This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks
like middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations,
some form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside
in their plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:41:30 -0600, kate
wrote:

This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks
like middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations,
some form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside
in their plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday

Just a personal opinion -- but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so
distasteful, that I prefer to use the botanical name. At a nursery
I would ask for the plant by its botanical name.

Googling "Wandering Jew" yields:

+++++
Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"
Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula
+++++

Note that the Latin name says nothing about Jews.
The meaning is "trailing" or "hanging".

One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.

--

Persephone

Persephone wrote in message
...

Just a personal opinion -- but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so
distasteful, that I prefer to use the botanical name. At a nursery
I would ask for the plant by its botanical name.

Googling "Wandering Jew" yields:

+++++
Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"
Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula
+++++

Note that the Latin name says nothing about Jews.
The meaning is "trailing" or "hanging".

One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.

--

Persephone


One has to wonder how unfortunate we are that people like you were not
aborted before birth.

"kate" wrote in message
...
This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks like
middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations, some
form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside in their
plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday

hey Kate.......madgardener here (I grew up and lived most of my life in
Nashville). Question........the carnations that you have....did you get
them at a nursery? Or at Kroger or a grocery in the florist section? And a
type of wandering jew? I can say the wandering Jew won't survive the hard
frost that is coming your way. Is it all purple? There are several types of
wandering vine-like plants in the Tradescantia family. "Wandering Jew" or
Inch plant won't hold up to temperatures below 40o You can bring it in and
give the long stems a haircut and root them to make another pot or plant
them into the soil with the rest of the plants.

The purple one is Setcreasea purpurea known as purple boat or Purple heart.
That has to come in as well. I know the nurseries sell it as a ground cover,
but it's not hardy I myself have the Siderasis or Brown Spiderwort, which I
didn't want to lose so I brought mine in Friday. There is also a variety of
Tradescantia called Zebrina which is also known as Wandering Jew, way more
colorful with leaves green, silver, edged in pink or green, and purple, or
even green, silver, pink and red. These can't survive past 40o outside.

Now the Bee Balm.......Yes, it can survive in a container. But honestly,
either plant it today, or heel it in until spring, mounding leaves around
the pot to protect the sides against the cold, winds. If you can get a
shovel into the ground, you could plunge the pot and all into a hole, but if
I were you, I'd plant the Monarda and mark the spot with the lable and whack
the stems back to within three inches tall and water it well and forget
about it. Come springtime you'll see little triangles coming up where you
planted the clump, and before you know it, they will have quietly risen up
to become those great stems with the flowers that hummers love so well. I've
taken to putting one of those garden grids over mine as they tend to flop
due to the raised soil being a bit too rich for them. But in regular and
poor soil, they flourish and stand more upright like they're supposed to.
I'd even say the second and third year when they start bulking up and
spreading, to cut them back when they get to two foot tall to make them
branch. They're tough. Members of the mint family.

Hope this helps! g
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:45:41 -0500, "madgardener"
wrote:

"Wandering Jew" or
Inch plant won't hold up to temperatures below 40o

My gardening experience near San Francisco taught me that it will live
quite happily at temperatures below 40°. It won't survive a hard
freeze, though.

My email address is LLM041103 at earthlink dot net.

madgardener wrote:
"kate" wrote in message
...

This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks like
middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations, some
form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside in their
plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday


hey Kate.......madgardener here (I grew up and lived most of my life in
Nashville). Question........the carnations that you have....did you get
them at a nursery? Or at Kroger or a grocery in the florist section?

I started them from seed this year. They didn't bloom. Hopefully next
year. I think they're hardy to zone 3 or 4.

And a
type of wandering jew? I can say the wandering Jew won't survive the hard
frost that is coming your way. Is it all purple?

All purple with light purple blooms. A friend gave me cuttings. She has
them everywhere and leaves them out, but in great big tubs.

There are several types of
wandering vine-like plants in the Tradescantia family. "Wandering Jew" or
Inch plant won't hold up to temperatures below 40o You can bring it in and
give the long stems a haircut and root them to make another pot or plant
them into the soil with the rest of the plants.

The purple one is Setcreasea purpurea known as purple boat or Purple heart.
That has to come in as well.

That's it! I guess they do have to come in - rats! (I made the mistake
of seperating one of the Aloe from it's pups - now I've got 10 aloes,
one bay tree and 2 window boxes of Setcreasea purpurea to over winter
inside - groan.)


I know the nurseries sell it as a ground cover,
but it's not hardy I myself have the Siderasis or Brown Spiderwort, which I
didn't want to lose so I brought mine in Friday. There is also a variety of
Tradescantia called Zebrina which is also known as Wandering Jew, way more
colorful with leaves green, silver, edged in pink or green, and purple, or
even green, silver, pink and red. These can't survive past 40o outside.

Now the Bee Balm.......Yes, it can survive in a container. But honestly,
either plant it today, or heel it in until spring, mounding leaves around
the pot to protect the sides against the cold, winds. If you can get a
shovel into the ground, you could plunge the pot and all into a hole, but if
I were you, I'd plant the Monarda and mark the spot with the lable and whack
the stems back to within three inches tall and water it well and forget
about it. Come springtime you'll see little triangles coming up where you
planted the clump, and before you know it, they will have quietly risen up
to become those great stems with the flowers that hummers love so well. I've
taken to putting one of those garden grids over mine as they tend to flop
due to the raised soil being a bit too rich for them. But in regular and
poor soil, they flourish and stand more upright like they're supposed to.
I'd even say the second and third year when they start bulking up and
spreading, to cut them back when they get to two foot tall to make them
branch. They're tough. Members of the mint family.

Thanks, Mad! We got a wee bit of rain this morning and now it's quite
balmy. I may just got out and put the balm and carnations in the ground.

Kate

Persephone wrote:

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:41:30 -0600, kate
wrote:


This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks
like middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations,
some form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside
in their plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday


Just a personal opinion -- but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so
distasteful, that I prefer to use the botanical name. At a nursery
I would ask for the plant by its botanical name.

Googling "Wandering Jew" yields:

+++++
Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"
Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula
+++++

Note that the Latin name says nothing about Jews.
The meaning is "trailing" or "hanging".

One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. The latin name turns out to be Setcreasea
purpurea.

Peace,

Kate

Hey Lauren,

Didn't know you were in the Manson family.

When did you get that swastika tattooed on your forehead?


"Lauren" wrote in message
...

Persephone wrote in message
...

Just a personal opinion -- but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so
distasteful, that I prefer to use the botanical name. At a nursery
I would ask for the plant by its botanical name.

Googling "Wandering Jew" yields:

+++++
Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"
Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula
+++++

Note that the Latin name says nothing about Jews.
The meaning is "trailing" or "hanging".

One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.

--

Persephone


One has to wonder how unfortunate we are that people like you were not
aborted before birth.

"kate" wrote in message
...

snipppppppppppppp prune whack

I started them from seed this year. They didn't bloom. Hopefully next
year. I think they're hardy to zone 3 or 4.

yeppers, yer dead on there........
sniiiiiiiiiiiiippppppp

That's it! I guess they do have to come in - rats! (I made the mistake of
seperating one of the Aloe from it's pups - now I've got 10 aloes, one bay
tree and 2 window boxes of Setcreasea purpurea to over winter inside -
groan.)

good to know my extensive research tracked your specific plant down. Now as
to the next statement............

I know the nurseries sell it as a ground cover,
but it's not hardy I myself have the Siderasis or Brown Spiderwort, which
I didn't want to lose so I brought mine in Friday. There is also a
variety of Tradescantia called Zebrina which is also known as Wandering
Jew, way more colorful with leaves green, silver, edged in pink or
green, and purple, or even green, silver, pink and red. These can't
survive past 40o outside.

Jonathan, here in Eastern Tennessee, they hang in there fairly well below
40o, but they pout and mush out below 38o. The purple one that people buy
at Lowes and Home Despot as "tender perennials" are just annuals. they make
impressive clumps of color, beautiful little pink flowers nestled at the
tips of the purple leaves and darker reddish purple stems, but hardy? nope.
not here. We're not in the least like San Francisco. I'm sure you get
snow......probably get frosts, and the occaisonal freeze, and if you were to
maintain those cold temperatures, you'd find that below 40o the plant would
not only suffer but would croak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, Mad! We got a wee bit of rain this morning and now it's quite
balmy. I may just got out and put the balm and carnations in the ground.

wish we'd gotten some of that rain, but it slid past us here in the
foothills of the Smokies. Planting your babies you grew from seed is the
best thing for them. You have a window of time to plug them in right
now...... sunny spot for both of them by the way......now for
Persephone...........
you might find it offensive that the common name for some of these plants is
'Wandering Jew', but in my English book, " The Houseplant Expert" written
by Dr. D.G. Hessayon, under Tradescantia, the common name for two varieties
of these plants be they Tradescantia fluminensis, variegata which is
LISTED IN THE BOOK as Tradescantia: Wandering Jew with (Inch Plant)
underneath this in parenthesis, on page 221, or Zebrina pendula or purpusii,
or Z. pendula quadricolor, which is also listed as Wandering Jew with (Inch
Plant) in parenthesis underneath.

I'm sure Cereus will fill us in as to the location of the originality of
these plants, (thanks Fashizzel!), but honestly, if you're offended that
someone at sometime back who knows when, decided that a common name for a
trailing vine/ground cover would be Wandering Jew, then so what? I swear, I
think sometimes that some people are too thin skinned and politically
correct. And by the way, JEWS call each other JEWS. It's not like it has a
derogatory common name of N. vine.....................(and I won't use that
one because it IS offensive to people and I, despite the fact that I am very
Southern, will not go there.........) So please lighten up, Persephone. Now
I'm gonna duck behind this here bush hoping to avoid the flame or food fight
and hope that Zhan comes to my rescue!..............
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

Kate

Wrong.

Setcreasea purpurea is not an accepted name.

Its correctly named Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart', a purple leafed
cultivar of the species.


"kate" wrote in message
...


Persephone wrote:

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:41:30 -0600, kate
wrote:


This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks like
middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations, some
form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside in
their plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday


Just a personal opinion -- but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so
distasteful, that I prefer to use the botanical name. At a nursery
I would ask for the plant by its botanical name.

Googling "Wandering Jew" yields:

+++++
Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"
Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula +++++

Note that the Latin name says nothing about Jews. The meaning is
"trailing" or "hanging".

One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. The latin name turns out to be Setcreasea
purpurea.

Peace,

Kate

"Cereus-validus-..........." wrote in message
m...

Wrong.



Setcreasea purpurea is not an accepted name.



Its correctly named Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart', a purple leafed
cultivar of the species.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

but, but, Cereus, in The Houseplant Expert book on page 222, it shows a
picture of Setcreasea purpurea in flower, next to it, a water colour drawing
(very well done which is the way the original book used to be, but I have
both, the older one and the newer edition that came out in the early 90's
that has both water colour and real photo's which the original book didn't)
of what the plant would look like in a clay pot and underneath that, S.
purpurea and underneath THAT Purple Heart, and then a deffinition of
"Setcreasea purpurea is a straggly plant which makes up for its untidiness
by it's attractive colour-- a rich purple when grown in good light. He
leaves are slightly hairy and pink flowers appear in summer". unquote. Next
to a most impressive picture and drawing of Siderasis which is S. fuscata or
the Brown Spiderwort that I was speaking of earlier, btw. If someone has
recently decided that it's not acceptable to call Purple Heart or Purple
Boat, which is what I also knew it by (from the old Hyponex houseplant book
which was my FIRST plant book, btw, and not by any means my last, as I'm up
to over 249 books on gardening now) I'm not surprised, but will continue to
call them by both their Latin names as well as their common names. g

but that's jess me.....GBSEG

maddie

"kate" wrote in
message ...



Persephone wrote On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:41:30 -0600, kate
m wrote This is the first
year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks like middle TN is about
to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations, some form of wandering jew
and bee balm. Will they over winter outside in their plastic pots or should
I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?



Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday Just a personal opinion --
but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so distasteful, that I prefer to use
the botanical name. At a nursery I would ask for the plant by its botanical
name.



Googling "Wandering Jew" yields +++++ Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"

Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula +++++ Note that
the Latin name says nothing about Jews. The meaning is "trailing" or
"hanging".



One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.



Sorry, didn't mean to offend. The latin name turns out to be Setcreasea
purpurea.



Peace, Kate

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:03:40 -0500, "madgardener"
wrote:

We're not in the least like San Francisco.

Understood, YMMV with climate, species, or just the side of the hill
you're on.

I'm sure you get
snow......probably get frosts, and the occaisonal freeze, and if you were to
maintain those cold temperatures, you'd find that below 40o the plant would
not only suffer but would croak.

Snow was very rare; frost was a regular occurrence. In the coldest
part of winter, lows were typically around freezing, and highs were
10°-15° higher. But in most winters there were stretches of several
days at a time when the temperature did not rise above 40° much, if at
all.

I will not presume to tell you that wandering Jew will survive winter
in Tennessee (if you have hard freezes it certainly won't), but the
variety I knew was quite tolerant of temperatures below 40° for
periods of days, at least.

My email address is LLM041103 at earthlink dot net.

I would plant the bee balm right into the ground. the carnations we get here
( might be too cold) are just annuals so either enjoy them now till the die
off or bring them in. probablt different where you live.
I still haven't planted my garlic yet . I did just have fresh carrots and
parsnips out of the garden yesterday for a soup, Yum

--
Lynn
"kate" wrote in message
...
This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks like
middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations, some
form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside in their
plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday

Cereus-validus-........... wrote:
Wrong.

Setcreasea purpurea is not an accepted name.

Its correctly named Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart', a purple leafed
cultivar of the species.

I sit corrected. Can I just call it a roaming gentile? A meandering
muslim? Perhaps not.


"kate" wrote in message
...


Persephone wrote:


On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:41:30 -0600, kate
wrote:



This is the first year I've had potted hardy perennials and it looks like
middle TN is about to plunge into low temps. I've got carnations, some
form of wandering jew and bee balm. Will they over winter outside in
their plastic pots or should I a)plant them or b)bring them inside?

Kate - who finally planted garlic yesterday


Just a personal opinion -- but -- I find the term "wandering jew" so
distasteful, that I prefer to use the botanical name. At a nursery
I would ask for the plant by its botanical name.

Googling "Wandering Jew" yields:

+++++
Common name: "Zebrina Wandering Jew"
Latin name: Tradescantia zebrina - synonym Zebrina pendula +++++

Note that the Latin name says nothing about Jews. The meaning is
"trailing" or "hanging".

One has to wonder how this unfortunate nomenclature arose.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. The latin name turns out to be Setcreasea
purpurea.

Peace,

Kate

Lynn wrote:

I would plant the bee balm right into the ground. the carnations we get here
( might be too cold) are just annuals so either enjoy them now till the die
off or bring them in. probablt different where you live.
I still haven't planted my garlic yet . I did just have fresh carrots and
parsnips out of the garden yesterday for a soup, Yum

The bee balm and carnations are in the ground. I'm still getting okra,
tomatoes and peppers (and the rosemary and rue are blooming again.)