For apartment dwellers and those without garden space, the quest for greenery often leads to low-light-tolerant plants such as cacti, herbs and ornamentals. The ‘Pink Frost’ sweet potato vine is a standout choice for this very purpose, offering a vibrant splash of colour with its pink-and-green variegated leaves.

Scientifically known as Ipomoea batatas, the ‘Pink Frost’ belongs to the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae). It is often mistakenly associated with the sweet potato’s Solanum Tuberosum family.

One of the main advantages of growing ‘Pink Frost’ is its ability to adapt to constrained spaces, albeit with proper tending and pruning to stop the plant from spreading out. Being versatile, the vine can be grown in a hanging basket or in a raised flower bed. Some people opt to plant it in wine or water bottles and display them prominently by placing them on a table or hanging them on pillars around the house and at the entrance. Moreover, compared to other ornamental vines, the ‘Pink Frost’ vine is readily available at local plant nurseries and at a relatively economical price.

While the ‘Pink Frost’ is generally considered to be an annual vine, in favourable conditions and climates such as the one prevalent in Karachi, the vine may act as a perennial one. However, in areas that experience harsh winters or drastic temperature variations, the vine’s life may be reduced to a seasonal one. In many cases, even if the parent plant withers off, the tubers or the inedible sweet potatoes of this vine continue to grow shoots in the container. This keeps the vine flourishing until the soil is changed or the tubers are consciously removed.

Colourful, adaptable and incredibly easy to multiply, this sweet potato vine is a top choice for gardeners constrained by space

Growing and propagating a ‘Pink Frost’ sweet potato vine is relatively easy and it can be done in several ways. The most common way is to use a cutting. It is the easiest and most economical method of propagation. I usually take a cutting of a mature plant vine from any of my friends or family who may have this species. Another way would be to simply buy a mature plant and grow it in a larger container.

Once it is big enough, the cuttings can be chopped off to prepare multiple small vine pots or to grow them in raised flower beds. The cuttings can also be placed in water and roots will soon start to grow, and one may plant the cuttings, with roots, into a container with a potting mix. Usually, the roots grow within one to two weeks.

While making a cutting, ensure that chopping off a branch would not drastically hamper the parent plant’s growth. The cutting should be cut cleanly at an angle. It should have at least two to three nodes available on the stem. Keeping the top two leaves intact, remove all other leaves from the cutting. At least two to three inches of the stem should be inserted into the soil, with at least one node beneath the soil surface. In settings such as Karachi, spring or monsoon is the best time to grow a vine from the cutting.

Apart from the cutting method, ‘Pink Frost’ vine can also be grown with the help of its seeds. However, it is difficult and rarely used. When grown from seeds, the vine rarely flowers and has few seeds of good quality. Instead, planting tubers would be a better choice. As stated earlier, the easiest and most recommended method is to propagate the ‘Pink Frost’ sweet potato vine with the help of cuttings.

Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel ‘DocTree Gardening’ promoting organic kitchen gardening

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 12th, 2025