My pup, Leo, has developed a nasty rash, and after a visit to the vet, (and $300 later!), We have discovered 5 different Tradescantia plants in the garden, all of which are common contributors to Doggy rashes!
Number 1 is Tradescantia fluminensis variegata.
It is a wandering jew, but a great ground cover.
Number 2 is T. spathacea (Rhoeo)
Number 3 is wandering Jew, which i have not taken a pic of, but have a small patch of by the chook yard.
Number 4 is T.virginiana, which I've only just had Identified, and really don't think Leo has , or will have any contact with it.
Number 5 is T. pallida, which I also don't have a pic of.
There is a lot of work involved in removing them from the garden! But on a brighter note, I'll have space to plant something else!
Hi Sue,
I suspect your allergy culprit was either #1, #3 or #5 as these three have been known to cause human allergic reactions as well. I have several Tradescantia species and near relatives but fortunately have never had a reaction to any of them - amazing really given that I seem to be allergic to every second thing in existence! If you are chucking your plants may I be greedy and ask for a sample of each? I'd like to compare yours to my collection and you have at least three there (#1 #2 & #4 which I don't have at all. I do have the yellow leafed cultivar of T. virginiana "Sweet Kate" which is really lovely with its contrasting dark blue flowers, and a couple of furry leafed succulent ones - pity you have to give them up or we could swap. That's one expensive pup you've got there! Here is one of my "furries" for you to see.
OMG. I have several varieties of wandering jew and just got another. My two little doggies just scratch to death. Lately I have had rash on my upper arms and could not imagine. Wandering Jew is an old pass a long and it has been in our gardens as long as I can remember. And the dogs have bad allergies all that time too. The vet said it is probably some kind of grass. Well, duh. This grows everwhere it drops on the ground. Will check this out further for sure. Thanks for sharing the information.
LouC
No worries LouC, glad my expensive exercise is of help to someone! LOL
Hi KK, sure you can have some bits. I've had 4 giant potting mix bags of the Rhoeo out on the verge with "free" written on them, but only 2 have gone. Its hard to give stuff away around here! The T. virginiana was given to me by my Mum a few years ago. I'm going to keep it, as I don't think Leo ever goes into that particular space, but I'll dig a bit out for you, as its going great guns! Rhoeo, I could send by the truckload. I have it every where. As borders in just about every garden! Leo loves to lie in it because its cool. He has cleared up considerably with the medication, but I will still remove the Rhoeo. I have a furry one aswell (Ohhhh, I mean Tradescatia) And have only just propagated it. I may keep it in a pot/hanging basket out of Leos reach! The variegated T. fluminensis is looking really nice just now too, so thats a bit of a shame also. I'm going to replace it with some Ajuga reptans, of which I have alot growing here and there.
I think the Tradescantia in the first pic is T. zebrina. I can't find the one in the last post, but it has similarities, (in the flower) to T. sillamontana
This will annoy you Sue,
The last time I was in Bunnings, a few months back, they were selling Rhoeo in 150mm pots for $6.99 each! Needless to say I passed - It is a plant I've wanted for quite a while but I really thought that was a bit like highway robbery! In any case they always seem to get far more of my money that I intend them to when I go in there, Ha!
The hanging basket sounds like a good idea for the nicer varieties. You can always give it a trim and bin the clippings if it gets too big, and it will be out of Leo's way. I tend to keep most of mine in either pot or baskets, though I have to confess that there is an awful lot of the purple T. pallida in the garden bed by the Umbrella Tree. I am such a sucker for anything purple!
I've just realized I've got to rack off - I've got 7 minutes to get round the corner to the post office. Will chat later, Bye, KK.
KK,
I have a wandering dew but the purple type.
Are you saying that they are not a good plant either?
I was so happy to get it going, do I have to pull it out???? :-(
Have a look at this ground cover and tell me if it is also a bad one?
Debi
Hi Debi, I don't know if your vine is a weed or not. It depends on wether it seeds and spreads, or strangles things e.t.c. Sometimes weedy things are o.k if you like them and can be bothered to keep them under control. The wandering Jew is quite a nice plant, just that alot of dogs and some people are allergic to it. The common green one is a pain as it keeps coming back after you pull it out, but the other types don't seem to be as bad. I have no trouble pulling them out. Would you like some Rhoeo Debi? I can send you some bits if you like. I have LOTS! And it is daylight robbery selling them for so much at Bunnings KK. I have trouble selling them for $2 in a pot, and it's not worth it after the potting mix/pot/label/labour costs! And now I can't even give it away! I like having stuff in pots, but must confess, I am not very good at watering them. Garden? no worries!
P.s Little pot in picture is also on the allergy list for dogs. It looks a little like Tradescantia, but I think it is Callisia reptans. Not sure, but if anyone would like some?
I should make a trades list eh?
Goodnite all!
Sue
Hi everyone ...some vet on a gardening show told us many years ago about the wandering jew problem ...most of us don't grow it on purpose it kind of just invites itself! I am talking about the common green one.
I thought you might like to know that an elderly lady comes around to gather up my piles of the weeded wandering jew to feed to her chooks! and said she has done it all of her life! I have never done it because I did not know that while I had my chooks.She says the chooks love it! we live and learn don't we?
Hey Chrissy,
How are you?
Hey Sue,
How are you going? It takes alot of time to keep up with the watering of our plants, weather they are in the ground or in pots, hey.
I remember some when I see their leaves looking sorry. lol
That green plant above has a long root on it as I pulled it out accidently and just have it in water until I found out if it was good or bad.
Thks my wonderful friends,
Debi
Hi Chrissy and Debi,
I have noticed that there is a patch of wandering Jew that appears and disappears at times, in the chook yard! So they must eat it down, it grows back and they eat it down again. I might put them in a temporary pen outside where the other large patch is!
The 2 remaining bags of Rhoeo at the gate, disappeared today, so I am happy someone wanted it.
I am now waiting for the green waste bin to be emptied tomorrow as i have a barrowfull of prunings under the house. Some stuff cant go through the mulcher unfortunately. I also bought home a bit of Hibiscus pruning from a customer, but its too stringy for the mulcher too. Luckily our bins get emptied weeky and are the size of a normal wheelie bin. I fill mine every week!
Its getting busy with work, and I picked up another 4 mowing jobs this week! I need a helper! Any takers?
My bike finishes on ebay tonight, and as it looks like it will go to Sydney, me and DH are planning a drive down, as its our anniversary on Sunday. We thought we could combine delivery with a night in a flash hotel in the city and catch a show or something. I've not done that before. But anyway, I should not count my chickens before they are hatched!
Fingers crossed. Well, thats it for me tonight, one thread, one post, and one picture.
My little climbing rose on the arch.
Hi All,
I forgot to tell you all that the little fuzzy guy is called Cyanotis somaliensis. When I got up on Wednesday morning this week it had a surprise for me - check out the photo! TTFN, KK.
Great. I have a fuzzy, don't know if they are all the same, but it has never bloomed. Maybe next year.
LouC
This post is for Debi,
Here is my Tradescantia pallida in the garden bed. These plants were put in almost exactly one year ago. Now I like them, so I am biased, I am not not saying they are necessarily a good plant or a "bad" plant. All I am saying is they do spread and they will cover a lot of ground if it is otherwise uninhabited. I think they are less invasive here in Adelaide for two reasons. Firstly our hot dry summers tend to cook them a bit, and then the odd patch of really cold weather in winter (they are frost sensitive) can also set them back. I did a fair bit of reading in the Plant Files and realised that most of the places where they have become a problem are in humid climates like Florida - very different from our generally low humidity and minimal rain! Since I don't have a dog that isn't a consideration for me, either. It is really up to you to decide whether the plant suits your requirements or not. I don't really believe there are "bad" and "good" plants, there is only the accumulation of knowledge, allowing individual gardeners to decide what will suit their particular desires for their gardens.
Hey KK, Chrissy, Sue,
How are you guys going, getting any rain?
We are lucky enough here in Ipswich to be getting some. HooRay...................
Sue, your 6th picture of Wandering Jew(?) in the pot looks quite nice I think.
I would like to do that!
Hey KK, I also give Bunnings to much of my pension, but gardening is so enjoyable. I could never grow a plant untill getting info off you all. Special Thanks to you guys.
Also, Sue, I absolutely adore your mini roses archway. Do the flowers have the old beautiful smells?
Also, KK, the pods on the Hippies are turning yellow now, should I put bags over then yet? Also, I do love that purple wandering jew. It will be in my garden and "Sheila" my dog, knows she is not allowed into the garden area.
I love the look of your garden.
Do you just see a patch near the house and think to yourself, I could put a nice little garden there? Or do you just stay where you already have gardens?
Also, Is it true that snails and slugs do not like to cross over smashed up egg shells, if so, how wide would you have to make it?
Great to speak to my mates again,
Your Mate,
Debi & Sheila
Hey KK, in your pic of the purple jew, what is the red succulent to the left and to the bottom?
Thks my friend,
Debi & Sheila
Hi All,
Going backwards, from the bottom up. The red succulent is Crassula strehyi - I posted some pics of it a while back.
Slugs and snails vs the crushed eggshells. The short answer is I don't know. We have a nice population of the slug eating carnivorous Leopard Slugs so I don't do ANYTHING which might upset them, and I have minimal slug problems.
The long answer is that slugs and snails dislike travelling over ANY surface which makes it hard for them to put down a slime trail so sharp sand, dry sawdust, diatomaceous earth, crushed nut shells etc will form a barrier, but the width must be at least as wide as your slugs are long or they will get over it. I've never had that many eggshells at once! Also, the difficulty with most barriers is that they are not efficient once they get wet as the water allows the slugs to lay down their slime more easily. I'd be more inclined to try the beer traps if you have something special you need to protect.
Some plant species just seem to be slug and snail magnets no matter what you do. I've given up growing lettuce in any form except for in pots kept up off the ground on tables for exactly that reason. They also had enormous fun chomping on the leaves of my Haemanthus coccineus this year, but given that it is deciduous and the season was coming to an end I didn't get too stressed about it. Mostly I protect seedlings and softer plants by keeping them up off the ground until they are big enough or sturdy enough to "repel boarders" so to speak.
Debi, Yes bag 'em now, preferably with something like old stockings, net fruit bags, muslin cloth or something else transparent but breathable so you can watch the progress. Paper bags work too, but they are frustrating to use - I would keep taking them off to look at the pods, LOL!
Where to put "gardens" - everywhere! naturally. When I moved to this house there were 17 individual plants that were not weeds! There was a semi ok front lawn and a buffalo grass back lawn which had been allowed to grow unchecked from fence to fence. All of the ground, including that under the "lawns" was clay set like concrete. The area immediately in front of the fence in the photos on this thread had been buried under three layers of black plastic and bark mulch, probably back in the 1970's. The front lawn was dead in the corners I sent the pictures of. Most of what you have seen was Mum's doing - she was the one who pulled up all the black plastic and planted the annuals. Having the green coverage over the soil has made all the difference - it is now several shades darker, and on the way to being weed free - as we keep pulling up any new germinations of things like wild oats the existing seed load in the soil will exhaust itself over time. Best of all, you can now put in new plants with your fingers instead of a pick axe, all you have to do is find room. LOL. Bear in mind that nothing you are looking at ever gets watered more than once a week, and not at all if there has been any rain during that week. MY philosophy is "COMPOST COMPOST COMPOST and MULCH" there is nothing better you can do for your garden.
Finally Sue, can I have a closeup pic of the Callisia, I'll see if I can confirm the ID for you. I know I don't have any Callisias, so you can put me on the list for that as well. It will soon be too hot here to start any new plants unless they are succulents so you guys can have the summer to think about setting up your trade lists and so on. I an busy digging all the spring flowering bulbs and putting them away for the summer. I have learned from bitter experience that cool climate bulbs like hyacinths and speciality daffodils will not survive our summers - they just cook in the pots so I have to get them all out of their pots and into storage inside the house as soon as they go dormant.
TTFN, KK.
