Today, the first few finally made their appearance:
The Purple Heart (setcreasea pallida, syn. setcreasea purpurea, syn. tradescantia pallida) blooms off and on throughout the year for me, both indoors and out. It's pretty drought tolerant--although you can see that I had just finished watering it, by the droplets that remain on the leaves--but we get along best when it's placed in a mostly shady spot with just under 3 hours of afternoon sun in my garden. (In full sun here, it wants more water--and I'm stingy.)
Brought indoors for the winter, it usually lives on the shady end of my large plant table in front of the east-facing window. I'm going to try to get a few of these cascading stems to root in the ground, however, and see if they make a comeback next spring. A few different posters have reported on its Davesgarden listing that it comes back in zone 6a. So maybe I'll get lucky here in 6b, too? We'll see!
Side note to Elaine: Multiple sites report that this plant is usually very deer-resistant. Let me know if you want to try a division of mine next year!
5 comments:
I live in 6b also. I had a piece of it live one winter. It didn't ever get going through the next summer and it didn't survive the following winter. I will be curious to see if it works for you.
I have had cannas survive winters here for a couple of years and then give up when we get a true winter. My sister lives in 6a and hers return every year and does well. She also has calla lilies that return year after year but they are in a protected place between the house foundation and a sidwalk.
Thanks Kim! That purple would be great in Aunt Elaine's garden if the deer leave it alone :) I have it in a pot on my front porch although I think with all the fun we were having we skipped right over that fact!
I like this plant a lot and use it in containers to give a nice bit of contrast to greenery. I so wished you had been in Buffalo~maybe the next time! gail
Greenbow Lisa, hmm... that's not very encouraging! I will definitely be hedging my bets and bringing some of it inside as well, then.
By the way, WEIRD things in my garden on the canna front. It appears that cannas that I have not grown for a couple of years are sprouting back up in the garden! More of a report on that later... I don't even know what to say, so I'll just be mostly posting pictures. lol.
Leslie, lol--no, I think that we did skip right over that fact! Between the, "Oh about this plant..." and, "Oh, I saw that on your blog," interjections (not to mention me keeping an eye on Miss Coco) I'm surprised that we both finished any little discussion thread. Have I mentioned lately that I'm SO glad that you stopped by?! :)
Gail, I wish I could have been there, too! Maybe next time... :)
Have been away for 10 days, fun to catch up on your garden, dear Kim. Have never grown purple heart in the garden but then you have a green thumb! Happy July :)
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