I've never actually seen it flower before ;)

Sweet potatoes flower for me some years and other years they don't. I love their flowers. They remind me of morning glories (to which the sweet potatoes are related). Amy, I've never gotten seed from any but I assume that with pollinators around, they might make seed.

When I saw it, I googled it. Research said it was rare for them to flower and sought after by breeders. I can't wait to see if I have anything under ground. The garlic is going to go in that bed, I think, so will be harvesting before too long.

Mine flower every year but they never make any seed. May depend on the soil or weather. My original slips came from a store bought sweet potato so that may be the cause.

I have had a bunch of blooms too. I did not know it was rare. I will be more appreciative now.

I am further North of Dawn and my black ornamental heart-leaf began blooming in July. I got it as a cutting from my neighbor, rooted in a pot, planted out front in a sunny bed with Marguerite (which hasn't bloomed). It is a small, lavender bloom like yours. I also brought in a couple of cuttings, in a vase of water, and the black one has bloomed indoors, too. A much paler lavender, but a bloom nonetheless. So who knows why one blooms and another doesn't. Ya got me! I do know that they root faster than most plants...within a couple days of either planting in potting soil, or putting in water. We used to put sweet potatoes in a jar in fall and grow on a windowsill over winter just for something green to enjoy and because they are so easy.

And, yes, they are in the Ipomoea genus, the same as morning glories, and moon vines.

Susan

My sweet potato plants are full of blooms which surprises me as I planted my sweet potatoes to late this year. I didn't set out any potatoes to make slips because I didn't have my ground ready in time and really hadn't felt like planting any until Aug. 5, I happened to clean out the box that I had stored last years crop in and discovered they were full of slips and decided to get busy and plant them. I don't expect any big enough for eating but I am hoping that they will make a few roots at least that will be suitable enough for some slips next spring.

Well anyway wither I make any seed sweet potatoes for next spring, they are very healthy and full of pretty blooms which makes it all worth while it to me.

Auther, I planted mine late, too. Wonder if day length at a specific point in their developmemt triggers flowering?

I love their sweet little flower. I had them blooming in Denver, Co. when I lived there and they bloomed every yr. I hope someone brings slips to the Spring Fling!!!

Why doesn't the green sweet potato vine bloom?

There's no special reason that a green sweet potato vine wouldn't bloom. Are you talking about the ornamental ones? I've had them bloom before. The blooming of sweet potatoes is highly variable. Some years I see a lot of blooms, and some years not. Last year I grew ornamental sweet potatoes as a living ground cover beneath all my hot pepper plants and they bloomed heavily from midsummer until frost, and I had all kinds---with foliage that was dark purple, the chartreuse green ones, and the variegated green/white/pinkish ones. Because I didn't want for them to overrun the pathways, or climb up into the pepper plants, I cut them back relentlessly and still had tons of blooms. I also didn't prevent them from creeping over the edge of one raised bed, rooting into the mulch in the pathway, and then rooting into the soil in an adjacent raised bed. Apparently I didn't cut them back often enough. I removed the ones that were rooted into the pathway and stuck them into another raised bed and they grew just fine, and eventually bloomed too.

Some varieties bloom more than others. In the year that I trialed roughly 20 varieties from Duck Creek Farms, all of them grew well and some bloomed and some didn't. Regardless, they all were beautiful vines and produced loads of sweet potatoes. I just consider blooms a bonus.

As for bringing slips to the Spring Fling, that's the sort of thing that might be an issue of timing and space. Often, slips aren't ready that early unless a person were to start them early on purpose in order to have some ready for the Spring Fling. Even though I have a greenhouse, it is crammed full of seedlings being raised from seeds and I usually am not even thinking about sweet potato slips until after the Spring Fling is over and I have available space in the greenhouse. While you can plant sweet potatoes as early as around May 10th in parts of OK, often our nights are still chilly even though the days are warm, and I often don't plant them until June. Maybe somebody who has more space available earlier in the season might start some slips early enough to bring them to the Spring Fling, but I suspect most of us have the same problem---we want to grow more things indoors than we have space for since starting seedlings indoors gets the garden off to a good quick start.

authereray, the reason your sweet potatoes don't produce seed may well be the fact that they need cross-pollination to produce seeds. You will not get seeds from just one plant.

I've read that this is true, that a sweet potato has to cross with one of a different variety in order to make seed. For some years now I've had about a dozen varieties, fairly close together and, still, few seeds. Last year I carefully combed though about 80' of row and found about 6 seeds. This year I had about 90' of row and didn't find a single seed. Yet, a friend down near OKC had all sorts of seeds form on her sweet potatoes. So, there's a mystery there, still.

Dawn's point was very valid about day length. I know they flower more where there are shorter days, but there may be more factors involved, yet.

Here's a link to my first experiment with growing sweet potatoes from true seed.