Read our complete guide to Tradescantia pallida ''Purpurea'' for everything you will ever need to know! Treat them immediately with rubbing alcohol, neem oil, or an insecticidal soap for best results. Read More Why is my purple heart getting white spots on the leaves? Transplant into a larger container filled with moist potting soil. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock. Nurturing purple heart plants as a houseplant is also a great option if you want to avoid them dying over the winter. However, it would be best if you do not overcrowd your plants. Use these Tradescantia pallida care tips to enjoy it for many years to come. Toe Beans: What They Are and How to Care for Them, Purple Pansies: Facts, Growing, Caring & More, Bridal Veil Plant: Everything You Need to Know, 13 Most Beautiful Fish in the World for Your Aquarium. Quarter-sized, three-petaled flowers open in the morning and close by early afternoon, each bloom lasting just one day. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. As an outdoor plant, spiderworts can be used as annuals in your flower beds or as perennials if you live in the right zone. The color is more vibrant when given plenty of light. Purple heart plants will grow best in a light, loamy soil that has good drainage. Tradescantia Purpurea requires a little bit of special attention because it can form dense groundcovers. It also goes by the common names purple queen or purple spiderwort.. Purple Heart Plant Care & Growing Instructions, Troubleshooting Purple Queen Care Problems. It has 2 to 5+ inch long, narrow pointed purple leaves arranged alternately along thick herbaceous segmented stems. Because of his taunting, the story goes, this man was doomed to wander the earth until the second coming of Jesus. Spiderwort houseplants have moderate moisture needs, but they are, in fact, fairly tolerant. These species have alternate leaves that are oval, elliptical, or strap shaped. Make a habit of fertilizing your plant every month during the growth period. After about a month, when you see new growth appearing on the stems, you can safely remove the plastic. Another time to prune is if your plant starts to look a bit scraggly. After cutting, place them in a glass with some lukewarm water and leave it in a place it can access bright sunlight until it develops some roots. Tradescantia pallida Purpurea is a tender and attractive plant of outstanding colors. I particularly like Soil Mender 109 potting mix, which contains coconut coir instead of peat moss and is available for purchase at Arbico Organics. Moving plants to new pots occurs most often during the growing season. Newspaper is your news, entertainment, music fashion website. It is a widely commercialized genus, important in the nursery and landscape trade. Purple queen plants have a long, beautiful stem that grows longer as time goes by. Indoors theyll benefit from a balanced houseplant formula, or use all-purpose options like compost tea or fish emulsion outdoors. Other members of this family you may be familiar with include Tahitian bridal veil (Gibasis geniculate), and Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis). Whichever the case, the purple is always predominant color, which is why it's called the purple queen. Tradescantia pallida'Purple Heart' was known asSetcreasea pallida'Purple Heart' and is sometimes called a purple queen. 2023 Proven Winners North America LLC. Dry air causes foliage damage. However, for best colour development, grow your purple queen plant in full sun. However, a few pests love to make purple heart plants their home. After that, dig a hole that is two times larger and deeper than the plant. And not even a biblical story the first records of this folk figure are from the sixth century. For more of a full-sized plant, you can root several cuttings and plant them in one pot. Where you make your pinch or cut, the stem may branch. If you want to be successful maintaining any indoor plant that you want, then you need a copy of my Winter Houseplant Care eBook. Water when the top one to two inches of soil are dry. They are certainly proving to be excellent for me. Expert gardening advice straight to your inbox! In order to identify this plant, you should look for its dark purple stems and leaves. Purple queen plants can survive winter in zones 8-10. This is done by placing the cuttings in a glass container filled with lukewarm water. Another alternate name for these species is wandering Willie. Or you can do as the Aussies do and call yours wandering Trad.. Many years ago I had something of an indoor jungle my home was filled with houseplants. Thats one of the reasons these plants can so easily become invasive when grown outdoors. It is easy to propagate a purple queen plant. Contact miruna@gardenbeast.com. After flowering finishes in the spring, cut back growth using sharp pruning shears and pinch off stems to encourage new branching. There are around 75 different types of plants in Tradescantia genus and some are called inch plants, spiderwort, striped wandering Jew, Boat Lily, Purple Queen, or flowering inch plant. Purple heart, purple spiderwort, purple queen plant, wandering jew purple heart, and sometimes "Moses-in-the-basket" refer to Tradescantia pallida. Plants with purple hearts have several uses. To make matters worse, Nazi propagandists co-opted the figure in the 1930s, using it to portray Jewish people in a negative light as part of their justification for the Holocaust. The purple queen plant is a tender and attractive plant with striking colours which originated from northeast Mexico. Finish filling in with soil, and water in your freshly repotted spiderwort. Easygoing inch plant does not often succumb to disease. Keep in mind that inch plants grow quickly and choose the appropriate size for your needs. They will eventually fall, leaving the calyces. Otherwise, begin pinching back new tips and prune leggy stems for more compact growth in the spring. Use As A Spiller In Containers. 5 Causes of Fading Croton Leaves and How to Avoid Them, How to Grow and Care for Christmas Cactus. It has also been given the nickname Purple Spiderlily, which comes from its plant genus Spiderwort - also known as Tradescantia. Although these plants do well with moist soil, they also require good drainage. Healthy purple hearts are generally pest free, but occasionally you may encounter an issue. If you dont have much natural light available, either because of the orientation of your home or because you live in a climate where you frequently experience cloudy weather, such as the Pacific Northwest, you may want to consider supplementing with a grow light. Outdoors, theyll thrive in a 60-80F range, but can survive down to 40F. The Proven Accents Purple Queen Spiderwort can flower for weeks on end, but it's the outstanding purple foliage that really steals the show. This fungal disease can also spread through the soil. The plant sap of wandering jew is irritating to the skin and it can cause bowel irritations as well, if it is consumed by your cat. Tradescantia pallida "Purpurea" also known as Purple Queen, Purple Heart, Setcresea Purpurea, Purple Spiderwort, or Wandering Jew "Purpurea" is a popular evergreen perennial. By clicking the button you are agreeing to receive our email newsletter. Read full disclosure. it's a very low maintenance plant and easy to grow.. Too much fertilization can cause leaf burn, so reduce feedings to once a month during the winter. To keep your plants soil from becoming waterlogged, make sure the pots have good drainage, and only water your spiderworts when the top inch or two of their soil has dried out. I think youll agree with me that this is not a good association to bestow this houseplant with, or a stereotype we want to perpetuate in any way. The purple heart plant has a quick growth rate, so pruning often will prevent the plant from getting too spindly or leggy. Place some soil in the new pot and position your plant on top of this layer make sure you have about an inch of space available from the surface of the plants old soil to the rim of the pot. It is a long-jointed sprawling ground-cover plant. Here is more about what we do. So that your spiderwort growing project doesnt end in disappointment, here are some ways to ensure you start with a healthy plant: Youll learn more about what signs of infection or infestation to look for on spiderworts in the section on managing pest and disease problems below. It belongs to the spiderwort family which includes 40 genera and 652 species and it is widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions. I know how it feels because I have been in your shoes before. Why Does My Wandering Jew Have Brown Leaves & How To Fix It, How To Care For Heart Leaf Philodendron (Philodendron hederaceum), How To Care For A Philodendron Birkin Plant, How To Care For A Pink Princess Philodendron, The Best Indoor Houseplant Supplies, Tools & Equipment, How To Care For Umbrella Tree Plant (Schefflera arboricola), What To Do With An Amaryllis After It Blooms, Terms Of Use, Disclaimer & Privacy Policy, Allow soil to dry slightly, do not overwater. Purple Queen Purple Heart Purple Secretia. But then I decided to move overseas, and every houseplant I owned needed to be rehomed. Its purple leaves are long and oval-shaped, producing small purple flowers in summer. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center says the name is because, "The angular leaf arrangement suggests a squatting spider." . Space them at least two feet apart. This plant is surprisingly drought tolerant for such a tropical looking variety, but it also thrives with regular watering so it is easy to pair with many other types of medium vigor annuals in both sun and shade. Imagine when you visit your friend, and she gives you some beautiful purple queen plants to go and plant, but you dont know how to do it. If you have let spiderwort into your heart, you should now be prepared to also let it into your home, and to keep it happy there. This species can survive outdoors year-round as a perennial in USDA Hardiness Zones 7b-11a. From light and water requirements to pruning and propagation, youll be well prepared to enjoy the trailing, colorful growth in your garden or home. Your email address will not be published. It is a fun plant to use in combination recipes adding a unique dimension to mixed containers. Queen's Spiderwort is a tropical perennial plant native to wet, tropical regions of Columbia and Peru with showy purple flowers that bloom from summer into fall and dark green evergreen leaves. Find more tips on identifying and controlling mealybugs here. You can also boost your soil fertility by adding the recommended fertilizer. The plant grows relatively low and reaches only a maximum of 12 inches upon maturity. The other common name is purple queen due to the color that makes up the stems, leaves, and flowers. Avoid purchasing specimens with signs of disease or pests. Fertilizing your purple queen plant will incredibly boost its growth. Purple hearts are very easy to propagate with a stem cutting taken from any part of the plant. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can plant more than one cutting as long as they dont overlap. it's an evergreen perennial ornamental house plant. It is native to the Gulf Coast region of eastern Mexico. Because you have no experience, you have no idea how to do it. Seedlings for the purple heart plant can sometimes be challenging to come by. Purple queen plants have other common names like tradescantia pallida purpurea, purpleheart, purple spiderwort, setcreasea tampicana, setcreasea purpurea, tradescantia purpurea, and wandering Jew. What you need when planting purple queen plants; The first step is to prepare your garden. Check the soil regularly to ensure its not too dry, and use a humidifier or pebble tray indoors if needed. So, do not use excess fertilizer to avoid damaging your plants. And as with succulents, those fleshy leaves indicate spiderwort's ability to store water. The garden can be either your backyard garden, kitchen garden, or container and basket garden. 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As they dont overlap first records of this folk figure are from the sixth century elliptical or! But occasionally you may encounter an issue Coast region of eastern Mexico wandering.! An issue and basket garden of Fading Croton leaves and How to it. Spring, cut back growth using sharp pruning shears and pinch off stems to encourage new branching identify plant.

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