PlantFiles: Purple Heart, Purple Queen, Wandering Jew
Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart'

This plant is incredibly invasive: nearly as bad as a cultivar as its relative Tradescantia fluminensis, a declared weed, which smothers all other ground plants. Why not try the Australian blue Wandering Jew, Commelina cyanea, a native Australian plant, common from Victoria to Queensland, instead?

This plant is great for summer hanging baskets/winter houseplants in northern regions. It is a bright purple outside, but fades to green and purple inside. It is very easy to increase by cuttings. I bring it inside with my other temperate plants in cool weather. It looks nice companion planted with taller plants.

We have just planted Purple Queens across our front yard as a ground covering. The yard does not get much sun and is in partial to full shade all day. We placed them about 2 feet apart per the instructions from the staff at the nursery where we bought them. Does anyone know about how long it will take for the plants to spread out into the surrounding empty space if they are all about 2 feet apart now?

This plant is the best trading plant ever. My neighbor has a large plot of purple heart growing in her yard...that plot has provided 4 other houses all the purple heart we can stand.

I have it planted all around a large river birch tree in the front yard, along with some small azelas. It grows fast, blooms constantly and gives the baby wrens and starlings a place to "hide" in my yard.

I am hoping that it will come back with a vengence this year, and every year from now on. I adore this plant - the perfect amount of purple in the middle of a green yard!

grows well in pots or in the ground. Tolerates full Costa Rica sun and does ok in shadier areas as well (some direct sun). Easy to propagate, great for filling border areas. Good color contrast during the wet season when flowers aren't as common in the garden.

All three plantsoverwintered a brutal winter in Lawrence, KS (zone 6A) The plants were mulched about 4" and planted along a hot south facing wall.

This plant is very beautiful & versatile. I just love it!! I have it growing on the West side of my house & on the North side. I do believe it will grow well anywhere If precautions are taken in cold areas. I grow it in the ground in clay soil & it thrives.It looks especially nice growing in a ring around a large tree. It is lovely in a hanging basket. It grows like a weed,so be diligent. Prune often if you don't want a yard full of it. When you look at those dark purple leaves & the lovely pink blossoms you know how wonderful Mother Nature is.

I found this plant growing in front of an empty home in Tucson, so I got a piece of it and brought it home. Some 15 or so years later, both the plant and I have moved to Indiana. It stays outdoors until first frost when I bring it in to my grooming shop. It stays in the back room with little water and indirect light until spring. I have given this plant to at least 20 customers and I've even seen it in a few nurseries in the last 2 years. You can't kill this stuff! I love it. I have broken a piece off when moving the pot only to find the broken piece had rooted itself where it lay on the ground. I've not tried planting it in the ground. Afraid our cold winters would kill it. Glad it finally has a name! I never knew what to call it.

It can be invasive, but no plant can take over any area unless you neglect said plant for at least a month or two. I have seen masses of it that look good, but my neighbor's is rather scraggly. I only have one pot of it, and it survives the winter, though the foliage dies and comes back every year. The occasional flowers are sooooo beautiful!! Anyone can grow this plant in virtually any condition if they water it once a month. I am pretty sure that sun keeps the leaves purple.

I love this beautiful plant. It blooms pretty dainty flowers but is so pretty and showy on it's own with purple stems and leaves. My daughter bought a new house and the previous owners had this out back in a pot. I took a clipping to see if I could get it to grow. We thought the potted plants were being sold with the house but much to our dismay, they took them all. So my clipping is the last of the bunch. I'm hoping to create several potted plants with it and give them back to my daughter. I have the clipping rooting in a clear purple vase (how appropriate!) that I had sitting around (please see pics). It started to root almost overnight. We live in Northern Maryland and have no idea how this plant will weather. I'll let you know. Wish me luck!

I like this perennial even though it likes to spread.It is quite beautiful when it grows in a clump and along a fence.

Purple Heart, Purple Queen, Wandering Jew 'Purewell Giant' Tradescantia pallida is the upright deep purple purple heart - beautiful mounding plant- will spread from a small plant to a big bush - I tried some of this variety of purple heart- It did not compare - more of a weed -stems laying on top of one another in a tangled mess and the color is more a muted burgundy - no wonder there are so many mixed reviews on purple heart

Invasive like a nosy neighbor. Bought house 4 yrs. ago, it was all over the flower bed, took me weeks to pull and dig out. so I thought.. it keeps coming back, like door to door sales people,like horor movie sequels, like grab grass. should be called Purple Pestia

This plant will survive under the worst conditions imaginable. I had one pot of it and tossed it out on the back part of my property (on dry, packed bare ground) last year and the thing is still holding on. We were in the middle of a severe drought at the time. Going to go get rid of it tomorrow. I didn't know it would take over. It's used as a landscaping plant in my area.

I live in Jefferson, GA (pretty far NE near SC) and I love it. I planted it last year thinking it would only be an annual here. I almost killed it 3 times in my attempt to learn to garden. I moved it 3 times. It look the beating and this year is coming back beautifully. I love the "electric purple" color. I haven't found it invasive so far but that may be because I seem to be at the cusp of its survival zones. Also, kind of tropical looking to me.

It dies to the ground here but comes back every year. Have not had many problems with it. Several times during the season, I just rip it out and it comes roaring back. Can not beat it for the purple color.

I have this plant growing at an east facing wall and it does well here and keeps its purple color with just the morning sun; dies back in winter but comes back in spring. I cut several branches off before the freeze gets it and bring it inside. I put them in a large vase and they bloom all the way through the holidays. The blooms are beautiful up close.

adds intersesting color in the winter here, at least most of the winter. sometimes it dies back, but it hasnt this year

Overall a great plant. Easy to grow but as others have said can be invasive. Leave them in containers. I was told it is also called Moses in a cradle.

I agree with the other comments of this plant being highly invasive. My grandmother put it in all of her flower beds and it has just grown like wildfire. I think she found it easy to root so she put it everywhere, I have yet to get it all out. It breaks easily at the joints when pulling it making it almost impossible to get to the bottom of it.

I bought a pre-planted hanging basket from our local nursery and the purple heart was the center plant. The rest of the plants died, but I pulled the basket in th house for the winter and though "what the heck" I'll see if it'll grow in the house over the winter, and it did!! Now, it's growing like crazy, long, long vines, and I want to cut it and put it in some additional pots. So, now I just need to figure out where exactly to cut it and what to do next (put it in water to root, put it directly in another pot, etc) so I can move it over to new pots. I know everyone is claiming that it's so 'easy', but I do NOT have a green thumb, so I'm a little scared. Hopefully I'll be able to find some tips (with pictures) on how to do it.

Would have given it a positive experience, but since moving to the desert, with very very cold winters, I've had to keep this beautiful plant in a pot and bring inside every year. I would like to eventually try a mass planting outdoors underneath my eucalyptus tree.

Very easy to grow, and if a piece breaks off, just stick it in the ground and it will continue growing. In the extreme heat under the sun, the purple leaves will grow thicker and shorter, and have sort of a purple shimmer on them. Just beautiful!

This plant is awesome if you want something to just take hold and grow, cover, fill an area, etc. Not good if you try xeriscaping with it. I have new buds popping up on the other side of my house and in the grass. How it got there? Don't know. It's difficult to keep up with, especially in the rainy season. Make sure you pick up every little piece of clipping and throw in a container because I think that's how it started in the grass!

I use this plant as a filler in the garden and inside. It will do well inside and out and I have used it in centerpeices for the table. It is an all around beauty and is sooo useful.

This is a very hardy plant. Will grow and grow and grow. However, it will easily take over areas and grow out of hand. Getting rid of it in an area can be difficult as you have to clean out all of the roots... and there are a lot.

I grew it as ground cover, but it quickly grew to be 24" high easy. Needs little if any care at all.

Consider growing it in containers unless you want areas dedicated to this plant.

This is by far one of my favorite plants. The purple color is amazing. I have found that if you take clippings and leave them in water for a few weeks, the leaves sometimes actually turn from purple to green! Once planted, the new leaves will gradually get back to purple over time. It's impressive to have one with leaves of both colors simultaneously.

Purple Heart is ideal for containers, or as a houseplant. Propegation by clippings is extremely easy. From my original plant, I now have countless more, and that's only from the shoots that I accidentally break off. If I wanted to take clippings, I could populate the entire neighborhood with this beauty.

Really, my only complaint with this plant is that the stems are fragile and break quite easily; so don't expect to be able to train it up a trellis or even a stake.

For those that are having trouble getting rid of this stuff because it's taking over, my only suggestion is to get out the tiller (and I mean the big one)!

I can't imagine a more carefree plant. About fifteen years ago, a friend found a broken piece outside a restaurant, took it home, planted it, and it took off. A few years later, she gave me a piece and I stuck it into a shady spot outside my front door, along with Elephant's Ears and some big rocks to border it all. In twelve years, I've perhaps fertilized this spot six times and watered it bimonthly during the warmer months. Some years it dies back quite a bit but always comes back in Spring.

I have to agree w/ dgarza.
Mine popped back up yesterday here in Cincinnati.
This is the second year running w/ no extra care or mulching.
The Zone rating is too high to my mind.

I absolutely LOVE this plant!! You can rustle it by breaking off a small piece of an actively growing plant and just sticking it in the ground. How easy is that??!! No hormone, root starter, etc.

Looks so pretty under a palm tree!!

Yes, it does die down to the ground in our cold weather (zone 8a) but it comes back in the spring. It is a little slow coming up so be patient!!

This keeps coming back in zone 6a, usually late May or June.

In zone 6a I have this as a house plant in a hanging basket. I love it. It roots easily. Although it has indeed gotten very leggy (i probably need to repot).
But even so it still throws flowers every year all summer long.
After reading this I am going to try planting some outside and see what happens. (with the global warming and such it will prob do fine. sigh.)
Ness;-)

I have this plant under my trees, and it grows like a weed!
Thought I lost them with the last frost of the season, all the leaves were black! But its back, just can't kill them.
I love the colors and the little flowers..And of course soooo easy to grow.

I absolutely LOVE this plant. This grows wonderfully around the mature trees in my front yard, creating beautiful color when all else had failed. Easy to grow and nicely fills in bare spots with it's bright purple color. Since it also grows well in water, I like to cut pieces and place in vases indoors. A+

I love this plant. It is planted outside, in full sun, and in the winter it gets about 28 degrees and this hasn't froze. In the summer its always like a little bush and never seems to trail out. It gets BIG leaves after about a year planted in the ground and the color just draws your eye. I love this plant!

When all else would fail in the poor soil and full shade under my oak, this plant took root and still produced those lovely little flowers. It is prolific, but I wouldn't consider it invasive. Relatively easy to control, hard to kill. In fact it seems to thrive on neglect. Provides good contrast with the aloe nearby. I liked the point someone made about it being a good "kid's starter plant". I haven't tried that, but it makes perfect sense.

Some purple hearts are much more purple than others. And i believe they are the same plant.The best glow purple!....bait for slugs/snails since this plant is a slug/snail delicacy.

I have had this wonderful plant growing outside for the last two years in Louisville KY. 70% of it dies back to the ground but its has come back in the spring. Only winter protection is covering the plants with a clear plastic drop cloth elevated above the plants.

I've found this plant extremely easy to grow. I didn't know it could be rooted in water but will give it a try. I have it planted around an above ground pond in semi shade and it's growing in leaps and bounds, flowering like crazy and keeping that beautiful dark purple color. It dies back during the winter here in SE Georgia but continues to come back year after year.

I planted this last summer thinking that it would be an annual in my zone. It was grown in full sun, with no mulching during the winter months. However, it has returned and is very robust.

I'm not sure why, as my area is Very Zone 6, however, I had these guys (called perennial when I picked them up) come back this year. They were covered in mulch, certainly, but if they're only hardy to zone 8, I have super Purple Hearts....

Last year I saw a huge mound of this planted with 'Margarita' sweet potato vine, and the combination was stunning. I've since planted with Creeping Jenny and hope it will give a similar appearance. Will also combine with the sweet potato vine this year... the chartreuse and purple makes such a fun statement.

I think it serves a purpose as "filler" for difficult places or for those interested in low maintenance plants. I would describe it as invasive, thank goodness I have it in pots. Constantly pulling the excess growth, I finally learned to put them in pots and pass them on at plant swaps. Curious how there's ALWAYS somebody wanting this stuff...

Excellent grower in Louisiana. It survives EVERYTHING and spreads well

I love this plant, first seen around someones mailbox, and had to have some myself. Now that I have it, I wasn't sure what to do to take cuttings and replant in other areas. Now that I have joined this site, I find that it's very simple! Thanks so much for the tips and this great site! I now know what I can plant on a very steep hillside in which I have tried several plants, which died almost as soon as I put them in the ground. I have notice that the ones I've seen in this area, during winter, most cover it with pine needle mulch. This should keep the roots from freezing I guess.

In the north of Mexico this plant is called "pollo morado" or "purple chicken". This wonderful herb is very adept at curing the cankersores caused by the various herpes viruses. A tea made from its leaves can be used to gargle, and the placement of lightly boiled leaves directly on a cankersore is also very effective. Several applications are required throughout the day but the results are very swift (2 days).

I traveled with this from CA to OK as a houseplant. I have planted it outside as a border and it is doing quite well so far. Was interested to find out that it will come back from the root next spring if I do not take cuttings inside this fall. By the way, I have known this plant by the name "Moses in the Basket". This name is probably due to the small pink blooms in the notch of the leaves.

This is a pretty trouble-free plant. I can see how it could be invasive but mine are in a location where they won't get far. It can also be grown as a hanging basket plant but should be trimmed back once or twice a year when they get leggy.

I have inherited this plant when I bought our house and I can't plant anything in my flower beds because it has taken over. I am trying to eradicate it from my flower bed, but have had no luck. Please let me know how to successfully remove it.

I grew up with this hardy plant on the coast of Central Florida. It is a wonderful ground cover that will tolerate salt in the air and poor soil. If left to itself it will follow the contour of the area in which it is growing and looks great in drifts and mounds. It is an excellent contrasting plant for shrubs with purple, pink or burgundy flowers and lends itself well to planters, also. Control is the operative word here as with any ground cover but one must also remember, "right plant for the right place." So plan well when using it.

I like these plants because they are so easily grown and carefree.
They come back every year and the vivid color purple is a lovely
contrast to variegated plants.
They are useful as a groundcover
to provide color to an area in contrast to green or variegated plants as well. I do not consider these plants invasive--
just useful and pretty.

LOVE IT! I have rooted many cuttings by just sticking them in the ground. This plant grows fast in areas I can get nothing else to grow in. Looks lovely in a hanging basket also! Will grow anywhere!

As with all good groundcovers, this plant spreads quickly. It adds a great deal of color under, and at the base of large trees, where little else will grow. It also does very well on steep slopes in rather unfertile soil. In 8b, it does die off somewhat in winter but bounces back quickly in spring. Invasive? Yes - but that's what you want groundcovers to do. I have it in deep shade, part shade and sun. It does well in all of them.

For 18 years I have found it impossible to dig this plant up from amongst my other plants. I have not been able to kill it with pesticides. My dogs' urine - which seems to kill everthing else - just sets it back for awhile.

Its roots grow deep. When attempting to dig it up, the stems break so easily that there are tiny pieces left in the ground which sprout and grow right back. It is a beautiful plant if it is growing where it can not take over other plantings. My mistake was planting it in the ground.

I first grew it in Austin, Texas (zone 8) and then I moved to northern Oklahoma (zone 6)and transplanted it up here; unfortunately, I transplanted it in too many locations in our yard. It dies back after the first freeze and then begins coming up around May. It is very invasive and I would not plant it near any other plants, and only if not much else will grow there. It will grow in west sun or full shade. It does not need extra water and it can even root iself from discarded prunings. The folage on my purple hearts is green instead of maroon, and very beautiful, as well as are the flowers. I have also tried to get rid of it in some areas of our yard. We have tried Roundup, a poison ivy killer, and digging it up, but nothing has worked yet. I wonder if putting black plastic over it would work??? That might be my next angle of attack. Unfortunately, it has grown up around other plants I want to keep, and there is a race to see which plant wins out.

Mostly a comment on my statement that it has been hardy for me the last two winters outdoors in Bremerton, Washington ... at 48 degrees north! It dies back to the ground there in winter, but sends up new shoots when it finally warms up in spring. If we were to get a colder winter than the last two, the roots may freeze and the plant would likely die. I overwinter it both in pots under my deck and in the ground, with the pots doing a bit better.

Oh, it is very successful, but easy to control, in my other garden, in Sebring, Florida.

When looking for the "out-of-the-ordinary" ground cover, this plant seemed a likely candidate. Our garden soil has been well tilled, rich in organic matter, and watered regularly. Purple Queen, as shown in my photo, emerges in early spring from dormant root stock, to immediately begin flowering in late spring. Propagation involves rhizome "runners" branching out from the established rootings. Creating successful generations from cuttings and seeding is unknown by this gardner, but propagation from rhizome extensions appears to work quite well.

If well-watered, it can stand a bit more sun, but its hardiness for drought must include more shade than sun.

This is VERY invasive. I have nightmares keeping this plant on its own pot, but it´s hard to hold it. Good for coverages, but takes the space from surrounding plants

I am successfully growing it in a damp, shady garden with hostas and elephant ears. I love the purple contrast to the chartruse hostas. I am taking some cuttings to keep plenty of it around and add it to my hanging baskets. I have also put this in a very dry, clay based garden that is also mostly shade in front of my office (just a few blocks away) and it is doing very well!

This is a great plant. Works well in water, in the ground or in hanging baskets. Good space filler. Little pink flowers on stem ends are pretty with the contrast to dark purple. My son had some accidentally broken off a hanging basket and it rooted in the ground underneath the basket! Good to start kids off with because it is pretty, so easy, already growing, and almost impossible to kill. Not winter hardy but comes back shortly after last frost. Drought tolerant and looks striking against light colored bushes or foliage. It can get leggy if not allowed to sprawl.

I love this plant. Cuttings put in a vase of water look lovely almost up until the time they root. Nothing could be easier to grow. During winter, I do multiple cuttings and put them in anything that will hold water. They produce long, gentle roots. When spring comes, simply dig them in.
They produce long 'stems' that are a rich purple color. The flowers are almost incidental.

Best done in masses, i.e., not a single, specimen plant.
I put rooted cuttings under a tree, where they were the delight of the neighborhood. Also in a large outdoor pot, where they ran out of room and started growing up the trunk of the potted tree.

I've never seen bugs or any kind of viral problem at all. Best decribed as a trailing, spreading, ground cover, they will out-distance vinca minor or ivy any day, in terms of growth. Give them room to spread. Space about 5-6" apart.

Easy to grow - started with cuttings which easily rooted in water (they did take a while, but they didn't rot despite the amount of time) and once potted up, they did great, even when neglected and not watered. Makes a nice groundcover under trees where the soil is pretty dry.

This is a close relative to Purple Heart, the more familiar Setcreasea. This one doesn't get anywhere near as purple as Purple Heart.

In my zone 8b garden, this will freeze to the ground, but come back from the roots the next year. It's in a rather sheltered spot.

I love the way it fills in bare spots quickly and roots so easily!

This plant is also known as Wandering Jew. It lasts forever too, in the right conditions. Over 30 years ago, my grandfather planted one in the yard that I eventually grew up with. It's still there.

In Southern California this plant does not overwinter so well in the cooler areas and does not bloom in the winters. If experiencing temps below freezing, most of the plant will 'melt', but usually recovers in the spring. Hard frosts will usually kill it.

It is incredibly easy to grow from a cutting, requiring little more than cutting off a piece and shoving it in the ground. Well draining soil is helpful. It is a very drought tolerant plant.