From Mexico with Love

One of the many wonderful North American natives from just south of our southern US geopolitical border is the amazing Purple Mexican Spiderwort, Tradescantia pallida, aka Setcreasea pallida. Although most people know it as a hanging basket specimen, it is also a fabulous garden perennial from Zone 7b south. Here is a plant at JLBG in early October. It doesn’t run, holds its color all summer through the heat, and puts on a great floral show in fall. I’ve always found a shortage of good purple foliage plants, and can’t imagine why this isn’t used more often in gardens. It matures at 18″ tall x 3′ wide for us, and performs best in full sun, and average soils.

Tradescantia pallida

10 thoughts on “From Mexico with Love”

  1. It’s not used more because it’s a weed. It roots everywhere it touches ground and will soon take over your entire garden here in the south if you leave it unattended without constant maintenance.

  2. There’s a very expensive ($2M?) house in Preston, Cary NC that has a front landscape that is about 50% this species. I wonder what the landscaper is doing with all the money he saved?!

  3. My sister-in-law, who grew up in Charleston, SC, says it is weedy there, but I find it easy to manage in North Alabama. It works beautifully en masse or as an accent. I especially like it planted over spring bulbs.

      1. Now I wish I had kept good records. We regularly saw 0F and maybe every other year hit -5F once during the winter. But sometimes that was with snow cover.

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