PlantFiles: Ornamental Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato Vine
Ipomoea batatas 'Blackie'

I bought a small 99 cent nursery pot sized one two years ago, here in CO. It's just about the easiest plant to root via cuttings so in no time you can propagate it all over the garden. I also take a few cuttings in the fall and keep them inside over the winter to start over the next spring. It seems to bloom just about whenever it wants to, including all winter long indoors. Adapted well to my heavy clay soil although it doesn't prefer it. Once it's acclimated to the outdoors, it can handle some cold. The leaves wilt and droop when it drops below about 40 but pick up as the day warms. A light frost will do damage and possibly kill it. It's a goner below that.

I've collected seeds each year and attempted to sprout them, but so far it's a no-go. I'm trying again this year. It propagates so easily from cuttings I don't need to start it from seed; I just want to!

I grew this in 2007 and it was beautiful, until the Japanese beetles made the leaves into swiss cheese! I sprayed heavily with bug killer and then it had a chance to recover. It bloomed pretty little lavender flowers and it set seed! I saved seeds from it and I started a few in early Spring of this year. They didn't do anything after awhile, so I dumped the peat cups they were in into my potted grapefruit plant. I brought the plant outside for the summer and lo and behold! One seed sprouted. It looks like a normal morning glory seedling at first, then it started to get the 5 lobed leaves. It trails for me, and it's healthy. It's got buds on it now. (I had forgotten that I had tried to start the seeds and was in a state of confusion about the mystery plant until I saw the buds and then a lightbulb went on in my head!!)

This plant is worth it. Lovely color and the flowers are an added bonus.

I live in Bradenton, Florida on the west coast (Tampa Bay area).
I wanted to get rid of the grass and weeds in the front yard so I put in 6 vines. soon the whole front yard was filled (30' x 15' area).
I have had to pull them out several times to keep them in my yard only.
The potatoes are sweet, whiteish yellow and very dry. I have eaten them several times, boiled, peeled and mashed with a lot of milk and butter. They are also good in soups. Has anyone else tried eating them?
annetta51@yahoo.com

Extremely easy to propagate through stem cuttings. I've found it flowering at all times of the year here in Florida. It does tend to fade slightly in bright sunlight.

I like to use 'blackie' in large containers with cannas. Not very drought tolerant, though.

I grow it as a ground cover planted on sw side of property. Very striking looking from a distance; not as pretty when you look at it closely and notice the "swiss cheese" look caused by slugs munching on it.

Rating it neutral because I have to keep an eye on it or it will choke anything nearby and also because the minute temps drop to mid 30's plant is dead and area looks ugly until the following spring. Nevertheless, I still like it a lot and will not replace it.

In this climate, Blackie is grown as an annual, mostly in containers. Mine grew in a mounding habit, not vining. This may be because the growing season is too short for it to develop sufficiently. I've also noticed that intense sunlight can cause its black colour to fade to a dark green around the leaf edges. It perished in a late September frost.

Nevertheless, it is still an attractive and reliable foliage ornamental. When I purchased it, I didn't realize it would flower, so I received an unexpected gift when it produced some lavender-coloured blossoms.

I think I have every variety of this plant, and this is the only one that I have had bloom. It is very pretty trained up a white picket fence. It doesnt vine as well as the other varieties that are not lobed, but it is definitly worth the effort, for the flowers are really pretty.

Blackie is a wonderful groundcover here in Tallahassee, and so far I am also successfully growing it in a container on a southern windowsill in my office!

Blackie won't overwinter here, even with protection (neither will any of the other ornamental sweet potatoes), but it's glorious during the warm season. It tolerates even part-to-full shade here in Northern Nevada.

I have Blakie planted in a very large pot along with a pink Wave petunia. which sits on my patio in full sun. Both are beautiful. This is my first experience with both. So far I love it.

A very beautiful vine that makes excellent groundcover.
I never knew it bloomed until tonight. This is worth trying at least once by young and old.

This was [sadly, past tense] such a beautiful plant, I had to have it. It seemed to do really well after I planted it [on the border of Sunset zones 8 & 14 in California), starting new, bright green growth almost immediately, in a raised planter in part shade, however, as soon as the rains came in fall, I lost Blackie. I sure will miss her.

San Antonio, TX
Requiring little care, Blackie is a great fast growing hanging basket plant. Mine is suspended from a high oak tree limb and receives some morning sun and a little afternon sun as the sun is setting. It really stands out as the morning sun "lights up" its leaves. At night, a security light situated above and behind it, makes the foliage appear to glow an eery purple. Multi-colored coleus (they too "light up" in the morning and at night) are in hanging baskets in the same tree. Blackie adds contrast to the coleus and gives some drama to my garden.

I have grown 'Blackie' for a number of years, mainly in a pot in the Atlanta, Georgia area. It looks great trailing out of a big green clay pot with multicolored coleus.

Here in Northcentral Florida, zone 8b, a friend overwintered her 'Blackie' in the ground last Winter--and that was the coldest Winter we have had in over a 100 years. Her plant makes a lovely, dark groundcover inter-twining beneath cream colored dahlias, tall purple Mexican petunias, and red shrimp plants. I noticed that her 'Blackie' was in a very protected flower bed, under the house eaves, facing Southeast, with filtered sun from high trees.

My friend gave me a cutting of her 'Blackie' earlier this Summer, and my plant is now really spreading out as a ground cover in a raised bed along a tall wire fence growing with cannas, scarlet milkweed and moonflowers, and we will have to see if it can survive this coming Winter in the ground in this more exposed location, as zone 8b is really out of its range. I'll probably take cuttings to overwinter inside as insurance against losing the plant to a long freeze. I'm planning to mulch heavily with oak leaves all along where the vines have rooted themselves into the ground.

This is the first time I grew 'Blackie' Potato Vine, and it has has grown beautifully. Today for the first time it has blooms of beautiful pink flowers. I had never seen any other one with flowers, so for me this was a great surprise.

This is the dark purple/maroon, almost black one with deeply lobed leaves.