How to Grow an Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine

Outstanding foliage is the main reason to choose an ornamental sweet potato vine for your landscape. A close relative of morning glories and moonflowers, these vines are vigorous growers and quickly can fill any bare spaces in your garden. For best results, follow these steps for planting and care.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Choose the variety that best enhances your planting area. Blackie is a favorite with large, deep purple to black leaves. Marguerite has bright heart-shaped, chartreuse leaves. Tri-color has small, pointy white,, green and pink variegated leaves.

2. Plant in containers in rich organic potting soil with good drainage. Sweet potato vines are trailers and look beautiful when grouped in a pot with other plants. Because they spill over, they are a good choice for window boxes.

3. Provide proper soil preparation when planting in a bed. Cultivate with a spade or till to a depth of 10 to 12 inches, working in 2 to 3 inches of organic matter. Organic matter loosens dense soil and helps moisture retention in sandy soil. If you want to add a time-released fertilizer, this is the time.

4. Plant 8 to 12 inches apart in full sun to partial shade. Don't crowd as they will fill in quickly. Water thoroughly after planting and keep soil moist thereafter.

5. Propagate new plants by taking cuttings. Place the cuttings in water. After the roots appear, plant them in a container or your landscape.

Tips & Warnings

• The hardy sweet potato vine can be trimmed or cut back at any time to control its growth.
• Because of its trailing qualities, this vine makes a great groundcover.

[alystarcrane]

on 6/20/2009 thx for the great info re sweet potato vines! getting ready to plant some! :-)