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Sweet Caroline Medusa™ Black

Ipomoea

General Information GROWING TIPS

Featuring a leaf shape you’ll only find from Proven Winners, this unique sweet potato vine forms a full, billowing mass of dramatic black, palm-shaped leaves. Compared to trailing cultivars, Sweet Caroline Medusa™ varieties have a more mounded shape with overlapping leaves, so they look more like a Boston fern than a long vine. However, they are just as heat tolerant and vigorous, thriving across North America in containers and landscapes where they won’t need to be trimmed constantly to stay in bounds.

Sweet Caroline Medusa™ Black
Blossom Color Grown for foliage
Bloom Season Spring, Summer, Fall
Exposure Part to full sun
Height 6-12 in
Width 18-30 in
Spacing 12-18 in
Container Sizes 3.5" Accent
Hardiness Zones 11
Wildlife Attracted No Wildlife Attracted
Wildlife Deterred No Wildlife Deterred
Features Featuring a leaf shape you’ll only find from Proven Winners, this unique sweet potato vine forms a full, billowing mass of dramatic black, palm-shaped leaves. Compared to trailing cultivars, Sweet Caroline Medusa™ varieties have a more mounded shape with overlapping leaves, so they look more like a Boston fern than a long vine. However, they are just as heat tolerant and vigorous, thriving across North America in containers and landscapes where they won’t need to be trimmed constantly to stay in bounds.
Available Seasons
Adaptable as a Houseplant No
Bog Plant No
Is Disease Resistant No
Drought Tolerant No
Edible No
Erosion Control No
Fragrant Flower No
Fragrant Foilage No
Heat Tolerant Yes
Native to North America No
Salt Tolerant No
Succulent No
Water Plant No
Uses

Works great in landscapes as an annual ground cover, as well as in combinations and containers by themselves.  The plant is very adaptable, working in both sun and shade conditions, atlhough the colors are deeper and brighter in full sun than they are in shadier environments where colors are tinged with more green.

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  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.

2025Top Performer - University of Florida - Fort Lauderdale
2025Top Performer - University of Wisconsin - West Madison
2025Top Performer - Boerner Botanical Garden
2025Perfect Score - University of Missouri
2025Perfect Score - Garden Plantings & A Top 10 Winner - University of Minnesota - Morris
2025Perfect Score & A Top 10 Winner - University of Minnesota - Grand Rapids
2025Top Performer - Mass Hort
2025Flame Proof - Dallas Arboretum
2025Top 10 Performer - Beds - North Carolina State, JC Raulston Arboretum
2025Leader of the Pack - Beds - North Carolina State, JC Raulston Arboretum
2025Leader of the Pack - Early Season - North Carolina State, JC Raulston Arboretum
2025Leader of the Pack - Late Season - North Carolina State, JC Raulston Arboretum
2025Top Performer - UGA
2025Outstanding Variety - Colorado State
2025Top Performer - In Ground - Colorado State

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