-blue trumpets at sunrise and lets them fold by afternoon, each flower completing its single day before the next bud takes its place. This daily rhythm gives the vine its name and its romance, and the cultivar is among the most planted blue climbers in the world. A single plant can carry dozens of the saucer-sized blooms through the warm season.
The blossom is a classic funnel or morning-glory shape, deep azure with a pale, almost white throat that acts as a nectar guide. The flower is programmed to close as the day warms, conserving the reproductive parts and the nectar for the cooler, bee-friendly hours. Gardeners who want the show at its best step out early, because by mid-afternoon the trumpets are rolled shut. The vine climbs by twining, sending slender stems up a trellis, fence or arbour without tendrils, and the leaves are broadly heart-shaped with a pointed tip.
Bees work the flowers earlier in the day, but the tube is long enough that only capable visitors reach the nectar. This division of labour helps explain the plant’s reproductive success across the tropics and subtropics. ‘Heavenly Blue’ is the clean, solid blue form that made the species famous, but the clan includes ‘Flying Saucers’ with white petals and blue ribs, ‘Pearly Gates’ in pure white, and various picotees. All share the one-day flower and the twining habit.
Science & Biotechnology
The seeds of Ipomoea tricolor carry ergoline alkaloids, the most noted being ergine, also called d-lysergamide or LSA, along with chanoclavine and elymoclavine. These compounds are chemically close to the lysergic acids of the commercial ergot fungus, which is precisely why the seeds are treated as toxic and are not eaten. The alkaloids are a defence for the seed rather than a garden feature, but they are the best-known chemical fact about the species. Ergine and its companions sit in the seed coat and gave the plant a reputation far beyond the flower bed.
Uses & Benefits
For the gardener the practical point is simple: the seeds should never be ingested, and hands should be washed after handling large quantities. The flowers themselves are harmless ornament. Long before modern chemistry, the Aztecs cultivated related morning glories and used the seeds in ceremonial preparations, trading on the same alkaloid load. The Nahuatl record mentions the seeds as a sacred substance, and colonial accounts describe their role in ritual.
In the garden the value is purely decorative and ecological: a fast, floriferous screen that also feeds pollinators. The long-tubed flowers suit long-tongued bees and, in warm regions, hawkmoths that visit by dusk. A pergola clad in ‘Heavenly Blue’ is a reliable summer feature that asks only for sun and a support. The depth of the corolla tube and the evening scent of some forms point to hawkmoth pollination, a relationship seen across the convolvulus family.
Growing from Seed
Morning glory hates cold and will rot in chill soil, so sow only after the ground is thoroughly warm, or start in pots and set out later. The seed coat is hard, and nicking it or soaking it briefly in warm water speeds emergence. Sow a few seeds at the base of each support and thin to the strongest. The impermeable seed coat is the plant’s way of waiting for the right moment, and a short soak softens it so the embryo can break through. Press the seed into warm soil at the foot of the trellis and keep it moist.
Once the first true leaves show, the vine finds its own way upward. When the seedlings reach a few centimetres and show their first tendril-like coils, move them to their final support and thin to the sturdiest one or two per station. Give them full sun and a fertile, well-drained soil, and water during dry spells. Training the early stems onto the support saves a tangle later.
Our Take
‘Heavenly Blue’ is the climber I lean on for instant summer blue, and the daily flower show never gets old. For more from the same family, the Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea aquatica and Ipomoea cairica all share the twining habit, while Convolvulus gives a bushier cousin.
Related Reading
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