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. 

Information displayed on this page about Tradescantia spathacea is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.