ornamental sweet potatoe blooms!

I had no idea that it blooms. This is a first for me, this is "blackie"

How neat! It's not often they actually bloom. Maybe you'll get a bonus and get some seeds too!

rylaff, do you fertilize a lot? I have three of these. I'd love for one of them to bloom.

Robin

These I dont fertilize at all, except if they get hit by some when I am fertilizing something else. However, this is my second year for growing it. dont know if that made a difference. Was surprised to see it bloom. Could have done it before. It grows all over the place. Would take over if I let it.

Thank goodness it wasn't just me
when I said I had blooms on mine last year everyone said I must be mistaken cause they don't bloom
My blooms were on the Chartruse one

I've had both 'Blackie' and the neon limegreen one for several years now and no blooms:-( You're both lucky lol.

ditto indigoez

How cool is that??

A plant with those blooms all over it would really look cool. Someone needs to hybridize a climbing glory with black leaves. LOL!

Thank you for posting a pic of it rylaff.....I know I'd never see it here! ;)

Rylaff,

That's wonderful and such a coincidence! I have only had the vines for a couple years. I have the Margarite, Blackie and the Tri-color. None ever bloomed until yesterday, Margarite gave one flower. (I thought a Morning Glory had invaded.)

I think you should post your picture and add any pertinent info to the PDB. If I recall correctly, the PDB only shows pics of the Margarite in bloom.

I don't fertilize mine either, imagine the monsters they would be if I did. I put them in the sunny side of my shade garden to over run the weeds, but they seem to be very weed friendly. Now I will have to figure some other way to get rid of the weeds.........who me? pull weeds?

I put cuttings of these in to cover the ground by the fence in October. When I moved here there was a nasty mess of aspargus fern growing up the fence. I pulled it all down, treated it twice with roundup and laid mulch and planted the vines. That durned asp. fern is still coming back.

Molly
:^))

How cool! Thanks for posting the picture - I had no idea that they bloomed...

would love to start this and see if I can get it to bloom

Hey MollyMc
If these are the first time you've grown these beautiful "Ornamental Sweet Potato" plants, wait till you go to pull them up and find these huge bulbs...or whatever they are called....they looked like (at the Margarite) big red potatoes, however, I don't think you want to eat them....

The blackie's produce a brown potato that looks just like a regular Idaho potato? at mine did...

I'm so excited cause I just finished pulling all mine up about two months ago and man did I have a sack full to lay out next spring...I also kept tons of cuttings and gave to all my neighbors...they made such a beautiful bed and I can't wait till spring to experiment with another location....weeds were non-existent at least in my beds with these guys cause they get so thick that nothing can let in the light in...they beds were literally clean and weed free once I cleaned up all the vines...yours look very pretty and I really never thought of letting them grown upwards, but thanks to you, I will try that also that!!
TaTa!
Rose in Texas

Rose,

I didn't think of growing them upwards either, they thought of that all by themselves (heehee)

I still hope they will overtake all those nasty aspargus ferns that keep cropping up out there. After I put roundup down twice and threw mulch down by the fence to suffocate them, they are still growing back. And they are mean, they all have prickers and are deeply rooted.

I moved my garden last fall from one house to another and I did pull up some of the tater vines. Saw the tubers. These vines are so easy to grow and look so pretty. The added bonus was the blooms.

Molly
:^)))

I have a couple of the lime green cuttings rooting in water over the winter. I'm thinking about putting them in my daylily bed in the Spring. My daylilies are fairly new, so have space between them yet. Do you think the sweet potato vines would work as a low ground covering between them? Was also considering using short sweet peas and climbing nastursiums for the same purpose. I don't want anything so vigorous that it's going to overpower the daylilies. Any other ideas of what to use?

Susan

Susan,

I'm going to suggest that you not put the tater vines by your daylilies. I think you may end up spending all your spare time separating them.

Based on the growth patterns of my daylilies, I think they will need that extra space to fatten up and multiply their fans.

As far as another ground cover suggestion, hopefully someone with more experience in your zone will have some suggestions.

Molly
:^)))

Thanks Molly. I was afraid they might be a little too vigorous!

rosebruce,
I just grew them for the second time this year...the Marguerite, and had them in the ground instead of a container like last year. Needless to say they flourished! I tied string to my garage and let them climb up it...my 2 year old grandson was convinced it was a "beanstalk" as in Jack and the Beanstalk! When I pulled them out this year after taking cuttings, I found the big tubers....what do you do with them to get them to grow again? Any info would be appreciated!