Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine Purple

How to grow a purple sweet potato vine.

Ornamental sweet potato vine purple.

Sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas blackie is a fast growing tropical vine that gracefully spills over the edges of patio containers or hanging baskets. It does quite well in the heat of the summer and spreads about 3 feet. They come in a variety of colors ranging from lime green to deep dark purple to copper. Ipomoea known as sweet potato vine can be grown as a ground cover but a favorite use is as a spiller in combination with other flowers.

It spreads to 3 feet. It spreads to 4 feet or more. Often grown in container gardens for its trailing stems of purple chartreuse or variegated foliage ornamental sweet potato vine is actually related to the sweet potatoes you d grow in your vegetable garden. This unusual ornamental sweet potato vine is known for its heart shaped leaves which have shades of rose brown and bronze.

Popular varieties like marguerite have small round tubers while varieties like blackie have longer narrower tubers. That means the tubers it forms are actually edible. While it does produce edible sweet potato tubers albeit not very palatable and bitter the ornamental variety bears more colorful foliage making it a popular houseplant. They add the trailing component that is needed to balance out containers.

This heat loving perennial will die back if the plant experiences hard freezes below 32 degrees fahrenheit 0 c. Ipomoea batatas solarpower black fast growing solarpower black sweet potato vine keeps its rich purple black color well even in the heat of summer when other dark leafed varieties tend to fade. Ornamental sweet potatoes are grown for their showy foliage and placed in hanging baskets window boxes and container gardens. Ipomoea butatas or sweet potato vine thrives in hot tropical climates and is an ornamental foliage plant often used as a foil for flowering displays.

The ornamental sweet potato plant ipomoea butatas is somewhat different from its southern grown vegetable sibling. Ipomoea batatas ragtime with unique almost lacy leaves this purple sweet potato vine is quite striking. Depending on the variety leaves come in bright green dark purple or variegated colors. One of the easiest ways to create multi seasonal interest in the garden is to use plants with interesting foliage.