Sweet potato vine spills gracefully over the edge of a container or bed, its heart-shaped leaves — in shades from lime green to near-black — doing all the decorative work without a single flower needed.
Grown as an ornamental trailing plant, sweet potato vine is the same species as the edible root crop, though the showy varieties sold for containers are bred for foliage color and vigor rather than for eating.
Sweet potato vine wants full sun to partial shade and grows quickly and vigorously in average garden soil, tolerating heat well. It's frost-tender and grown as an annual in most climates, though small tubers can be dug up and stored indoors over winter to replant next year.
Regular pinching of the trailing stems keeps ornamental sweet potato vine bushy and full rather than sparse and leggy.
