Sweeeeet Potato Vines
Posted by gabagoo z5/6 NY (My Page) on Sun, Jul 28, 02 at 23:19 I have been growing SPV for the past four years. I started with Marguarite, the familiar bright green variety. After that I added Blackie and the green/pink varigated ones.
I love the bright green. Its light color brightens any spot & creates a great contrast with the dark green foliage of the other plants.
This year, I found another variety -sort of a bronze color. Like an old penny. The underside of the leaves are a dark burgandy - the same color as the veins on the leaves topside.
Here are some shots of my SPVs
Marguarite & Blackie
Bronze
Here are 2 shots of the broze - top & bottom
Varigated -this is my least favorite of the SPV. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's the weird colors. I've always found it hard to find something to plant with it.
Here's one of my pots with SPV, Million Bells, Osteopernum & tall grass.
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Follow-Up Postings: RE: Sweeeeet Potato Vines
Posted by: PVick z6 NY (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 1:07 Nancy -
That bronze sweet potato vine is quite nice. I've always liked the marguerite and blackie together when I've seen them in pictures, but this is my first year being able to actually GET any - chose the blackie. I like 'em all, but I can just see the variegated one in a pot with some yellow and lilac petunias! LOL! Saw your newest album - definite thumbs up! PV
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Posted by: gabagoo z5/6 NY (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 8:13 Thanks, PV-
The problem with the varigated SPV isn't finding a flower that will go with it. It's the foliage of the flower that usually clashes. The green on that particular SPV is a strange shade. It looks greener in the photo -it's more of a grey-ish green and kind of washed out. I ended up planting it with my santolina, which is also grey. So it was livable. LOL! When the santolina was blooming (little yellow flowers) it looked very nice.
Green is one of those funny colors that have a very wide range of shades. Some don't really go together at all.
Think in terms of clothing. Olive or Khaki green & Kelly green?? OUCH!. LOL!
Purple is another color like that.
If you want to get a purple blouse to go with a skirt with purple in it, you'd better be wearing the skirt when you go shopping. Nancy
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Posted by: henryr10 z6 OH (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 10:04 The only trouble we've had w/ "Blackie"/"Marguerite" combo is that they seem to have two different light requirements. Blackie loves full sun and lots of it. We've also found "Marguerite" to be a bug magnet. They can really get munched in a hurry.
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Posted by: TrueMoonRiverGlow z5NH (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 11:39 G,White flowers go with anything.They will also break up a clash.S.p.v 's are the best.I especially love Blackie.Beautiful Pics!
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Posted by: DanieleB z9 SoCal (s23) (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 11:40 What about blue fescue? I don't grow it myself because of allergies, but it might look good together. :) Not enough sun for those vines here, but they are gorgeous!
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Posted by: theturtlelady z6/NYC (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 11:43 I can see it with dusty miller - it would make the SPV look greener and the purple would jump right out at you.
Those million bells - what's the name of the color on the right in the picture? I love the mixed ones, and I don't remember seeing anything that looked like that when I bought mine - it's really pretty. Is the one on the left terra cotta? Also - my sister just discovered SPV and is trying to grow it as a house plant. Is that possible or is she in for a disappointment? Another also - a gardenwebber who lives in my area told me he dug up his SPV in the fall last year and found a great big potato had grown!
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Posted by: kktayy Z6 PA (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 13:07 gabagoo:
How do you winterize your SPV's. I bought three small ones's this year and planted them with roses, verbena and million bells. The whole setup looks great. I read we can winterize SPV's. Could you please tell me how you save yours. Thank you
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Posted by: gabagoo z5/6 NY (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 13:23 Turtle-
Dusty Miller - yes. I had already planted my DMs by the time I got around to the SPV. That's why I ended up sticking it in with the santolina. Same color.
Yuppers, those are the terra cotta MBs. I love the colors on them. Sometimes they're yellow, sometimes orange, sometimes a rainbow that changes during the day. Tell your sister to report back to us. I never tried it & have no clue. LOL! In the garden section of my local paper a few years ago, there was an article about the potatoes that are formed by the vine. It said they didn't taste bad. It went on to say that if you were growing them from plants purchased in the garden center, not to expect the type of sweet potato you'd find in a market. The 1st year I grew SPV, I dug them up in the fall to save for the next spring. There were LOTS of them! The following spring, I planted them again. I waited... and waited... and waited... nothing. I dug a couple up to see if there was ANY signs of life. NOTHING. In fact, most of them were decomposing. They were now compost. LOL!
After that, I didn't bother. It was easier just to either root cuttings or buy new. Nancy
(can go from ambitious to lazy in 4.2 seconds.)
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Posted by: victrola Z5 Montreal QC (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 13:37 Nancy et al., don't lose hope about overwintering. Take cuttings and grow them as a houseplant. Or dig up the potatoes, hack back most of the growth, and grow them as houseplants--that's how I overwintered mine. Then in spring I hacked back the languid indoor growth (my apt isn't as sunny as I might wish it were) and I repotted the potatoes outside. Mind you, it takes a while for them to get going again, so if you want that "instant garden" effect, you might prefer to buy new ones. (I went for "instant garden" but if I ever get around to adding up the receipts and figure out how much I spent this year, I might persuade myself to go a more economical route next year...)
I've read on one of these posts that some of the coloured ones tend to revert to green, and I think I also read that this was due to cold temperatures???
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Posted by: Janice_in_Ottawa z4b/5a ONT (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 22:12 Those Marguarite vines are just beautiful. I would like to do something viney with my two balcony ends next year, and will be researching suitable plants soon. I think MG's are in order, and perhaps these sweet potatoes. One balcony divider will get entirely shade (on the bright side of shady), and the other will get bright indirect light followed by 4 hours of direct afternoon light. My question is: if I do MGs and SPVs, which end would be best for which?
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Posted by: NoVaPlantGuy_Z7b Alexandria, VA (My Page) on Mon, Jul 29, 02 at 22:52 Hi Janice!
On the sunny end I would do Morning Glories and Moonflowers. If you are wanting them to form a screen such as I have, I would sugguest you use something like brand new miracle grow, or other rich soil, and use 12" pots about 3-5 plants per pot. Thats how I got the results I did on the lattice work in between the picture window and the sliding glass door. Heres what it looked like as of 7/27/02 In just 2 days the growth is now even MORE dense than in the photos, and very noticably so. ITs pretty much the same for the END trellis, but there are 5 MG plants and one Scarlett Runner Bean ( which really did not do too much other than bloom and vine some, and is not by far the most insignifigant plant of them all) in a 25" long by 12" deep rectangular container. The MF that are going up the end trellis are in a sepearate 12" pot, in which there are 3 plants. Here is a photo of the trellis on the SE end also taken 7/27/02 It too has also grown much more dense over the past couple days, and is branching out and going crazy now! See that are corner on the the lattice in that photo? That was just 2 short days ago, and now its TOTALLY COVERED. The vines that came up thru that part are now just about hitting the ceiling too. Amazing! For your shady end im not sure. You might wish to try something called Thunbergia grandiflora (Common Names: Bengal clock vine, clock vine, sky flower) Its light requirements are sun to shade, and from what I have read on floridata about this nice vine is that it perfers afternoon or shifting shade. Heres a couple of pics of it. From what I have read about the Marguerite, they tend to prefer sun to partial shade as well, but they dont really TWINE or climb as much as they cascade or trail. I thin the Blackie SPV also grows in smilar conditions as the Marguerite, but likes more sun. I think the Blackie also is more of a cascader or trailer than it is a climber.
Other than those I really dont know of any vines that like total shade. Also, here is a link to floridata's page on clock vine. Hope this helps ya out!
Here is a link that might be useful: Thunbergia grandiflora (clock vine) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: Sweeeeet Potato Vines
Posted by: msgaz 9 Az (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 10:44 Your vines are beautiful, did you buy plants or grow them from seed?
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Posted by: NoVaPlantGuy_Z7b Alexandria, VA (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 11:29 Whose? Mine? If so.. thanks!!! If you are asking about mine, The TOP 2 photos are of my vines. The bottom 2 are of the clock vine, and I got those photos off of floridata.com.
All of the vines (moonflower and morning glory) on the Trellis on the end of the balcony I grew from seed. ALL of my morning glories I grew from seed. The Moonflower that is on the lattice work beetween the sliding glass door and the picture winow I bought already about a foot long at Wal-Mart in Va Beach around may 5th. They are all doing wonderfully and doing just what I wanted them to do wich is grow grow grow, and take over just about everything up here, and they are all flowering too!
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Posted by: Janice_in_Ottawa z4b/5a ONT (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 15:46 Wonderful Nova, this thread is going in my GardenWeb folder for winter reference. Those dark days of January and February, when all in Zone 5 and higher are going inexorably insane, will be filled with viney and drapey thoughts of clock vine and sweet potatoes. :-) Looking at what you've done to the end of your balcony, essentially creating your own side "wall" with the trellises, I am tempted to trellis-in part of the front of my balcony to create a little shady nook for reading during the heat of the day. I could imagine columns of strings from the railing up to the ceiling, holding MG vines. To prevent invading the upstairs balconies (I think this stuff could climb the whole building from there!) I wonder whether the growing tips of the vines could just be kept trimmed? What do people do in this case? Would the plant suffer from a continual haircut? Finally, has anyone given you any grief about the tiki torch? There's a strict moratorium on burning fuels on our balconies, so all my little sources of light so far are candles in little lanterns. By next year, I'll be the lantern queen of the neighbourhood, as I'll pick up more. My mother gave me some nice citronella tealights to use, very nicely smelly.
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Posted by: msgaz 9 Az (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 16:10 Where do get your seeds from? Our local nurseries don't
carry a good variety of vines. (I'm in a rual area)
I would love to try some SPV's.
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Posted by: NoVaPlantGuy_Z7b Alexandria, VA (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 16:56 Hey Janice, can you post a link to your photos again? Id like to take a look at them to see exactly what kind of balcony situation you have going on. Once I look, I will be better able to forulate some kind of plan that you can impliment for next summer. I dont know how fast or how much growth you will get being so far north, but I guess its worth a shot.
Once I take a look and study what kinda of balcony you have, and what types of rails, etc... Ill be able to think up something im sure. I have seen a few places where folks have used string or twing and attached it from the front rail to hooks in the ceiling, but I did not really care for the way it looked. It was basically kind of just rows of green leaves with too much space in between. I prefer something thats more like a wall like I have, and by using a trellis like the one I have it gives it lots of things to grab onto instead of just twining up a string in a row. The main purpose was to close off that end of the balcony as it overlooks the interstate that runs right by us. There is also alot of light that comes from that direction at night which I wanted to block out too, and what I have done has been about 95% effective at doing that too. I Would have liked to have done somehting similar with another trellis on the other end, but I am not real sure that that end gets enough sun for anything. I might end up trying soemthing like Clock Vine like I talked about earlier, Or mabye a woody vine like Virginia Creeper, as that can handle lower amounts of sun too. As for the Teekee torches, no one has ever said anything. I dont really use them too often anymore as I have ALOT of candle lanterns like you. I did use them the other evening after dark, and one of the branches of the MG's actaully GREW into the light and got burned on the tip. I watched it over a period of a couple of hours, and it actaully knew there was a bright lightsource there, and grew towards it!!! Anyway... I have a total of 8 candle lanters of differnt kinds, and one citronella fule lantern. (the black one hanging in front of the lattice work) As for haircuts for the MG vines, I can tell you that if you clip off the growing tip, it will just branch and form a new growing tip out of one of the branches that form in the leaf nodes. Its just that simple. I can also tell you that when they get to the point where they are producing buds they tend to branch out more anyway, and clipping off the growing tip seems to just encourage this and even speed it up slightly. So I dont think its harmful at all to the plant, it just makes it branch out more and thus makes it more full. It is essentially the same with Moonflowers too. However I am am alot more careful with those because I dont like breaking the ends off because the vines are much thicker and grow faster it seems. BUT, if it does break or get clipped, it too will branch. In fact, I think I have only broken the tip of one vine and that one branched just fine, but they dont even need to be clipped to branch. Mine are just branching off and forming new VERY LONG vines on its OWN, without clipping, while still maintianing the growth of the parent vine. Anyway... dont forget that link! Thanks.
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Posted by: Janice_in_Ottawa z4b/5a ONT (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 18:20 Ha ha, heat-seeking missile MGs! Cute. OK, I can see what you mean about rows of strings. I definitely would want some kind of sun shelter, so a trellis sounds about right. It would be easy enough to attach to my rail. Speaking of my rail and other balcony details, here are some pics I just took. Hope it gives you a sense of things. I'm not willing to hang off the rail to get your Tarzan-like shots, so hope these will do! This pic below shows my brick outside wall topped with a metal cap and rail. This pic below shows the bright-shaded end wall at the north end of the balcony. Well, the top half of it, anyway. The wall goes right to the floor, and this is what the top looks like. Handy supports at the top for fastening a trellis, yes?
And this pic shows the south end wall, along with a glimpse of the building wall. Hey, look at those bits of wood waiting to be built into plant shelves!
The balcony is 30 feet long, on the 6th floor, and faces NNW. The sun shows up around 2:45pm and gradually weakens until sunset. I suppose in the longest dog days of summer, I would get 4 hours of direct sun, very hot. Then it gets a bit weaker. I find that things are growing pretty well, despite my limited sun hours. Lots of chillies sprouting on those pepper plants, and my bell peppers are coming in nicely. But just wait until next year! I need to create a whole-balcony look, not just a cluster of plants on a table at one end. It was a start, but I'm ready to go bananas for next summer. Hey, bananas... zone 4/5... nahhh....
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Posted by: henryr10 z6 OH (My Page) on Tue, Jul 30, 02 at 20:08 NoVaPlantGuy,
Everytime I see this balcony I am more impressed. It is all coming together now and quite well indeed.
We grow variagated Va. Creeper and I think you'll be quite pleased w/ it. May I also suggest Variagated Porcelain Berry. Grape-like foliage and small M&M sized berries in every pastel color imaginable.
Also yesterday at Lowes we picked up some Citronella Candlesticks. About 14" tall, small wick, bronze/brass make-up, hold about 3 oz. of fuel. Would look nice on any outdoor table. 2 for 10 bucks. Pictures can be made available if anyone's interested. Ric
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Posted by: NoVaPlantGuy_Z7b Alexandria, VA (My Page) on Wed, Jul 31, 02 at 0:10 Henryr10: Thanks for the compliments. Id LOVE it if you posted some photos of the plants and candle things you mentioned!
Janice: A few questions. First, was your cam zoomed all the way out to get the widest possible shots? Just wondering. In the top photo, are we looking down your front railing towards the wall thats in the second photo? If I were standing on your balcony facing the front rail, would the wall in the second photo be to my left or to my right?
In the second photo , does that wall get any sun? If so how much? Does the sun set in that general direction? OR does it set so its kind of shining directly into your balcony head on from the front? In other words, if I was standing on your balcony facing the front rail, would the sun set in front of me? If NOT then would it be to the left or right, and how far? In the third photo, is the part of the end wall I see the same as the one on the other end? Does that brick wall get much sun? Does the sun creep UPWARDS on that brick wall until it sets and if so how far up does it go? Also, Is there a brick area between your door do your balcony and the window thats in the picture? There are reasons Im asking so many questions. Its mainly to help me envision what you have going on in terms of structure out there, and sunlight. I think this is going to be FUN FUN FUN!!! Im kind of excited to actaually help someone do fun, neat, interesting, and functional things with thier balcony! I guess the next step would be to actually do this in real life!! LOL. Anyway, This should be alot of fun for me. But alas, youll have to do all the footwork and labor. Id love to do it, and would if you were closer. Oh well. If you enjoy this like I do, it will be fun for you. It really is a labor of love for me, and I really enjoyed all the work I did, even though some of it was a bit of a challenge. Anyway, Ill keep checking in here for now. Once it gets going though, I suspect well have to start emialing so as not to REALLY clutter up this thread! LOL.
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Posted by: Janice_in_Ottawa z4b/5a ONT (My Page) on Wed, Jul 31, 02 at 6:32 Victrola has started us a new vines/balcony thread... we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Anyone for sweet potato vines? :-)
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Posted by: gabagoo z5/6 NY (My Page) on Wed, Jul 31, 02 at 8:12 LOL!
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Posted by: reddy z6MI (My Page) on Sat, Aug 17, 02 at 8:45 Check the tubers for sprouts, put the eyes or sprouts up.
After storing the SPV for the winter, put the tuber into potting soil, cover w/ about 1/4" of soil and water lightly. Put in a warm, light place. Can't really tell you on time for leaves to come out. It varies from a week or two to a month. Don't put them in full sun right off, bring them out into the shade and harden them off for a few days. | 
