Tuesday, August 10, 2010

SWEET POTATO VINE

I have always loved the bright, lime green, cascading habit of the Sweet Potato Vine.  For this reason I use them a lot in the back--on the patio and hanging from its eaves.  It's an annual, one of the few I have.  It has large, even-colored lime green leaves.  It doesn't flower, but the vine continues to grow until the first frost, cascading over planters, and sometimes reaching the cement patio!  I buy them and put them into 4 hanging baskets on the patio, and 1 large standing planter on the patio.  I've never had any problem with them other than the hanging planters need to be watered every single day, or they become limp. They also aren't hardy--they must be pulled in the fall.  For the relative small cost, however, they are worth every penny!  I like to put pink trailing petunias, blue trailing lobelia, or something like a spike, asparagus fern, or fuchsia with it in the hanging planters.  In the big upright planter, I can have much more variety--some trailing licorice plant, geranium, dwarf dahlia, coleus, or a myriad of others that are appropriate for a patio planter.   

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