Saturday, June 27, 2009

Tradescantia spp. ?


I'm pretty sure the top one is T. ohioensis and the bottom one is T. virginina. {If you click on the pictures you can see glabrous white peduncles on the (?) T. ohioensis, and clearly hairy sepals and hairy pigmented peduncles on the other.} I collected the atypical pink form from a gas station in northern Georgia two years ago. Though it clearly is flowering at the same time as the blue (virginiana?), in general it is later; it's covered with flowers now and there is only a smattering of color left on the others, which I have, in fact, mostly cut back.

These are pretty nice plants if you are ruthless; when they come to the end of their blooming period and lodge (collapse in splayed ugliness) just cut them back to 2-3". They'll regrow and flower again within a month or so. Failing that severe pruning, they will lay there reproaching you with their ugliness as they gradually resprout from various places and eventually rebloom anyway. They're nice for a touch of color in partial shade in an informal area.

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