Look for ornamental sweet potatoes in pots at your local garden store. Purchase them in late spring after all chances of frost have passed.
Dedicate large spaces in the garden for the potatoes. Ornamental sweet potatoes can grow up to four feet wide.
Prepare the soil. Ornamental sweet potatoes can be grown in a container, garden, or landscape. Use high-quality commercial potting soil for the containers or good-quality soil with compost added for garden and landscape planting.
Choose a location with full sun. These potatoes require a lot of direct sunlight and heat. If planting in containers, use large containers and only one or two plants. Ornamental sweet potatoes will outcompete small plants, so use larger plants with them. Plant sweet potatoes near the edge of a container so the plant will trail over the edge.
Don’t look for sweet potato seeds. All ornamental sweet potato varieties come from cuttings. Small cuttings root easily, plus stems lying on the ground may root if the ground is wet enough.
Space plants 3 to 6 feet (1-2 m) apart. Sweet potato plants will get large. Ornamental sweet potatoes produce real sweet potatoes in late summer. The tubers can be dug in the fall, but these plants were not selected for the edible quality of the tubers.
Apply water and fertilizer regularly. Sweet potatoes need 1 inch (2-3 cm) of water each week through rainfall or irrigation for best growth. Apply water-soluble fertilizer to containers every 2-3 weeks. Apply water-soluble fertilizer to garden or landscape locations every 4-6 weeks.
Expect great performance from ornamental sweet potatoes. These plants will fill large spaces in your landscape over the summer.
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