Ipomoea purpurea(Morning Glory) in a pot?

I have a packet of Ipomoea purpurea seeds (Morning Glory), "Grandpa Ott". I want to grow them in a pot. I won't plant them until May, as I want to grow the seeds directly outdoors. Last year I tried growing seeds earlier on my window ledge and it wasn't very successful, and growing things directly outside seems to work better. (Though I did start some Cyclamen seeds off indoors in the dark, which are now growing outside).

I bought some Trellis Netting, white heavy duty nylon net, six inch squares, five feet by 15 feet. I am not sure how to fix that to a high wall for the Ipomoea to best be able to climb it? Does it need to somehow be held a couple of inches away from the wall for the Ipomoea to be able to twine around it?

How big a pot would the Ipomoea need? The seed packet says it will climb 7 to 9 feet high. And is it ok to combine Ipomoea with Nasturtiums, or do they fight each other? Do I need to keep the Ipomoea and Nasturtiums in separate pots on separate trellises? (They are Climbing Nasturtiums which can climb about six feet). Of course Nasturtiums don't like feeding, which produces few flowers, and Ipomoea probably needs more feeding, one good reason to keep them in separate pots.

If I use a big pot, is there anything that is suitable as a companion plant for Ipomoea, that works well with it without one plant fighting the other one?

 

I don't see why not, pot size depends on how many Ipomoea you want in a pot; I might put 4 in a 12" diameter pot, I usually decide which pot I want for a position and then plant up with what looks about right. I would consider chitting the seeds inside on damp kitchen paper until I saw signs of movement then carefully put two or three in at each point; you can always thin out later if you want.
As for Nasturtiums and Ipomoea fighting, not sure what you mean by that; can't say I've noticed much brawling in my garden.
The colours might clash a bit orange and violet.
As for nasturtiums not liking feeding, given that nasturtiums are brassicas and cabbages generally like fertile ground I would just treat as the Ipomoea.
Watch out for cabbage white caterpillars on the nasturtium.
You could use a low growing nasturtium to cover the bottom part and run over the edge of the pot.

 

By low growing nasturtium, I suppose you mean not the 6 feet climbers/trailers?

I have two packets, one is a 6 foot climber/trailer, the other is "Black Velvet", Tropaeolum minus, height 10 to 12 inches. (I am also wondering if the Nasturtiums I already have will actually survive any frost we get in the next few weeks and flower next summer, or if their seeds will grow, they are climbers too).

Weirdly, one place I planted my Nasturtiums last year was all wrong, they got devastated by caterpillars, but in another place they didn't get eaten too much by caterpillars (and they were out of the way of more delicate plants). The place where they did better was in pots with Feverfew.

 

Yes the Tropaeolum minus would do nicely. The ones you have may survive and I know they often self seed. If you get a decent spring the self seeded ones could get off to a flier and you could always move them while small.
As for Feverfew I can't stand the thing, foliage smell horrible and it self seeds with abandon. One of my neighbours grows it and I'm forever hoeing/pulling it out.

 

Re. the trellis, groundbeetle, I don't think you need worry about spacing it away from the wall. IME, twisty climbers like Ipomoea insinuate themselves around any support
Isn't Feverfew used specifically in companion planting to repel pests? If you can live with the orange/purple combination you could try a couple of dwarf (oops, sorry ) African marigold plants at the base. They're good for repelling aphids too, which can be a problem on nasturtiums.

 

If I was an aphid I'd avoid it. Good job I'm big enough to pull it up.

 

@noisette47, thanks for information, I will need to learn how climbers and twiners deal with various supports. I am not sure how purple and orange would go together, in the beginning I was wary of bright colours thinking they would be garish but I have really loved the orange and yellow nasturtiums, and also some orange French Marigolds (Dwarf Double Sparky Mix, height 30cm/12 inches, out of a 6 in 1 packet for £1 from Poundland). These orange flowers got the most compliments. The French Marigolds produced lots of seed which I scattered in all kinds of places, so hopefully some of it will come up next year and I will find out where it is happiest, and maybe transplant some around the base of the Ipomoea. It has very pretty ferny foliage, similar to Feverfew foliage. I did wonder if the Feverfew repelled pests by attracting hoverflies, as from the time the Feverfew started to flower, aphids started to disappear and I noticed a lot of hoverflies and their pupae, and my garden was full of hoverflies all summer.

 

@NigelJ, last year's Nasturtiums were flowering a bit right up to Christmas day, and their leaves still look healthy and seem to have found some extra supports I put in for them to climb, and I think I can see more flower buds on them. The coldest part of the year for plants seems to be late January and February, so they might not make it through that.

Feverfew does seem to self seed, which at the moment I am happy about, as mine are growing in pots and they aren't taking over. I like their ferny foliage, which on some plants has remained through the winter, and don't find their smell noticeable except when I touch them. I found Chamomile more invasive if planted in the wrong place, it is a bigger plant than I thought it would be and one of them suffocated its neighbour, a young Campanula white bells. Though in a wall basket the same Chamomile behaved itself and produced delicate, pretty foliage and co-existed with Alyssum and Lobelia (photograph above). I didn't find Chamomile invasive as such, just much bigger than I expected and takes up a lot more space to the detriment of more delicate adjacent plants.

People might prefer the double Feverfew variety, which is a smaller plant, with extremely pretty white pompom flowers, and maybe less prolific? Being double flowers, they might not be as attractive to pollinating insects and hoverflies? My second generation ones' flowers looked more semi-double than double, but they are smaller plants and maybe more delicate (photograph above).

 

Lovely pots and baskets, groundbeetle If you can get hold of copies of some of Christopher Lloyd's books, you'll find a kindred spirit I'm a lot less courageous when it comes to shocking combinations. Love pinks, blues, purples, silvers and white......
IIRC, the Henry Doubleday Foundation published a lot on the subject of companion planting to reduce pests and diseases.

 

There is also a golden leafed form. Supposed to be good for migraines; my father reckoned one or two leaves a day got his controlled a lot of the time. Also called "Bachelor's Buttons".

 

I haven't planted my "Grandpa Ott" seeds yet, but planted some Ipomoea "Heavenly Blue" seeds on 3rd February, in a small pot on the kitchen windowsill, and have just today planted it outside in a bit pot next to the trellis netting on a wall that gets quite a lot of sun. It is quite sheltered, so fingers crossed it survives.

The "Heavenly Blue" seeds were one of a packet of six seeds from Poundland, but I still really want it to survive, fingers crossed.

 

Your Morning Glory plants will never survive for long unless it gets quite a bit of warmth & light. These are hot weather plants & will only do really well in a warm - hot summer in the UK. I've been growing them on my balconies in Spain & in the UK for more than 30 years. Some summers here in the UK they do pretty well but in cold "summers" they sulk all summer.

I don't sow seeds for these plants till well into May most years. I have them climbing up strings & most years they will happily grow the 6-7 feet to the top of the strings.

In another thread I've posted some photos of them growing on our balcony a few years ago.

 

I'd suggest some of these, they are hardier than the usual morning glory.
Convolvulus major Seeds - Trumpet Mix | Suttons

 

I agree with you about feverfew self seeding with abandon. I am finding its seedlings absolutely everywhere. They are fairly easy to pull up. I started off simply transplanting them to where I preferred them to be, but I have enough of them now, and some pots I don't want them growing in because they push out other plants. I still like feverfew, I like its ferny foliage, pretty daisy flowers and attraction for hoverflies, and that it is so tough. I think if I couldn't touch my garden for say two years and nobody else did anything, what would be left would be the feverfew, Erigeron karvinskianus, Campanula poscharskyana, Campanula portenschlagiana, and maybe the spring bulbs that come up every year.

And last year's Nasturtiums, Tropaeolum majus, survived the winter and are now flowering again. They were still flowering on Christmas day, and well into February. They did get hit by the frosts around late February and some of their leaves died, but I cut off the dead leaves and the plants survived.

 

Well I never knew that!! We have loads of the gold leaf variety but never heard it called Bachelor Buttons before.....I was only aware of Centaurea ( cornflower) being called that