I started my Heavenly blue on April 15th, successfully transplanted on May 26th and waited until October 8th, 180 days from starting for the first bloom. What happened to cause this?

Hi chucklasher! And Good to have you here! "What happened to cause this"… Cause what? It might help to know where you are…Part of the country? Or at least what zone you're in? My guess might be that it hasn't bloomed for you yet?

I love Heavenly Blues. They, unfortunately, hate me. However, if I can keep them alive, they generally bloom even here in the frozen northland. Did they get enough sun? And fertilizing them can cause lots of foliage and few blooms. As Tara said, a bit more information would be helpful. They're such lovely flowers, and we'd love to be able to help!

Morning glories can be very late bloomers but they eventually get around to it. It's good to avoid excess fertilizer that can encourage excess leaf and stem growth and delay or even eliminate flowering. Even though' Heavenly Blue' is usually early blooming in my zone, bloom can be delayed for various reasons. I hope you are able to collect some good seed.

Thanks for the quick responses. I live in central CT, zone 6. The site, a chain link fence is 100' long with 50% in full sun and some shade. 10 plants filled the fence by early August. I can only think that I gave the plants too much TLC, some fertilizer but not excessive, and they were just so happy sending out new growth that reproduction was not urgent. The plants are exploding in bloom now but frost is 4 days away.

This year I had one lonely little heavenly blue that got left in a 4" pot and forgotten about behind a bunch of petunias. The only reason I discovered it was that all of a sudden there was this huge blue flower peeking out from among the petunias.
That was back in September, which is usually when my MGs are at their best. So, yes, perhaps a bit of benign neglect might get you flowers sooner so you can enjoy them longer. Quick, take pictures before that frost!

I am giving up on Morning Glories. They just take too long to bloom for me. My real estate is too valuable to wait all season long for something to start blooming and then be cut off.

The only one that ever started early for me was Grandpa Ott. But I would never grow it again, even though it is beautiful, because it was horribly invasive

They do alright here.....

They love my mailbox.

I had some Star of Yelta Morning Glories (looks like Grandfather Ott) . I think that was my first year gardening, but they sure jumped up and covered any support I could give them, then burst in heavy bloom for many months. That was in heavy clay soil, but I probably gave it a little fertilizer every 3-4 weeks.

It was like Day of the Triffids.

I know that I barely rescued seeds at the end of the summer, as rains turned them to moldy mush. Maybe any seeds that dropped, rotted. I tried to pick out some good ones, and stored them very dry, but I probably never tested viability. It was a scary-vigorous vine.

I did turn that bed after wrestling the MG vines into a wheelbarrow. Maybe turned it both Fall and Spring while trying to amend the soil. I certainly raked it several times to reduce the number of weeds. Some of those weeds might have been baby Triffids.

Gorgeous blooms. It truly looked like they had some brilliant light light shining up out of their throats.

Those are beautiful, Rick. Mine just grew and grew without blooming until the cooler weather hit, then they bloomed like crazy until our first frost. I did use lots of Microlife on them.

Thanks!

>> without blooming until the cooler weather hit,

I'm just guessing, but maybe that's the prime factor. My "summer" is so cool that it might be like your fall. Day time highs usually 75-80, and nighttime lows maybe 60-65.