{"id":7907,"date":"2015-08-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7907"},"modified":"2015-08-10T13:46:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T17:46:43","slug":"purple-heart-tradescantia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/08\/15\/purple-heart-tradescantia\/","title":{"rendered":"Purple Heart Tradescantia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Purple<\/a>

‘Purple Heart’ Setcreasia at Ohio State University Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cobweb<\/a>

Cobweb spiderwort (T. sillamontana ) at Dallas Arboretum<\/p><\/div>\n

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Purple Heart tradescantia (Setcreasea pallida <\/i>\u00a0‘Purple Heart’), formerly Tradescantia purpurea<\/i>), is an annual trailing groundcover with\u00a0purple stems and violet-purple foliage. This flowering vine is primarily grown for its vibrant foliage.\u00a0Purple Heart\u00a0is utilized in garden beds, large containers or hanging baskets. By summer\u2019s end individual plants may grow 8-12 inches tall and spreading 16 inches wide.<\/p>\n

Purple Heart <\/em>grows best in full sun to light shade. Its foliage color\u00a0is darkest in bright sunlight and\u00a0purple hue diminshes under lower light levels. Colorful leaves may reach\u00a07 inches in length, most often 3-5 inches.<\/p>\n

Over the first 4-6 weeks pinch growing tips to encourage better branching and bushier plant\u00a0habit. Note:<\/span> pinched cuttings root easily. Small 3-petalled, pale\u00a0pink flowers appear in late summer.\u00a0Cut back flowering stems in late summer after blooming to improve plant density.\u00a0Water frequently and fertilize to establish plant(s). Feed monthly with water soluble fertilize such as Miracle-Gro\u2122, Nature\u2019s Source\u2122 or Schultz\u2122. Plants become very drought tolerant in\u00a0late summer.<\/p>\n

Purple Heart is easily propagated from vegetative cuttings. Stick 3- to 5-inch long tip cuttings in a loose, airy soil mix of medium grade perlite, or gritty sand, or water. Cuttings root quickly, usually within 2-3 weeks. Pot them up to start other container(s) or add to existing garden bed in spring and summer.<\/p>\n

Viruses, aphids, spider mites may be occasional problems. Discard virus infected plants immediately.<\/p>\n

In mid-autumn frugal gardeners collect cuttings and grow Purple Heart\u00a0indoors over winter. New cuttings\u00a0can be\u00a0started in spring and moved into back to the garden in mid- to late spring.<\/p>\n

Others spiderworts to consider:<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018Cobweb\u2019 spiderwort (T. sillamontana<\/i>) is a wonderful plant collector\u2019s oddity. Native to the mountains of northern Mexico (zones 7b – 10), it remains evergreen in zone 8b and further south. Gray-green leaves and thick stems are covered with white hairs (\u201ccobwebs\u201d). It sports deep pink three petal flowers.<\/p>\n

S. pallida<\/i> \u2018Blue Sue\u2019 is a passalong plant sold by Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, NC (zones 7b – 10). The 2-inch wide x 5 inch long bluish gray leaves clasp\u00a0upright dark purple stems; forms an 18 inches tall x 5 feet wide patch over 10 years. Small diurnal lavender flowers appear in late June (NC). Tony Avent recommends it as a groundcover around open branched shrubs, including roses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Purple Heart tradescantia (Setcreasea pallida \u00a0‘Purple Heart’), formerly Tradescantia purpurea), is an annual trailing groundcover with\u00a0purple stems and violet-purple foliage. This flowering vine is primarily grown for its vibrant foliage.\u00a0Purple Heart\u00a0is utilized in garden beds, large containers or hanging baskets. By summer\u2019s end individual plants may grow 8-12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,398,1124,1037,710,674,806,665,602,628,637,742,843,1060,1236,777,630,706,646,756,754,113,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7910,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions\/7910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}