It’s November and my Florida vegetable garden is a bit of a mess. I don’t do much with it, but I look at it every day out my bedroom window. And today, I noticed a lavender-pink flower that was out of place. The outside color is about the same as the eggplant flowers, but this bloom was larger. It looked like it was on the trailing vine of the sweet potato plant. And sure enough it was!
Any day I can learn something new is a good day, in my opinion. And today I did. After neglecting my overgrown raised bed garden for months due to the heat, I am pleased to see new things happening in November. Maybe a cool down was all it needed.
After doing a quick search about flowering potato vines, I found an article at The Walden Effect which said flowers on potatoes were unusual. Then, I read comments from lots of people who have had flowers like mine. So whether it is uncommon or not, I don’t know. Maybe flowering sweet potatoes are only common in Florida, or other humid areas. It certainly looks like more flowers will be blooming on my vine. And yes, as someone mentioned, they do look like Morning Glories.
At my house in New Hampshire I grew a big Morning Glory plant with blue flowers. The vine grew up the side of my deck railing, but the plant was frozen just as loads of buds were forming. I decided not to grow them again, but the blue flowers were gorgeous. The buds were twirled around and unfolded like a mini umbrella. You can see that in my photo above.
Getting Seeds From Sweet Potato Flowers
Another interesting sweet potato article talks about how sometimes the blossoms can turn into tomato-looking berries. This is where the seeds will be. I have never grown a sweet potato from seeds, only from tubers, or bits of old sweet potatoes with eyes.
I will watch and see what happens to the flowers, and if I get any of those seed pods.
Thank you for sharing!
Hydrangeas Blue 