Concord Grape opens rich grape-purple, three-petaled flowers with bright sulfur-yellow stamens at the center. Each bloom lasts only a day, but the plant carries so many buds that flowering continues for up to eight weeks, and spent flowers drop cleanly.
Its frosted blue-green leaves stay attractive even out of bloom. It adapts to sun or shade and works well in borders, woodland edges and rain gardens.
What it looks like
Triangular, three-petaled flowers about 1.5 inches wide in deep concord-grape purple, with a tuft of fuzzy purple filaments and bright sulfur-yellow stamens at the center, opening from dense bud clusters at the tips of the stems. Leaves are long, narrow, grass-like and arching, with a frosted blue-green, slightly waxy finish. The plant forms a clump 15 to 24 inches tall and 18 to 36 inches wide. At peak it looks like a blue-green fountain of blades dotted with grape-purple triangles.
Growing it with lavender
Spiderwort prefers richer, moister soil than lavender, so plant it in a rain garden, near a downspout or in a partly shaded border rather than in the dry lavender bed.
Care
Grow in full sun to shade in average to fertile soil with regular moisture; it tolerates damp spots. Hardy in zones 3-9; if the foliage flops or looks tired in midsummer, cut it back by half to get a fresh flush of leaves and flowers.
At a glance
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Botanical name: Tradescantia
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Flower color: Grape purple with yellow stamens
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Foliage: Frosted blue-green
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Growth habit: Clump of arching, grass-like leaves
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Mature size: 15–24 in tall × 18–36 in wide
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USDA hardiness zones: 3–9
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Light: full sun, part sun to part shade, full shade
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Bloom start: Early-June
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Peak bloom: Late-June
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Bloom pattern: Long Blooming
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Deer resistance: Moderately resistant
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Pollinator value: Good
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.
Lavender companion · grow guide
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