I want to plant some of this but in reading in plant files seems it is invasive for some and well loved by others. Does anyone have experience to share on these?
Spiderwort/Tradescantia - what is your experience?
Well, I kinda like them. The ones I planted grow wild here. I dug them up from ditches on county roads and got my start. I planted them along a rocked wall of a flower bed. They do spread by seeds but I love them for their early brilliant blue and purple colors. Those that spread into the grass simply get mowed down. In this climate, they bloom primarily in spring. I have seen a cultivar that grew about 5 feet tall. They were contained in a bed and I think not as invasive. What type of planting are you intending to do with them? If it is a wildflower display or cottage garden bed, I think they would fit in. If you are structuring the flower beds, you might get frustrated with Spiderwort. Currently I don't have any photos to post but they should started blooming in a month or so. pod
I like them too. They may not behave perfectly, but they haven't exactly taken over either.
My spiderworts haven't been problematic.
Very pretty j!!!!
I plan on trying some. I don't know that I am trying for a cottage garden but the area I am planting is very large and I am trying to fill it up!
Jmorth ~ very pretty photo! Is that a white porcelain planter I see? Whatcha gonna plant in it? : )) pod
I only grow two types,dwarf variety "Peter Pan"( I think that's it's name)and gold leaf variety "Sweet Kate" no problems with either,other than I need to move SK into more sun so the foliage retains it's color better.
I plan on adding others.
P
podster, your power of observation is telling...vines were planted in the white porcelain planter, cypress and thunbergia...
The recognition factor is good from past experience. : ))
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/630274/
Intend to plant it this spring but still don't know with what... pod
This message was edited Jan 19, 2007 7:32 PM
Meant to add your vines are lovely... it is almost hard to recognize the porcelain in the photo. Very nice!
Spiderwort, 'Sweet Kate': Love the wonderful lime/gold foliage and the deep blue flowers.
I love them but they have all been too invasive to keep. I have not been able to totally eradicate them after years of trying. They adore popping up in every clump of Iris and DL I have. I didn't try 'Sweet Kate'. Patti
Sweet Kate is one of the ones I am trying. Also Blue Stone and Red Grape. Wish me luck!!
I have sweet kate and it is not invasive..I have one other and don't know the name (purpleish) and that one runs into everything and I can't get rid of it. Also I found a blue one years ago in the Blue Ridge Mountains and have had it for years and it does hardly anything. Go figure.
I have remorse, because I once had a full stand under a white pine, that gave a beautiful contrast in a color combination, that I am going to try to recreate.I had moved them the Yr. before,because they were "weeds", and came there, because of something I had moved, some Yrs. before, and they filled in around this Large white pine that was limed up to walk, and drive under, and it was a perfect picture, and they kept themselves under the shade of the tree.Sometimes we don't know what we have, until we loose it. Mike
Aw Mike, I hate it when that happens. I moved some this fall from part shade to full shade. We'll see how they do there.
I picked up a couple of varieties one year, the next year they were in everything! Like another poster mentioned they pop up in the middle of irises and daylillies and take over. I have sandy loam soil, I'm guessing that soil probably has something to do with how invasive they are. I'm still trying to eradicate them, not a mistake I will make again.
Julie
I bought one two years ago, and it is the saddest struggling little thing you ever did see - reading this, I'm grateful, since it appears to have invasive tendencies, maybe I'll dig it up and pot it.
i'm guilty of digging up the invasive ones along the roadsides and bringing them home. i love them and you can't make me get rid of them! LOL
i have Sweet Kate on order, although i may be too far south for that one to do well. catalog said zone 8 and down. hah, what do they know??? LOL again!
This message was edited Jan 22, 2007 2:52 PM
I have several of the hybrids (large foliage and flowers in various colors) and they spread some, but not enough to be called invasive. Some of them set seed and volunteer, but still not enough to be a problem here.
However, I also grow a wild species with narrower foliage and small vivid rosy flowers and it spreads more and might be called invasive as the clump will soon elbow its way ever wider, especially in moist soils.
Some folks mistake Commelina communis (Asiatic dayflower) (spit-spit) for a Tradescantia, but in bloom it is easily differentiated if not previously by the form. It is a nasty, nasty weed!
Thanks for that info, raydio, mine is also a newer hybrid, so perhaps that is why it's so feeble, er, polite.
2zeus~
They seem to prefer a rich soil and plentiful moisture. Mine tend to go dormant, but not fully defoliated, in the heat of summer, especially if they have been running dry. Blooming slows or stops and the plants look a bit raggedy. I don't think they are ever-blooming anyway, though, but cutting down the spent scapes would help, especially if they are forming seeds.
I don't have all of mine in a rich moisture-retentive soil and they also get the afternoon sun, so those are the ones that peter out the most. Morning sun seems to be best and shaded from strong light the rest of the day this far south. We have high heat and humidity in summer--killer combination. But up there where you are, full sun or close to it might be preferred.
Cutting them back and keeping up on the watering will flush them out again and they'll usually bloom when it's not so hot.
Ahh, I think I may have mine in a place where it is getting too much afternoon sun, and not enough moisture - in a bed between the cement foundation of the house, and the cement sidewalk, and baked all afternoon - (tag said "full sun" so that's what I gave the poor thing!) I'm going to try moving it in spring, and see if it is happier this year.
That might be it. They can handle full sun if they are constantly moist and they're less likely to be floppy, but it is more risky.....
R.
Tradescantia 'Purple Profusion' is quite nice. Intense blue-purple flower all summer. The new shoots coming up in spring are purple!
The individual flowers have an undulation to the petals.
My tradescantia is a pale ghost of that beauty.
LW...I love that purple profusion....have to get one/two/three......
Although I have not tried Sweet Kate my general opinion of tradescantia is invasive, sloppy leaved plant with not much of a bloom impact. kt
"Sloppy leaved" most definitely. I've never lusted over the genus at all. And never had any other than Purple Profusion. That, only because someone wanted to trade with me and he happened to be the originator of the cultivar. I just couldn't pass up that opportunity. By the way, for the people who care, he says Purple Profusion has never been in tissue culture.
Although, you can see a lot of drought stress on the leaves in my pic. They really should look a little better if I watered.
I had read somewhere that the stamens change colors in the presence of radioactivity.Has anyone heard of this and know what color they change to.
Charlie
From blue they go pink:
http://www.bigeastern.com/eotp/tradescantia_ohiensis.htm
Thanks Radio.
Maybe I need to check them out to be on the safe side.
Charlie
I have 2 types of Tradescantia, one is T. virginiana 'Rubra' which is a bright purple pink, and a deep blue one which I grew from a small piece from a neighbour, who got it from another neighbour so I don't know what it's called.
I had them for a long time in pots until I got them in the ground and their roots got well pot bound, but once in the ground they did well. They looked really good last year, it was very hot and dry but they didn't suffer and flowered forever. They do go a little tatty at the end but so do a lot of plants, the stems on mine were upright and sturdy, but with drooping leaves.
I started T Virginiana Rubra in another bed where it got laid on by other plants and I nearly lost it. They do like their space and plenty of sun. I think I have a pic somewhere if I could only find it of the whole lot, they have geraniums, Iris and a blue Corydalis growing around them with Papaver orientale earlier, in the autumn I have colchicum Waterlily which helps brighten the deadening area of foliage.
I found a pic of the blue flowers, a few bunches on one plant made double flowers this year. I had a self set growing in a pot which is white with some blue shading.
I found a pic of the foiage but not with flowers, to the right at the back is one of the blues, in the middle at the back is Rubra. Taken on 25th may.
Mine so far have been fairly well behaved and stayed in clumps, I planted them in 2004 so they have had 3 seasons in the ground. The odd piece looks to be travelling and I have seen an occasional self set from seed but very little.
That double is a gem, wallaby1 !
Yes it is
For those that have had problems with it being nasty - do you have sandy soil? I have read in several placs that it likes sandy soil so maybe that is where it is happiest and thus most selfish? My soil isn't clay either though so I will choose carefully where I put it
I should have thought to get seeds from the double, now I will have to wait to see if I get them again this year. Perhaps I should have thought to take cuttings from those too, I may have thought but summer gets busy with other things! There was more than one stem with the double so here's hoping. Is there a double on the market?
Found one but it doesn't look as nice as mine
http://www.perennialnursery.com/plantinfo/tradescantia.html
pegzhere my soil is very sandy, river bed stony stuff, they haven't done much more than make nice size clumps.
Wallaby1~
I'm thinking "new introduction"............
Those stems that sported double should remain so.
R.