Tradescantia - tender

Tradescantia Care (tender varieties)

Please Note: We water with mains water on the nursery, which can leave some white marks on the leaves, particularly on T. pallida and its varieties. These will soon disappear – when watering, water the compost, avoiding splashing the leaves, or use rainwater if available.

Tradescantias are usually easy to look after house plants. Depending on the species or variety they can be creeping, trailing or upright and clump-forming. Trailing varieties can be grown in a hanging basket and hung from the ceiling or placed on top of a bookcase or similar to cascade down. They are characterised by their colourful leaves and 3-petaled flowers although these can often be short lived so the foliage is the main attraction.

One golden rule with all Tradescantia is not to over-water them. They originate from dry woodland and scrubland in the Americas and will tolerate quite long periods without being watered too much. When watering varieties with hairy leaves such as T. sillamontana, try not to get the leaves too wet as this can cause them to rot.

In general most tradescantias prefer not to be grown in full hot sun. The best place from them is in indirect sunlight or a north or east facing aspect so they will not be scorched by the hot midday sun.