Sweet Potato Vine Sweet Caroline Pw Raven 1G

Sweet Caroline Raven^™ 

Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine

Ipomoea batatas

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 - 16 Inches 15cm - 41cm

Trails Up To: 

 30 Inches 76cm

Spacing: 

 12 - 18 Inches 30cm - 46cm

Spread: 

 20 - 36 Inches 51cm - 91cm

Foliage Colors: 

 Black

Foliage Shade: 

 Shiny deep purple-black foliage

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: 

 Border Plant

 Container

 Groundcover

 Landscape

 Mass Planting

Uses Notes: 

 

Works great in landscapes as an annual ground cover, as well as in combinations and containers by themselves.  The plant is very adaptable, working in both sun and shade conditions, atlhough the colors are deeper and brighter in full sun than they are in shadier environments where colors are tinged with more green.

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, 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.

Sweet Caroline Raven^™ Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP-024SCRI' USPP 31,837, Can 6,286