Smith's Gardens, Inc. - Spiderwort Profile

•	Plum colored buds open to very large, icy blue flowers with a darker, lavender-blue eye, from late spring through early fall.
•	Shear this Spiderwort in half in early summer to keep the plant shorter and more organized.
•	You can also cut plants back hard if they start to look tired, they will produce fresh new foliage and will often re-flower.
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Spiderwort
Tradescantia

Growing Conditions

Sun exposure: afternoon shade to part shade (4 to 6 hours of sunlight a day)

Soil: performs best in average garden soils

Traits

Special Care Instructions
Prune in half after the first flush of flowers for denser habit and cleaner re-bloom.

Flowering Time
May through September

Characteristics, Uses, and Fun Facts
Spiderworts are excellent for the sand garden, with attractive glaucous foliage and a long flowering season. Many flower color variations exist, including indigo, royal blue, violet, pink-rose, and white. When the stems of spiderworts are cut, a viscous stem secretion is released which becomes thread-like and silky upon hardening (like a spider’s web), hence the common name
Spiderwort has been used by herbalists for kidney ailments, women's problems, and insanity. But Spiderwort has another amazing use. The stamen hairs of the plants are known to be especially sensitive to radiation, and have therefore found applications in nuclear research, including zero-gravity experiments. Some authorities state that the blue stamen hairs turn pink in the presence of even low levels of radiation

Varieties

Midwest Native

Blushing Bride 12-18" tall

•	Green foliage emerges in spring with pink blotches at the base of each leaf. The pink blotches turn white as the plants mature providing interesting variegated leaves.
•	Three-petaled, white flowers (to 1.5” diameter) accented by contrasting yellow stamens
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Danielle 12-16" tall

•	The pure white flowers of Danielle are larger than most other varieties of Spiderwort
•	Forms a dense, upright clump of long, narrow leaves.
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•	Makes a charming clump of narrow green leaves.
•	It is topped from mid-summer until fall with tiny lavender-pink flowers that open in the morning and close in the afternoon.
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Morning Grace (syn. Callisia rosea) 8-10" tall

Osprey 18-24" tall

•	Grass-like foliage is a nice frosty blue-green.
•	White flowers are 1" across with blue powder-puff centers.
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Concord Grape 15-18" tall

•	Grass-like foliage is a nice frosty blue and holds up better than many spiderworts.
•	Flowers are large, 1 1/2" across, and are rich violet-purple.
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