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Illusion® Emerald Lace Sweet Potato Vine Ipomoea batatas

Flower Season
  • Spring
  • Summer
Mature Size
10" 3' 25cm 91cm
Height: 6" - 10"
Spread: 2' - 3'
Height: 15cm - 25cm
Spread: 61cm - 91cm
Award Winner
  • Details

    6 - 10 Inches
    10 - 12 Inches
    24 - 36 Inches
    15cm - 25cm
    25cm - 30cm
    61cm - 91cm

    Features

    Great foliage component plant in combinations; excellent heat tolerance and good vigor.

    Award Winner
    Foliage Interest
    Heat Tolerant
    Deadheading Not Necessary

    Characteristics

    Plant Type: 
    Annual
    Height Category: 
    Short
    Garden Height: 
    6 - 10 Inches 15cm - 25cm
    Trails Up To: 
    30 Inches 76cm
    Spacing: 
    10 - 12 Inches 25cm - 30cm
    Spread: 
    24 - 36 Inches 61cm - 91cm
    Foliage Colors: 
    Green
    Foliage Colors: 
    Yellow
    Foliage Shade: 
    Chartreuse
    Habit: 
    Trailing
    Container Role: 
    Spiller

    Plant Needs

    Light Requirement: 
    Part Sun to Sun

    The optimum amount of sun or shade each plant needs to thrive: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours).

    Maintenance Category: 
    Easy
    Bloom Time: 
    Grown for Foliage
    Hardiness Zones: 
    11a, 11b
    Water Category: 
    Average
    Soil Fertility Requirement: 
    Average Soil
    Uses: 
    Container
    Uses: 
    Landscape
    Uses: 
    Mass Planting
    Uses Notes: 

    Great in mixed containers, window boxes and hanging baskets.

    Maintenance Notes: 

    Ipomoeas are great additions to combination planters, but they can sometimes overwhelm less vigorous plants. If you are like me you can let your combination plants duke it out Darwinian style, however, if you prefer to keep a more balanced look to your combination planters, you can cut back or remove stems at any time.

    Ipomoeas also make great annual groundcovers in the landscape. They love the heat and humidity (growing up to 36" a week in the Deep South), cooler temperatures and low humidity cause them to stay more compact.

    While Sweet Potatoes all come from the same parent material out of Southeast Asia, there is a big difference between the Sweet Potato you buy in the store and the tubers produced by the Sweet Caroline and the Illusion plants. Commercial sweet potatoes have been bred for over 100 years selecting for those with the best sugar to starch content (hence the name SWEET Potato), the ornamental have been bred to produce good leaves and no tubers, though they do form, they are composed of almost pure starch and no sugar; making them a poor choice for eating. So yes you can eat the tubers, but don't expect anyone to come back for seconds! Also always be careful when eating any ornamental plant unless you know how it was grown, and if pesticides or fungicides were used on it before you got it; a tuber is a storage root, and yes they store chemical as well as starch.

    An application of fertilizer or compost on garden beds and regular fertilization of plants in pots will help ensure the best possible performance.

    "A Real Simple magazine Top 10 goofproof Plant"

     

    Illusion® Emerald Lace Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP-012EMLC' USPP 21,744, Can 4,162
  • 7 Reviews

    5
    5
    4
    2
    3
    2
    1
    Browse reviews from people who have grown this plant.
    • Delightful lacey spiller

      pat
      , 12 years ago
    • Very showy accent plant! I could not have been more pleased with it last season.

      Deborah Lynn Anderson
      , 12 years ago
    • Russell Studebaker
      , California
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • I have grown for four years along a curved walk. They are in full sun for 10 hours in the summer. Mine have sprouted every year from tubers. Great and showy plant for Texas landscapes.

      kandy shelton
      , Texas
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • Can't wait to use this plant again in my 2010 containers!

      Peggy Hudson
      , Ohio
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • This Ipomoea and the black one just gave up the ghost a couple weeks ago (late Oct) Very impressed with its vigour.

      Jodi DeLong
      , Nova Scotia
      , Canada
      , 13 years ago
    • I fully expected not to like this new cultivar as much as the large-leaved 'Marguerite, which I grow in pots every year. But the fact that slugs are not attracted to this one as much, won me over. The gold leaves are great with dark foliage.

      Kym Pokorny
      , Oregon
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
  • 88 Awards

    Award Year Award Plant Trial
    2020 Top Performer Ohio State University Chadwick Arboretum - Springfield
    2020 Perfect Score - Early Season - Michigan State University
    2020 Perfect Score - Mid Season Michigan State University
    2020 Top Performer - Container University of Minnesota - Morris
    2020 Perfect Score - All Season Michigan State University
    2020 Top Performer - Hanging Baskets University of Minnesota - Grand Rapids
    2020 Director's Select - Sun Penn State University
    2020 Top Performer University of Delaware
    2012 Top Performer Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Elm Bank
    2012 Very Good Perfomer University Laval
  • 2 More colors

  • 9 Recipes

  • 1 Video

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