Can Morning Glories Grow In Shade?

  • By: Mike Hale
  • Date: July 17, 2022
  • Time to read: 4 min.

Morning glory is the general name for several different flowering plants (at least 50 genera and over 1,000 species), especially those that belong to the Convolvulaceae family. These flowers come with slightly different floral, leaf, and fruit characteristics. They produce funnel-shaped blossoms in several different colors, including white, red, blue, purple, and yellow.

One good thing about morning glories is that they are pretty easy to grow. As long as you provide them with an excellent growing environment, including enough sunlight, they’ll rapidly grow and blossom. Morning glories won’t grow well in full shades; however, they can still tolerate light shades.

Will morning glories grow anywhere? Is it possible for morning glories to grow in shade? How many hours of sunlight do morning glory flowers need? Is it ideal to plant the flowers in pots? These are the burning questions that I’ll further address in the rest of this article. So, without wasting any more time, let’s get down to business.

Will morning glories grow anywhere?

Before going ahead to talk about the growth aspect of morning glories, let me briefly talk about what they are and how they behave.

Morning glory, as you already know, is a general name for flowers that belong to the family Convolvulaceae. There are tons of reasons why growing these flowers is worthwhile. First, they are easy-to-grow ornamental flowers; you can always keep them in your garden.

Another interesting thing about morning glories is their ability to open in the morning and shut down in the afternoon. These flowers deliver funnel-shaped or trumpet-shaped blossoms with different colors.

I’m sure you know that blue plants are hard to come by? This is another reason why morning glories are unique. A few of the flowers are available in blue color; they are bright, vibrant, and striking.

Now, let’s talk about the growth characteristics of these flowers. One thing you should understand about morning glories is that they can always grow anywhere. However, to achieve the best results, you need to plant the flowers in a sunny spot. That’s so because morning glory flowers need an adequate supply of sunlight to blossom to their full potential.

Of course, I’m not saying that you can plant morning glories anywhere. You can plant them under light shades in your garden, inside pots, or in any convenient area. However, you need to keep in mind that they might not blossom well if you fail to keep them under direct sunlight.

Morning Glories

Can morning glories grow in shades?

As earlier mentioned, morning glories can always grow anywhere. However, if you’re looking for the best results, there are a couple of places where I won’t advise you to plant the flowers; one of them is an area where there are shades.

One reason why it’s not ideal to plant these flowers under shades is that they need a sufficient amount of sunlight to blossom. By keeping them under shades, there’s a high chance that the flowers won’t bloom.

If you’re very much interested in planting morning glories, but the only available area to grow them is under shades, you can still go on with it. However, you need to ensure that the area is not entirely shady. Yes, morning glory flowers can also grow and blossom under light shades but the results won’t be as effective as keeping them under direct sunlight.
Bottom line: growing your morning glory flowers in a shady area is never a good idea. That’s so because the flowers need a sufficient amount of sunlight to bloom. If you’re without choice, you can still consider planting the flowers in light shades.

How many hours of sunlight do morning glories need?

As you already know, morning glory flowers need to be planted in a sunny area in your garden for them to grow properly and blossom. But how much sunlight is enough to keep these flowers at their best?

To answer the question, I’ll say there’s no limit as to the amount of sunlight that morning glory flowers should be exposed to daily. That’s so because they tend to blossom to their full potential when exposed to the full sun, which is at least six to eight hours per day.

However, if you can’t manage to get your morning glories exposed to full sun, just make sure you expose them to partial shade or partial sun, which is usually between 3 to 6 hours of direct sun. Yes, the flowers can still bloom with this amount of sunlight.

Can morning glory seeds be planted in pots?

There’s a big reason why you need to keep your morning glory flowers exposed to the full sun to bloom. Doing that will allow the flowers to blossom and produce small, round pods behind at the end of their stems. Usually, these pods are hard and brown.

Inside the pods lies the morning glory seeds, which you can always harvest and use for various purposes, including for treating abdominal diseases, purifying blood,  and curing headaches & bronchitis. You can also save the seeds and use them later for planting.

Planting morning glory seeds is simple but slightly tricky. When planting them from seeds, it’s best to start them indoors. This is especially true if you’re the type that resides in northern climates, where cold is normal.

Indoors, you can plant your morning glory seeds inside a pot. Just make sure the pot is large enough to accommodate the flowers when they start growing. For the best results, ensure to plant the seeds about four to six weeks before the last frost date.
The bottom line is that you can always plant your morning glory seeds in pots. This approach will help you keep them under control and prevent them from winding around.