linnea56, Just an update. My sweet potato vine on a big pot made it. I even barely watered it. I placed them in the basement near window to get some light. It got some light maybe 1-2 hours a day and depending on the month. The maroon version though looks like didn't make it or maybe the pot where it was wasn't deep enough. The chartreuse kept producing leaves but were pale and losing leaves too. It's outside now. But I might have to bring it in tonight since we'll get down to 38F in the next few. I'm so happy since it's somewhat a success and that I didn't put a lot of effort. Bad news, my purple fountain grass didn't make it. It stopped producing leaves around January. I brought it outside. We'll see.

Mr. Brown Thumb says that the ornamental ones have been bred for their lovely foliage so that's why the potato is pithy and woody, whereas the sweet potatoes bred for their potato production are tastier ... in the tuber portion. http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2010/10/ornamental-sweet-potato-vine.html. Sooo if they're both Ipomoeas then one should grow them for what they intend to harvest and use for their tables ... either leaves or tubers? I have Puerto Rico sweet potatoes growing and will have to try eating the young leaves and shoots. This is a very interesting discussion because I have been curious about eating the foliage for a while. Does anyone know if all Ipomoeas (morning glories) have edible leaves? Thanks to you all for the information in this thread.

The easiest way to overwinter sweet potato vines is by taking cuttings and leaving them in a glass of water all winter. They root super-easy, too! Or you can pot up your plants and keep them indoors.

Thanks Digdirt, I agree that it'd probably be easier to just get slips from potatoes in the spring. The problem is I've never tried this with these varieties. I don't know if they're "Rare" but they're certainly not easy to get. The Okinawan sweet potatoes were really difficult to find and I had to resort to getting them from a guy on ebay (he was the only person who had them) after the one online website I bought them from basically said "sorry, our crop failed, try next year". This was from rareseeds.com, which I found to be the only seller that year. I guess it only being on "rare"seeds, suggests they are in fact sort of rare, don't know. The Murasaki Japanese Sweet potatoes are a little easier to get, but tend to ship late. I live in North Texas, so we're used to Beauregard's and such, but these Japanese varieties (super delicious by the way) are unknown territory for me, and just too difficult (and expensive) to obtain again. Organic versions of these potatoes are impossible to find since both of these varieties are irradiated at the supermarket. I've yet to find anyone that sells these at a farmers market as well. My crop this year wasn't great since they got started late due to issues with the suppliers, and I got maybe only 3 or 4 meal sized potatoes (of each variety) and a lot of tiny little tubers. So basically I have no idea how this crop will do as far as giving me slips next spring. There's a lot of "firsts" going on here, and I'm also curing them for the first time as well. If I have to plant them in soil, I'll do so, it's just they're so much easier to get going in water and I'm afraid I'll lose my cuttings if I transplant them. They're taking on great (root-wise) in water right now, but some of the leaves are starting to yellow, don't really know why. 5 months is a long time to overwinter though, so I guess I'll just try to cover all my bases and plant some in soil, keep some in water and hope I get slips from the tiny tubers next spring.