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Illusion® Midnight Lace Sweet Potato Vine Ipomoea batatas

Flower Season
  • Spring
  • Summer
Mature Size
10" 3' 25cm 91cm
Height: 6" - 10"
Spread: 2' - 3'
Height: 15cm - 25cm
Spread: 61cm - 91cm
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  • Details

    6 - 10 Inches
    10 - 12 Inches
    24 - 36 Inches
    15cm - 25cm
    25cm - 30cm
    61cm - 91cm

    Features

    A great foliage component plant in combinations, excellent heat tolerance and good vigor. Great also as an annual ground cover.

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    Foliage Interest
    Heat Tolerant
    Deadheading Not Necessary

    Characteristics

    Plant Type: 
    Annual
    Height Category: 
    Short
    Garden Height: 
    6 - 10 Inches 15cm - 25cm
    Trails Up To: 
    30 Inches 76cm
    Spacing: 
    10 - 12 Inches 25cm - 30cm
    Spread: 
    24 - 36 Inches 61cm - 91cm
    Foliage Colors: 
    Purple
    Foliage Shade: 
    Black/Purple
    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
    Soil Fertility Requirement: 
    Average Soil
    Uses: 
    Container
    Uses: 
    Landscape
    Uses: 
    Mass Planting
    Uses Notes: 

    Great in combinations, window boxes, hanging baskets and landscapes.

    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 (growing up to 36" a week in the Deep South), 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.

    "A Real Simple magazine Top 10 goofproof Plant"

     

    Illusion® Midnight Lace Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP-011MNLC' USPP 21,743, Can 4,161
  • 9 Reviews

    5
    5
    4
    2
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    2
    2
    1
    Browse reviews from people who have grown this plant.
    • I love the lacy leaves also the darkness of them. They go with so many colors & they bring a richness to the pots.

      Carolyn Prenot
      , Minnesota
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • I love it for container planting

      Jennifer
      , Ontario
      , Canada
      , 13 years ago
    • Very easy to grow, hardyand thirves in our warm humid weather! Very nice contrats of green and bronze as it grows.

      Aileen Pierce
      , Wisconsin
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • Marty Ferguson
      , Michigan
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • Like the green one, this lacey cultivar performed wonderfully in my containers/trials.

      Jodi DeLong
      , Nova Scotia
      , Canada
      , 13 years ago
    • I planted this vine in the ground and it quickly made a lovely mound tucked under fall blooming dark purple chrysanthemums and Superbena Pink Parfait for a stunning late summer/early fall combination.

      Dawn Hummel
      , Oregon
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
    • Russell Studebaker
      , Colorado
      , United States
      , 13 years ago
  • 99 Awards

    Award Year Award Plant Trial
    2021 Top Performer Dallas Arboretum
    2012 Top Perfomer South Dakota State - McCrory Gardens
    2012 Top Performer Ohio State University Chadwick Arboretum - Springfield
    2012 Top 10 North Carolina State, JC Raulston Arboretum
    2012 Top Performer University of Tennessee - Knoxville
    2012 Top Perfomer University of Wisconsin
    2012 Top Landscape Performer North Carolina State, JC Raulston Arboretum
    2012 Top Performer Colorado State University
    2012 Very Good Perfomer University Laval
    2012 Top Performer University of Minnesota - Grand Rapids
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  • 13 Recipes

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