Spaghetti!

I have been meaning to do this for quite awhile now.  The morning glories were growing close to the ground in a spaghetti mess, and I finally decided that it was time to get things straightened out and properly wound on trellises.

This pic gives you an idea of how tangled things were.

I had a temporary fence (landscape border) to get them started,
but  they never wanted to advance to climbing the wall by
themselves.

More spaghetti

It took an hour and a half, in two different sessions, to untangle it all!!!  Bending over really kills the back.  I had to be so gentle to not yank and break the stems and leaves.  I think I broke one segment of stem throughout the whole process (maybe a 6" piece).  No biggie.  Two leaves came off also, and a few other leaves got a little bruised when I was unwinding them past the brick wall.  All in all, I did pretty well, with, I would say, 95% of the plants undamaged.

This process definitely took some patience!  I remained focused on the end product because I knew it would look cool.

Tangles around the little fence - the trickiest part!  I wanted
to remove this fence and get everything growing directly from
the ground onto the trellis.

BEFORE - bed 1.  The tall one is actually wrapped around
a stick I put there temporarily, until I could buy the trellis.

AFTER - bed 1.  Pretty cool, huh?

BEFORE - bed 2.  See how everything is just laying twisted
in the back?

AFTER - bed 2.  See the pink flower bud?

AFTER - bed 2

I took these "after" pics a day or two later, to allow the morning glories a chance to recover from the stress.  When I was done winding them on the trellis in the evening, I misted them with a spray bottle of water.  I also watered their roots.

They seem much happier now, and so am I!

So if anyone ever tries to grow morning glories, buy your trellis early, and train them early!  Do not wait until they start wrapping around each other and the other plants like crazy.  Otherwise it's a lot of work to untangle!