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Care and growing

Growing tropical tradescantias from seed

Growing tropical tradescantia seeds can be difficult and laborious. But if you’re lucky, you could end up making a brand new and beautiful plant.

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Fact checks

Don’t ask an AI for plant advice

Plant seller Horti recently added an AI “plant doctor” to their website. Within hours of testing, it was offering potentially fatal advice.

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Care and growing

How to spot and treat a thrips infestation

Thrips are a common problem for Commelianceae houseplants. Learn some tips for spotting the earliest signs, and how to choose a treatment to tackle them.

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Cultivar research

Lost names for the oldest tradescantias

There are a a lot of Tradescantia cultivars which circulate with no valid name. A handful of those actually did have valid names once, and those names have been discarded over the years.

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Cultivar research Fact checks Taxonomy and naming

The tangled history of the Tradescantia Andersoniana Group

The hardy Tradescantia hybrids are popular garden plants, but they have a history of confused identity. Where did it all go wrong?

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Cultivar research

T. mundula ‘Lisa’: the most mislabelled tradescantia of all time?

This plant has had a LOT of names. And it turns out not one of them is correct. Find out why all those names are wrong, and which is right!

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Identification tips

Distinguishing variegated Tradescantia zebrina cultivars

Find out how to distinguish between the three variegated cultivars of Tradescantia zebrina – ‘Quadricolor’, ‘Discolor Multicolor’, and ‘HappiLee’.

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Identification tips

What’s the difference between ‘Variegata’ and ‘Yellow Hill’?

Find out how to distinguish between Tradescantia fluminensis ‘Variegata’ and ‘Yellow Hill’.

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Cultivar research

The resurrection of Tradescantia ‘Shadow Hill’

It turns out the mysterious “grey” cultivar of T. pallida that appeared in the last few years, has actually existed since 2003, and its name is ‘Shadow Hill’!

Categories
Care and growing

How do you know a tradescantia is thirsty?

Tradescantias are semi-succulents, which means they’re much more tolerant of drought than a lot of plants. It also means that they’re a lot less obvious about it when they eventually do get thirsty. Growing tradescantias as houseplants is very different from having “drama queens” like coleus, nerve plants, and polka dot plants.