I saw this plant in an office today on our Main Street. I thought it was beautiful and would like to know what it is so I can get one for my home. It has black long leaves and small light purple flowers. It looks like there was quite a bit of dead foliage underneath the live foliage. It is also vine like. The picture is turned on its side. Sorry. Thanks in advance! houseplant with black leaves and light purple flowers ( photo / image / picture from Leslie8888's Garden )
Common name: Wandering Jew And its not just a houseplant. Can be planted in certain zones... like 8-9. Not sure about others though. But if you do plant it...keep an eye on it, it will spread. And they are easy to start. Just break off a piece and stick in the dirt. done.
I have one I've been babying for a long time I smuggled the first piece home from Georgia in 2001. Kept it in my office window all winter, moved it outside (it loved it!) then broke off a few pieces, overwintered them in my office.....this has been going on for 12 years!!!! I still have a start in the office window and will put him on the back deck in a few weeks
Thank you everyone for your help and knowledge! Do you think it's rude to go into the office where the plant is and tell them know how much I admire it and to ask for a small piece of it so I can grow my own?
Tradescantia pallida (Wandering Jew, Purple Heart) Actually that one looks like it needs to be trimmed back anyway so they should not have a problem letting you take a cutting or two. I have it in pots out back, dug them up when we were making some changes out back and just haven't taken the time to put them in the ground somewhere. They overwintered in the pots the last two years and came back good and strong each Spring.
I found a piece in a shopping cart. Brought it home and stuck it in a pot. It's doing well. I'll never put them in the ground again though, like where I lived previously. But I have seen them placed around a tree that made a lovely thick "ring".
I wonder what the conditions are that make it grow so crazy. I have 4 little patches in my yard, different exposures, that never get much bigger. One of them has been there for about 5-6 years. I do borrow pieces from the patches for pots, but never much at a time or often.
Purple... that really surprises me that they don't flourish for you. Where I used to live (about an hour away),they were taking over a flower bed, I went nuts digging and pulling some out and just tossing them over the fence into the woods. A piece got stuck in the crack of a wood building and not only lived but grew some for a couple of months. Our climates can't be THAT different. Hmmmmmmmm
Yeah, I've been trying to understand this plant since moving here from OH. All of my garden space except 1 tiny spot was grass when I moved here, and a lot of the space was reclaimed from grass last year or the year before, so am still trying to improve the fertility, the soil in this area is very sandy and dry. I hear (read on the WWW) so many people complaining about the exuberance of this plant while mine seem to struggle. I'd be happy if it took over much larger areas. Maybe it just knows I'm a transplanted Yankee, and/or I shouldn't water it when I *think* it's dry. What do you think?
