This versatile plant provides color you don’t see very often in North Texas landscapes

It’s been 15 years that we’ve been driving past this bed of purple heart plants on the way to our son’s house. This week I finally decided to turn around so I could step up and take you some photos.I wanted to prove what a handsome groundcover this lush tropical-looking plant can be here in the Metroplex.

For all of those 15 years it’s been coming back winter after winter and putting on this kind of show spring until fall. This is a plant you can love. It’s a color you don’t see very often in North Texas landscapes. It’s compatible with yellows, whites, blues, grays, other purples, and of course, greens. It blends well with brick and stone colors, and it makes a good lawn look great.

Botanically it’s been known as Setcreasea pallida, but in recent years when botanists have gotten together over coffee, they have seemed to want to put it into the genius Tradescantia. (For reasons of political, religious, and social decency, I will let you Google the common names given plants in that group.) Trusted gardening resources such as Southern Living, Monrovia Nursery in California, and Fine Gardening Magazine all leave it as Setcreasea. I just wanted you to know so you won’t get confused when you hear the botanical snobs having their big arguments. You and I will still know that horticulturally it’s a great landscaping plant whatever its name.

Grow purple heart in a loose, highly organic planting mix. Give it full or nearly full sun, and keep its soil moist but not wet through the growing season. I use a high-nitrogen, lawn-type fertilizer every 6 or 7 weeks to keep my plantings growing vigorously. I’m careful about washing the granules off the leaves with a fair force of water so they don’t burn the foliage.

Purple heart dies to the ground with the first killing freeze in the fall. Its plump stems ooze and dry within just a few days and you’ll be convinced that your plants are gone forever. But, come springtime, new shoots will come, ready to go to work for you in the new gardening season. I’ve watched that happen in a dozen or more plantings across the Metroplex through several really rough winters, 2021 included.

This plant is propagated from 3- to 4-inch stem cuttings. Root them directly into 4-inch plastic pots filled with a high-quality potting soil, four or five cuttings per pot. Keep them moist and out of direct sunlight until they form roots, usually just a couple of weeks.

The best time for planting a new bed of purple heart would be in early summer so you could take advantage of the warmer growing conditions. That would also give the young plants five or six months to get their roots established before the first frost. Although they’re listed as winter hardy to Zone 7, it’s probably not a good idea to tempt fate by planting late in the season.

You can use purple heart in patio pots and hanging baskets as well as in ground plantings. In those settings it may try to get lanky, so keeping it just a bit on the “hungry” side might be a good plan, and some suggest running them just a little bit dry for the same reason.

As a special bonus

Knowing that variegation abounds in the many types of tradescantias, the relatives of purple heart, I did a bit of research. Indeed, you will find a good many sources for Tradescantia pallida variegata. I haven’t grown it, so I asked my friend Greg Grant if he has had firsthand experience with it. He has, and he told me it seems to be as winter hardy as the regular species.

But better still, Greg also pointed out another hybrid selection called Tradescantia pallida ‘Pale Puma.’ Google it, and ask for photos of it. It’s a stunning compact plant with short leaves and a stubby habit of growth. The folks at Plant Delights offer it online, as do my friends at Steve’s Leaves. It also seems to be abundant on etsy.com. Oh, my. I’m about to go garden shopping!