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Tricolor Sweet Potato Vine Ipomoea batatas

Flower Season
  • Spring
  • Summer
Mature Size
8" 3' 20cm 91cm
Height: 4" - 8"
Spread: 2' - 3'
Height: 10cm - 20cm
Spread: 61cm - 91cm
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  • Details

    4 - 8 Inches
    24 - 36 Inches
    24 - 36 Inches
    10cm - 20cm
    61cm - 91cm
    61cm - 91cm

    Features

    Wonderful tricolored leaves on trailing growth

    Award Winner
    Foliage Interest
    Heat Tolerant
    Deadheading Not Necessary

    Characteristics

    Plant Type: 
    Annual
    Height Category: 
    Short
    Garden Height: 
    4 - 8 Inches 10cm - 20cm
    Trails Up To: 
    72 Inches 1.8m
    Spacing: 
    24 - 36 Inches 61cm - 91cm
    Spread: 
    24 - 36 Inches 61cm - 91cm
    Flower Shade: 
    None
    Foliage Colors: 
    Green
    Foliage Colors: 
    Pink
    Foliage Colors: 
    White
    Foliage Shade: 
    Multicolored
    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
    Uses: 
    Container
    Uses: 
    Landscape
    Uses Notes: 

    Use in hanging baskets, beds, borders and window boxes

    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. 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"

     

  • 8 Reviews

    5
    5
    4
    3
    3
    2
    1
    Browse reviews from people who have grown this plant.
    • Zone 5/6 Michigan. Humid with summer heat mid 80's to mid 90's Planted In Self-watering container Grown in full bright shade. At first, I didn't think much of this vine. It was slow to take and I kind of wrote it off. But boy was I wrong, so happy I didn't pull it. The container sits about 3-3.5 feet off the ground and I have had to trim it 4 times since July. The colors really add to the whole burgundy, chartreuse, silver, and white theme in the planter, It pulls everything together. It is very full and lush all the way to the ground. Even with its fullness, it gives a delicate texture to the arrangement. I have also added cuttings to floral arrangements in the home. I will be looking for this one again next spring.

      Carrie Bostek
      , Michigan
      , United States
      , 3 years ago
    • i luv dis junk bruh

      Jamal Robertson
      , Georgia
      , United States
      , 10 years ago
    • I bought my plants on clearance, they did much better than expected. In December they are still alive but straggly, hope they come back next spring.

      Robbin Todd
      , California
      , United States
      , 10 years ago
    • Wonderful color varigation and hardiness. Layered nicely in hanging baskets.

      Debbi Piper
      , Pennsylvania
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • It grew so beautifully in my window boxes mixed with geraniums and wave petunias

      Sabrina
      , Utah
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • Great plant with gaura - karalee petite pink

      PWPau
      , New York
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • TOOK CUTTINGS &ROOTED THEM HOPE TO OVER WINTER THEM &AM GOING TO TRY TO STORE TUBERS FOR SPRING GROWTH AS I LIVE IN I THINK ZONE 10 TO COLD

      LOIISE CROCKER
      , Massachusetts
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • This is the first plant I have grown in my large planters that has really taken. I have both the green and the purple and they looked amazing. I took cuttings and have them rooted and potted for next year.

      Sue Eves
      , New Jersey
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
  • 4 Awards

    Award Year Award Plant Trial
    2004 Top Picks Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
    2004 Top Picks Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
    2004 Top Picks Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
    2004 Top Picks Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
  • 8 Recipes

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