Morning glory (Ipomoea)
There are many species available. The most common are:
1. Ipomoea purpurea is the common annual morning glory that comes in a range of colours, mainly blue/ purple/ red and has heart shaped leaves. It is normally grown each year from seed and dies in the hot season. The seeds should be soaked overnight before planting, but it is very easy to grow. It is a relatively small plant (maybe 3 m), but a strong climber. [photo above and below]
1. Ipomoea purpurea is the common annual morning glory that comes in a range of colours, mainly blue/ purple/ red and has heart shaped leaves. It is normally grown each year from seed and dies in the hot season. The seeds should be soaked overnight before planting, but it is very easy to grow. It is a relatively small plant (maybe 3 m), but a strong climber. [photo above and below]
2. Ipomoea pes-caprae (Goat's-foot morning glory). A perennial morning glory. It does not climb readily, but you can train it up a frame. It normally forms a ground cover and because of its huge long stems, will cover a large area. It is extremely common and normally produced by cuttings (if you push part of the growing stem down in to the soil, it will produce roots and you can then cut out the rooted section and plant separately). It profusely produces pale blue flowers with darker centres and has characteristic bilobed leaves. Like all morning glory, the flowers die by early afternoon. In the summer, many of the branches will die and need to be cut out in the autumn, otherwise it looks extremely messy.
3. Ipomoea cairica (Railway creeper). A strongly climbing perennial morning glory (unlike I. pes-caprae) with characteristic palmate leaves. Like all morning glories, by the time you come home from work, the flowers will be dead. Being very strongly climbing, it is often used for shading e.g. carports. It is grown from cuttings, since it roots readily.
4. Ipomoea nil (Chinese yellow). Another strongly climbing perennial creeper. Can take the summer heat in the full sun, but covered in nasty spiny hairs and produces much dead wood that continually needs to be removed, especially the large dead leaves.