Purple Spiderwort Sweet Kate, Tradescantia, Spiderwort
Purple Spiderwort Sweet Kate, Tradescantia, Spiderwort
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Sweet Kate Spiderwort
SKU: AM014480
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Overview
'Sweet Kate' Spiderwort is a unique, indigo-purple bloomer with three heart-shaped petals and strappy blades of gold-chartreuse foliage. Long-blooming and native to the US, 'Sweet Kate' is slightly fragrant, attracting butterflies to its flowers, but not deer. Low-growing enough to be planted in containers. (Tradescantia)
key features
Botanical Name
Tradescantia Sweet Kate
Advantages
Native, Attracts Butterflies, Deer Resistant, Easy To Grow, Container Planting
Growing Zones
Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9
Light Requirements
Full Sun, Half Sun / Half Shade
Soil Moisture
Average, Moist / Wet
Mature Height
10-14" tall
Mature Spread
12-24" wide
Bloom Time
Early to late summer
SKU
AM014480
Description
Sweet Kate gives you the original flower color on a smaller, neater plant.
The Story of the Spiderworts and John Tradescant. The Spiderworts common name is obvious; the blooms look somewhat like spiders. (Wort simply means plant or root in Latin.) But the botanical name is more interesting.
These flowers are named Tradescantia after two very interesting Englishmen, a father and son, of the Elizabethan Age. John Tradescant, the Elder was a royal gardener and became very famous for his travels and exotic plants he brought home from the Continent. His son traveled much further. Even though he died in 1662, only 42 years after the Pilgrims arrived, he managed three different trips to Virginia. He introduced the North American Tulip Tree and other plants to Europe, but he and his father are immortalized forever in these beautiful American wildflowers. There are several wild species of Tradescantias in eastern America, with flowers ranging from blue to pink to white. All have the distinctive three-petaled form, and all are plants of wet places. Most hybrids today are created from crossing T. virginiana, the common blue Spiderwort, with other species in the group.
