Grow in full coastal sun or part shade. It tolerates moist to fairly dry soil but is best with at least occasional irrigation. This plant is frost tender but can resprout from underground.

Tradescantia spathacea grows naturally from southern Mexico to Guatemala. The name of the genus honors the English naturalists and plant collectors John Tradescant (ca. 1570s – 1638) or possibly his son John Tradescant the Younger (1608–1662). It was at one time believed that John Tradescant the Younger first brought the Virginia Spriderwort, Tradescantia virginiana, back to England in 1637 but some contend that the timeline suggests it more likely the plant was given to John Tradescant the elder, who was a collector and traveler and the gardener to the Earl of Salisbury, and not actually collected by either Tradescants. The name for the genus was one proposed by Linnaeus. The common name 'Moses in the Cradle' refers to how the tiny white flowers are cradled by the flat purple bracts. We have grown this interesting plant on and off since 1998. 

The information about Tradescantia spathacea that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.