Tradescantia, Spiderwort, Virginia Spiderwort, Lady's Tears 'Sweet Kate'

I was surprised to find people wanting to propagate this weed. I have been battling with this weed nearly twenty years.
Be very c...Read Moreareful with this one, as once established it is nearly impossible to get rid of.

This plant is definitely NOT invasive. My Sweet Kate was planted in my zone 7a-7b garden about 5 years ago in a bright shady area under a...Read More canopy of ancient pecan and walnut trees, with some hostas. . There is a clump on each side of a walkway and they are lush and full and beautifully blooming. Many reviewers claim that this plant is invasive but that has not proven to be the case here at all. I wish it would multiply a bit so it can be divided and spread around. I think it would look lovely under some Crape Myrtles next to some Persian Shield.
Update: May 2018- My Sweet Kate has stayed in nice neat clumps and has never strayed.Its very versatile, blooms are a gorgeous violet that goes well with my bleeding hearts, and adds a spot of brightness to part shade areas, and does just as well in full sun. I have heavy clay soil, its received no special treatment. The description says it starts blooming in early summer but mine have been in full bloom for over a month. I FINALLY got enough of a clump to divide and I threw some into a pot til I decide where to spread the joy. They continued to bloom even after that major trauma. I love these versatile plants!

An aggressive, high-maintenance perennial grown for its chartreuse foliage and its long season of bloom.

Individual flowe...Read Morers last only a day, and while flowering goes on over a long season, the accumulating black deadheads make the inflorescence look ugly within a week. It isn't practical to deadhead each flower individually---you need to cut the stem to the ground. The plant will respond well to cutting back with more stems and often more flowers.

The habit is leggy and sprawling. Plants need cutting back frequently.

This is a tough weedy plant that can spread aggressively by self-sowing. Resistant to glyphosate, and very difficult to dig out completely, as plants can regenerate from small bits of root.

To keep it looking acceptable, this plant requires more work than it's worth, in my opinion. The chartreuse foliage puts this cultivar ahead of most others, but I think this plant has been heavily promoted far beyond its garden value. It looks like the pictures only briefly, and looks a mess for most of the season. There are too many better garden plants to bother with this one.

Most cultivars are Tradescantia x andersonia, a group of complex hybrids developed from T. virginiana, T. ohioensis, and T. subaspera.

History of this plant... my lovely Mother in law, Hazel Stevens discovered this plant in her garden in Sevenoaks kent England... 32 Uplan...Read Moreds Way Sevenoaks to be exact. She was a keen gardener and created a lovely garden. This plant was growing beneath apple tree in her garden, and she couldnt identify it,. She contacted Hillyers..a plant specialist who collected the specimen realised it was something unique. They offered to develop it, but she could name it..she named it Sweet kate after her blond haired daughter Katy Stevens..who lives in Bodiam kent to this day! She still has posters of this plant from Hillyers. Hazel was a modest gardener and gave up all rights to it in return for a donation to the Mcindoe Burns unit in East Grinstead who developed surgery for badly burned airman int he seond world war. Our children who live in brighton eaach have a Sweet kate in memory of their lovely Granny Hazel, who sadly died last year. Her last years she suffered from Alzheimers disease, but we were able to celebrate the wonderful gardener she was at her funeral, and will always remember her with her lovely Sweet kate. It gives her daughter Kate great comfort. Problem in the Uk is that the slugs love it!

I love this bright, colorful plant. It looks great among other plants with contrasting foliage, bright green and black. Lends a bit of ...Read Morea tropical feel. I have mine supported with a medium-sized ring, which is covered by the foliage. I like this surrounded by other plants to let the foliage mix and mingle a bit.

Closest to a true dark blue Spiderwort you can get!! their is a new variety called blueberry sundae which is a light baby blue but it onl...Read Morey gets about 8 inches tall, where as sweet kate is nice and tall and has such a dark blue wonderful color with prolific blooms that open everyday!

Bought this last year and I love it. I've had other spiderworts and none have been too aggressive. This one has beautiful lime green foli...Read Moreage that really stands out! Last year it bloomed on and off all summer long. Update: I love this plant more every year- have purchased more of them and plan to split some next year and put it in even more places in my gardens.

Love. It. Not a fan of chartreuse, but in a shaded area, this plant POPS! The bloom is huge too. Terrific lil' addition to the garden!!!

I have five of these plants. I LOVE the color combination of the chartreuse leaves and the blue-purple flowers. However, three of my pl...Read Moreants seem to be struggling. I think one of those three is probably beyond saving (it's very small, the leaves just flop and if you try to stand it upright, they come right off at the root.) And I have no idea what the difference is between the healthy and not healthy. There is about seven feet between one of my plants that's healthy and beautiful and the one that has one foot in the grave. They get the same sun, the same water, the same fertilizer. The other three plants are grouped together in another part of my garden and two are just really small and not thriving and one is out of control beautiful! The leaves on all of the plants look rather ragged, but the three sick plants have the worst looking leaves. Even though I can't figure this plant out, it's still one of my favorites. It's really beautiful when it's healthy.

At first, I didn't believe I would like 'Sweet Kate.' She is now an impressive and reliable performer in my garden. I don't think I would...Read More garden without her. The combination of the gold, grass-like foliage and the long display of large, blue flowers are very nice and unique! I love my 'Sweet Kate!'

These flowers are my early morning joy and bloom spring to early fall. I haven't experienced the agressiveness others report, likely beca...Read Moreuse of the hard clay in my area. I haven't tried cutting back, but am going to start doing that to get rid of some of the more dried out looking foliage.

How I love this plant! The color is striking and the foliage provides a fantastic shape and color contrast with my palace purples. Abou...Read Moret half-way through the summer it can look brown-tipped and frizzled, but I find if you cut it back it will quickly regrow and set a second round of blooms through late summer/fall.

Spiderwort has become the bane of my gardening existence. It was planted by the previous owners of our house, and I have no way of knowin...Read Moreg if they were aware of what a thug it is. It is trying to take over every flower bed, and all the spaces in between. It seems to love the wet spring that we have been having and has grown to about three feet by May. I am a beginner gardener and usually love the really aggressive, carefree perennials, but our Spiderwort has grown so big, so fast, that it is shading out and killing off some of the other flowers that I have planted--Phlox, Daylily's, etc. I have spent the last two weeks trying to move them to a gully on the side of our house, where they can roam free. My whole body aches. They are huge, heavy masses, and it doesn't help that our soil is dense red clay. I have been trying to remove all of the roots as well, but I fear there is no way that I can get every single one. Someone else posted that if there is a root left behind, that it will grow a new plant. So I guess the battle continues...

This is a beautiful plant. My mother-in-law gave me one of these 2 years ago but we had a bad winter (I had a tree fall down on it) and ...Read Moreit didn't come back this year. I recently moved and asked her for another piece for my new gardens. Spiderwort is a must have for an early morning walk through the gardens!!!

This is a beautiful plant - especially in the cool mornings of early summer and early fall. It burns out if it's in full sun in the heat...Read More of summer. I moved it to a partially sunny spot (late afternoon sun) and it is doing much better for more of the season.

This plant does great in my New Jersery garden. I think the hard freeze keeps it contained and rarely does it act 'weed like'. I will sa...Read Morey, however, that early in the spring I find 'bird poop' plants popping up in weird places in the yard. I can tell it is spiderwort due to the foliage having a reddish tint early in the spring long before the flowers bloom. I just dig these volunteers up and put them in a pleasing place or better yet share them! Staking is a must to prevent flopping in the rain. I find the more sun the better; the plants in total shade give no flowers.

The one thing I'm surprised no one mentioned about this plant is that the flowers are beautiful in the early morning but are gone by the ...Read Moreafternoon. I wish I had known that before I purchased 6 of them- I only seem to see the flowers on weekends since nobody's home during the day.

The color of the foliage is outstanding, though, especially in shade. A real punch of gold.

This is a great plant and not at all invasive for me (clay soil). It blooms all summer, the new blooms opening up in the morning and f...Read Moreinishing by that afternoon; then new blooms open up again the next morning, and so on. Others have said that it brightens up a shady spot, but I've found that it needs quite a bit of sun to retain its bright yellow foliage color, which at its best is pretty incredible. In too much shade it's merely ordinary looking.

'Sweet Kate' has been growing here in zone 2b for three summers & doing great. As each stalk finishes blooming I just cut it off & a new ...Read Moreone pops up in no time with that fresh spring time lime green colour. It will bloom right through until frost. It sure brightens up a bed that is in part shade.

Very bright foliage brightens up a somewhat shady area. The flowers are very blue; more so than what shows up in photos. Blue & gold ju...Read Morest happens to be my son's school colors, too! Blooms May-November in my garden.

This is one of the most invasive plants in my yard. the previous owner was not much of a gardner, and this is every where. It gets its ...Read Morename from its roots I think because it sure has a spreading spindly mass of them. You have to remove the root to get rid of them. Fortunately my yard is sand. THIS IS A WEED.
The flower on this plant is so small, maybe 1" at it's biggest. The Broadleaf grass look of the folage is nothing to write home about either. I am a fast and persistant foe of these. They reseed fast. If you dont have a green thumb go for it.
Please don't d-mail me for this. I got rid of all of this years ago.
;)

Once the plant has flowered, cut back hard. You will get new, attractive foliage and frequently another bloom cycle. This plant is also...Read More much better behaved in really lousy clay soil (at least in zone 5). In moist clay, it can take full sun; in wonderful moist loam in part sun, you have the aggressiveness of a weed!

A friend has this plant all over her garden, but not invasively. The foliage seems to outstrip the flowers; her soil may be too good. I...Read More planted a couple of pots this year, and they failed. They were well drained, quite moist. I don't often have this problem. I doubt I will try again, unless I get someone to dig me a clump. We are zone 7.

This plant is considered a weed in my area. A very pretty weed in my opinion. I grows everywhere.

I planted spiderwort because of its color (I like blue purple). It is also very easy to grow. The flowers started in May and lasted til...Read Morel now. Now that the flowering session seems to come to an end and the plant is flopping and rather out of shape I wonder if I should cut it back. Can anyone tell me how much to cut back? Thanks.

The chartruce leaves and deep blue/purple flower compliment each other wonderfully and when set against darker green plants or burgandy f...Read Moreoliages it seems to almost glow. It does require staking to prevent it from flopping over but is well worth this minor task.

The flowers are more blue-violet than true blue, but still an interesting color combination of golden/chartreuse foliage and vibrant blue flowers.