How to Care for Tradescantia Houseplants

Tradescantia are great plants that show their loveliness indoors and outdoors. They can stand alone or can be grouped together with other plants, either way they are plants that will surely be noticed by visitors. It is characterized by having interesting variegation on the leaves which makes them unique among other plants. 

The tradescantia are plants that belong  to the Commelinaceae family of the Plantae kingdom. They can be classified as trailing or climbing plants. They can reach up to 0.97 - 1.98 ft in height. Most of them commonly bear three petalled flowers which can be white, pink, or purple, but are most commonly bright blue.

Tradescantia is the scientific name of spiderwort which is the name of the plant that is more commonly used and is called like that because when the stem of this plant is cut, they release a viscous threadlike secretion that appears like a spider's web.  They originated from North and South America.

These plants are also famous for being very easy to care for and will just be fine with minimal care. And to share how easy to care for, here are some of the care tips for the Tradescantia.

1. For Sunlight

Tradescantia Plants are happiest in bright indirect light. The more light they get the brighter their leaves will be. Make sure you do not give them direct light though, they will burn very quickly and may not be able to recover.

2. Water

We wait to water our Tradescantia until the top 2-3" of soil is dry. The one thing to note is if you keep yours in very bright light it will show it needs more water by losing color.

3. Temperature

Growing best in temps between 60-80F. Pretty easy in our opinion!

4. Soil

Tradescantias are not very sensitive to the type of soil you place them, an all purpose soil will do just fine. Although it is recommended that you keep the soil moist, this can be by mixing a moisture retainer in the soil such as vermiculite or meat poss.

5. Fertilizer

These plants do not require fertilizer although there would be no problem with giving them a little which will reward you with a better growth. This is best done during spring and summer and best to use a half strength fertilizer and done only once a month. 

6. Propagting

One of the easiest way to propagate this plant is by simply making a clean cut on the stem of the plant and just directly planting it in a soil and taking care of it with water They can also be propagated with the longer stem of the plant where you can see the nodes touch the soil and it will just root from there. 

7. Repotting

Repotting is to be done atleast once a year, but with this plant being the simpleton that it is, they will be fine being in the same soil for a couple of years, but if you do choose to repot, make sure then again that you just choose a regular potting soil that is not filled with heavy manure content. 

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