Morning glory (Ipomoea lacunosa) is a flowering vine that is native to the eastern and southeastern United States. On the East Coast and in the South, it’s a well-loved and beautiful part of well-tended gardens.
But on the West Coast, it’s an invasive, pesky weed. When I moved into my new house, the yard was infested with morning glories.
Why Wild Morning Glory Is A Problem
牵牛花和其他藤本植物一样,会扼杀你真正想要种植的植物。它长得也很快;这种植物的蔓生植物会在几天内占据你花园的一个角落。
When I moved into my house, morning glories had spread from our shared driveway, where everything grows wild, into an area of about 500 square feet in my garden. They would probably have spread over my entire yard if we hadn’t intervened.
How To Get Rid Of Morning Glory
The only way to eradicate morning glory—apart from herbicides, which we never recommend—is to make sure that none of the vines remain in your garden. That means you have to pull up every last vine of the stuff because it will come back quickly.
Getting rid of morning glory is a long-term project. You’ll need to fight several battles to get rid of the vine. The good news is that you can keep up on your morning glory eradication when you’re doing other garden chores, like deadheading, watering or trimming.
Before you start pulling, take a thorough look around your garden. Morning glory loves any vertical structure, so look over every side of a fence, lattice or hedge. Inspect any area where you’ve seen the vines from top to bottom.
The Tools For Eradication
去除花园里的牵牛花只需要你的手套和一把铲子。你可能还想穿一件有袖子的衬衫,因为你要深入到灌木丛中清除藤蔓。
To kill a morning glory plant, you have to pull out the full vine. Trimming the vine from a plant it’s started to attack won’t do the trick: It will grow back quickly. To pull the vine, you’ll need to follow the vine back to its root and pull it from there.
The vines can get big. I’ve pulled morning glory vines that were more than 20 feet long. Be very gentle with the vine until you’re ready to pull the whole thing out; broken segments can quickly establish their own root systems.
Three Steps To Rid Your Garden Of Morning Glory
- When you find the root, gently disentangle the vine from the plant that it’s started to wind around.
- When you’ve successfully isolated the vine, let it rip. The broken vine will smell, oddly enough, like Pine Sol.
- 把整个根都拔出来,确保整个根都拔出来。葡萄藤可以在地下生长几英尺,所以一定要挖到植物的原始来源。
And keep an eye on the area where you’ve pulled the morning glory vines. They will come back faster than you think: We pulled all the vines from the infested corner of our yard, only to have new vines start to bloom about a week later.
Morning glory is hardy and quick-growing, so eradicating it from your yard is a long-term project. It can be frustrating, but with persistence and vigilance, you’ll be able to easily get this pesky invader out of your yard.
Charliesays
Persistence, vigilance and “easily” are not compatible concepts. There is nothing easy about the first two. Pulling the whole root is nearly impossible – especially in our dominantly clay soils, yes, here in the Pacific NW. What worked for us was regular mowing where they came up, cutting off their energy source (sunlight). Eventually they gave up. We never dug them up.
Ajsays
Our garden was left unchecked for 6 years. The Bind weed enjoyed our time off and gave us a battle. 1st, we dug up roots 8″ – 12″ – tilled the soil. 2 weeks later the weeds came back. Every weed killer I tried worked to kill the surface (label said product goes way down into the root). Ha! not true, the root system grew new sprouts and quadrupled (or more). In Calirado, (yes were halfway to being another California) we have clay, I have dug down past the conditioned soil and another foot into the clay to get at the “source” of the root. Some areas are 36″ below grade, what I’m trying to figure out is how much of the root will survive, what I mean is if a little 3/16″ x 1″ piece of root will survive to grow a new plant?
So we have taken some root pieces, soil and put them in a glass jar, the hope is broken pieces of root will not survive….
Majorsays
What was the result of your experiment?
KLAsays
Aaaaand?!? The world of morning ghastly is awaiting your reply.
Lynnsays
Oh, the glory of Morning Glory! Into my fifth year living on the Oregon coast, and while my glories are regularly removed, my neighbors don’t care about theirs. Hence, a forever-til-the-day-I-die job. Ugh!! Just inherited the house across the street and – you guessed – Morning Glory!!! Dear Lord, will my aching back hold up?! I figure an hour per day until summer ends. Then I’ll keep watch.
Kane Jamisonsays
For me it’s English Ivy and Blackberries. My neighbors like it across their back yards. Gotta fight it back every year, coming over the fence and under the soil.
JBsays
There are many species of morning glories, many of which are invasive, while still others are more delicate, and desirable. White-star morning glory (Ipomoea lacunosa) is indeed bothersome. It produces more seeds than most species of ipomoea. Common Morning Glory, ipomoea purpurea, can be invasive, but generally is not. These are the kinds that you can buy from Lowes or Walmart. Star of Yelta, Milky Way, those types. They grow fast and big, but need more care to actually develop than I. Lacunosa, or I. Cordatotriloba. The most difficult to get to grow are of course the most beautiful of the species, Ipomoea Nil otherwise known as Japanese Morning Glories. Those are the most spectacular of all Morning Glories and almost never choke out any other plant. They are far more sensitive and delicate, but produce flowers from 2 inches to 6 inches in diameter of every color and shade including stripes and splits as well as mutations and other effects. I grow about 700 Japanese Morning Glories every year. They are by far the most beautiful diverse vining bloom I’ve ever seen.
Paulettesays
我已经拔牵牛花10年了。我读到如果你在叶子上放毒药,它会杀死整个植物。我要在棉花球上试一下毒药,再涂上几片叶子看看会发生什么。我的花园太密了,什么也做不了。我手里的那个太厉害了,在城里卖种子是违法的。祝我好运吧。
Sheilasays
Is it working? The morning glories have been creeping into our yard from the neighbours
Madolyn Neilsonsays
我搬到了犹他州中部的一个小镇。出于某种原因,房子的主人们认为牵牛花、狐尾草和刺草是草坪的组成部分。没有草! !我只负责浇水,约翰逊家的草就处理好了。除了牵牛花,我什么都去掉了。我试过了你能用的所有喷雾。我把它们混合得比推荐的要浓,但它们还是很喜欢。我不需要在我的草坪上种植任何东西,因为我要做岩石设计。没有草。有什么建议吗? Is there anything? I’m not laying rock til next spring. I just don’t want to fight it coming up through the rocks. Thanks
Porcelainsays
Am I understanding you correctly? Watering your Johnson grass made it easier to eradicate?
Theresa Mileasays
我们的花园到处都是这种东西!!我们将用黑色塑料覆盖15张床中的7张。因为tilling是一个可怕的想法和拔将花费一生与所有的藤蔓每根!!!!We have now named it “devil weed” lol
PapaWolfsays
LOL I call it creeping death Theresa. I battled it all year last year, but is still choked out about half my garden. This year I am bleaching and salting the ever lovin heck out of it all, while leaving an appropriate area around my garden bleach and salt free. My neighbor did that last year, after battling for years, and he had no problems with it the entire season.
Margaret Rosesays
In early spring this year, I carefully pulled out every young bindweed plant. But as the summer wore on and temperatures reached the upper 90s and low 100s, I gave up and my garden was submerged in a sea of them. This morning, I began the excavation. Unfortunately, in the process, I’m sewing hundreds of seeds for next year, as it has already gone to seed, and pulling on the vines strips many off. I’ve been here before. The trick is to persist in keeping them pulled out before they mature and go to seed. Hopefully, I’ll do better next year with that!
Lorie Pellegrinosays
我甚至不知道这些入侵的葡萄藤是从哪里来的……它们正在占领我的覆盆子种植地。春天一看到树莓,我就想把它们从根部拔出来,但当树莓丛开始生长时,要想拔掉藤蔓就非常困难了。我已经和他们斗争了3年。我很想把树莓搬到别的地方。也许明年我退休的时候,我会有时间来解决这些问题。我很喜欢树莓。
Gailsays
My problem with morning glory is the same, it’s always winding itself around my raspberry canes. It is so hard to get rid of! I’ve been battling with it for at least five years. Right now it’s looking like it’s winning! I’m getting in there today to try to get rid of it…again!
一个易怒的says
Im going to cover my 20 by 50 ft raised bed garden with 6ml black plastic, for 2 years. Then start over. Been fighting this crap for 32 years, NO MAS. There is nothing that works on the market so save your $$.