Tradescantia virginiana

Widow's tears (Tradescantia virginiana), more commonly known as spiderwort, spider lily, trinity flower, or day flower is an herbaceous perennial plant that is easy to grow. It reaches about 14 inches in height and works well for the rear or middle of a garden bed.

I have them in six colors -- my seventh (white) seems to have been lost the past two years. I'm blaming Spouse, although I really don't know where it went. Here is my pink and white: Blushing Bride

This one is blue and white:

This is actually a delft blue (camera error)

They come in an almost pink shade

and a purple. The most common.

One is a deep purple shade. My camera didn't pick up that dark color properly either. Here are some other color options from the internet:


This plant grows in full sun to full shade. Mine get the Eastern sunlight and flower best in the morning. By 2:00 mine have closed for the day giving them the name day flower. They do best in a moist woodland, slightly acidic soil, but are thriving in the plain old fill East of my foundation.

How delicate and pretty!

So pretty! A friend gave me a little pot of them from her yard and they are growing well this year next to my gate.
I can NEVER remember the name and have to go through a little mumble "warty something, toady wart, toad lilly! no... lilly wart... Spider Wart!!"
Which.. now that I see it's actually called spiderwort doesn't even make sense to MY warped, somewhat sideways brain.

Wart, wort, same thing. Or, at least close.

Tradescanthia, you either hate them or love them, I LOVE them and have several. Here's a couple of closeups of the ones I have.

'Osprey'


'Bilberry Ice'


'Blueberry Sundae'


'Blue and Gold', sometimes sold as 'Sweet Kate' but the RHS states they are two different varieties. I have a huge clump of this now, never seeds around neither do any of the others I have. The last two years B&G didn't go dormant , kept it's foliage throughout the winter.


'Rondeau Sapphire' This one I don't think you are going to find, I bought it years ago from a little mail order nursery in Ontario, one of their own introductions. I don't mind any one or nursery using my pictures but what I do object to is they were calling it Mac's Double, it's not. This is Mac's Double below, the one on the right. 'Rondeau Sapphire' sometimes has double blooms, sometimes single, either way it's lovely.

Not sure which variety on the left the tag went missing, Still looking for a good pink and a good red. I keep scouring the garden centers for ones I don't have.

Annette

I haven't been looking for new varieties in the past 20 years. Now I see there are so many new and different types, I just might have to scour for more myself.

Mine died out, it got too shady, but I can dig all I want from a nearby ditch!

I always thought it wild flower.

I think the blooms are very pretty, but I guess I'm not in the "love them" group.
It's that foliage, it just drives me crazy. One of my OCD quirks I guess.