The heat-loving bell vine is usually only cultivated as an annual climbing plant in our latitudes. With its dense foliage and large bell-shaped flowers, it is a very attractive plant that provides an opaque privacy screen in no time. Sometimes, however, the bell morning glory does not flower at all. Then you need to investigate the cause.
Often the bell vine does not bloom until the second year
Too late sowing
In its natural home of Mexico, the bell vine thrives as a perennial, climbing subshrub. It often only flowers in the second year here.
If you sow bell morning glory yourself, you should not start growing too late. Sowing should be done by the end of February at the latest so that the climbing plant will flower in the same year. By the time it is planted out in May, the bell vine has already formed shoots about one meter long.
Wrong choice of location
The bell vine prefers full sun and humus-rich, nutrient-rich soil. If the sun worshiper is too shady, it forms a lot of foliage, but there are no flowers. If this is the cause of the flowering laziness, it is advisable to plant the flowering climber in a different place.
Faded not cleaned up
To ensure that the bell morning glory regularly produces new flowers, it is important to cut off everything that has faded at least once a week. If this is not done, the plant will put all its energy into seed formation and will hardly set any flower buds.
Only in late summer or early fall, and only then if you want to harvest seeds yourself, should you leave some faded bells on the plant. After drying, these are carefully cut off and the seeds are selected. Keep the large seeds cool and dry until sowing.
tips
You can cut cuttings from a particularly richly flowering bell vine in autumn. Placed in commercially available potting soil, they quickly take root. Since the offspring will continue to grow indoors throughout the winter, she's almost certain to produce plenty of blooms.