I have always loved morning glories. My first garden was at our home in Mesquite, Texas. It was off in a little corner of the yard. My Dad put up a fence to keep out the Great Danes and my multitude of siblings. I tended that little garden for about seven years during middle school, high school and my freshman year of college. I grew squash, okra, tomatoes and Heavily Blue Morning Glories. The morning glories were planted against the fence. Next to the fence was my Dad's prized peach tree. Guess where the morning glories went? That's right, straight up into the peach tree. Dad wasn't happy, but Mom wouldn't let him pull them out because it was "pretty."
One day, Magillacutty, the giant and quite mentally challenged, Great Dane got inside of the garden fence and had a party by himself. I weighed maybe 90 pounds. He weighed more that 110. Guess how long it took me to wrestle him out of that little garden? The squash was destroyed, but the morning glories survived.
A few years ago, I introduced another invasive vine into my current garden. Thankfully, it has a predator- butterflies. Every summer, the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars chew down my giant passion vine. This morning, I was surrounded by clouds of these orange beauties. I would like to say that the butterflies will move on and I can clean up that passion vine, but we still had caterpillars at Christmas time last year.
Do not bring seeds of wild morning glories into your garden, no matter how pretty they are. They will be with you for the rest of your life strangling your other flowers and covering up your prized antique rose bushes.
