The perennial flower known as spiderwort, or Tradescantia, is a resilient and appealing addition to a variety of garden settings. This plant offers a long season of color, primarily in shades of blue, purple, and white, with its three-petaled flowers opening anew each morning. To maximize the visual impact and health of this garden staple, selecting the right planting partners is paramount. Successful companion planting involves grouping species that share similar environmental needs, ensuring all plants in the bed can thrive without competing for resources.
Defining Spiderwort’s Environmental Requirements
Spiderwort’s adaptability is appealing, but it performs optimally when its preference for consistently moist conditions is met. The plant requires soil that is rich in organic matter and reliably damp. It will quickly decline if the area becomes waterlogged, so a humus-rich, well-draining medium is necessary for healthy root development.
Regarding light exposure, Tradescantia is happiest in partial shade, receiving a few hours of sun followed by protection from intense afternoon heat. While many varieties tolerate full sun, they require diligent watering to prevent foliage scorching and soil drying out. A slightly acidic to neutral soil pH, ideally ranging between 5.8 and 7.2, provides favorable conditions for nutrient uptake and vibrant growth.
Best Plants for Shared Growing Conditions
Selecting plants that align with spiderwort’s preference for moist, partial shade environments ensures a harmonious and low-maintenance garden design. Grouping plants with matching needs for light and moisture eliminates the need to provide different care regimens in a single planting area. The best pairings also offer a strong contrast in leaf texture and form, creating visual interest.
Shade-Tolerant Partners
Hostas are a classic companion choice, offering a bold contrast to spiderwort’s slender, grass-like foliage. The large, often corrugated or variegated leaves of Hostas provide a horizontal texture that highlights the verticality of the spiderwort stems. Since both plants thrive in dappled light and moist soil, they naturally complement one another in a woodland or shaded border setting.
Ferns, such as the Japanese Painted Fern or Lady Fern, introduce a delicate, finely-textured element that softens the border’s edge. The feathery, arching fronds provide a graceful textural counterpoint to the linear leaves of Tradescantia. The fine root systems of ferns do not aggressively compete with the spiderwort’s fleshy roots for moisture or soil space.
Moisture-Loving Edging Plants
Astilbe is an excellent partner, as it shares a requirement for humus-rich, consistently moist soil and partial shade. The feathery, plume-like blooms of Astilbe provide a distinct architectural contrast to the cup-shaped flowers of spiderwort. Planting these two together ensures the entire bed receives the uniform watering necessary for both species to flourish.
For a splash of annual color, Impatiens are a suitable choice, particularly in the front of a bed. These annuals tolerate the same light conditions and prefer perpetually damp soil, offering continuous summer blooms in vibrant colors. Their shallow root systems prevent deep competition with the established perennial spiderwort clumps.
Plants for Visual Contrast
Variegated Lungwort, Pulmonaria, is ideal for creating visual interest at ground level. The foliage is often heavily spotted or marbled with silver, providing a striking, fuzzy texture against the smooth, linear leaves of spiderwort. This ground-hugging plant covers the soil, helping to retain the moisture that both species rely on while brightening shaded areas.
Heuchera, or Coral Bells, provide a rich color contrast, especially varieties with deep purple or lime-green foliage. Their mounded growth habit and diverse leaf colors, ranging from amber to nearly black, create a dense carpet beneath the spiderwort. This pairing works because Heuchera prefers the same rich, well-drained soil and partial shade, creating a cohesive, low-maintenance planting scheme.
Plants to Avoid Planting Nearby
Successful companion planting involves understanding which species will undermine the health of a spiderwort patch through aggressive competition or incompatible needs. Plants that spread vigorously via rhizomes should be avoided, as their root systems will quickly overwhelm the clumping spiderwort. Highly aggressive species like Mint (Mentha spp.) or Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) will rapidly colonize the shared space.
Pairing spiderwort with plants that have dramatically different moisture requirements will inevitably lead to the decline of one or both species. For example, Lavender, which requires lean, sandy soil and arid conditions, will develop root rot if subjected to the consistently moist soil spiderwort needs. Placing a drought-tolerant plant that demands dry “feet” near a spiderwort patch forces a difficult choice between overwatering one plant or underwatering the other.