Prairie Spiderwort is a graceful, early summer native perennial that adds vivid color and texture to sunny meadows and dry prairies. Its delicate, three petaled flowers open in the morning and close by afternoon, creating a fleeting but beautiful daily display. Cutting the stems yields a viscous secretion that will harden into a thread-like consistency not unlike spider’s silk. This is the basis for the common name of all spiderworts.
Prairie spiderwort forms clumps of slender, arching stems with grass-like leaves and clusters of triangular, bright violet-blue to purple flowers at the tips. Bloom time is late spring into midsummer (May-July).
Overall height is at 12–24 inches.
Each bloom lasts only a single day, but new flowers open continuously for several weeks, giving the plant a long and lively flowering season.
Prairie spiderwort thrives in sunny borders, native meadow plantings, and dry restoration sites. It spreads slowly by rhizomes, forming attractive colonies over time.
Highly attractive to bumblebees, small native bees, and syrphid flies, which collect pollen from its open flowers. The larvae of several native moths associated with the Commelinaceae family, including leaf-feeding species.
Historically, spiderworts were used by Indigenous peoples for soothing poultices and mild teas. These uses are historical only and not recommended for modern medicinal practice.
Provides early season pollen and nectar for native bees and contributes to the diversity of dry prairie ecosystems.
Prairie or Small Spiderwort prefers full sun to light partial shade and dry to medium soil. Drought is well tolerated once established. Soil types include sandy, rocky or well drained loam typical of prairies and open hillsides.
After initial flowering, the foliage can be cut back which may encourage a re-bloom in the fall.
Please note that Riverside Native Perennials (RNP) only ships our potted “35” product via USPS. We generally can have your plants boxed up and ready to go within two or three days. All other products including our flat of plugs, 1-gallon and 3-gallon containers are only available for nursery pick up in Delaware, OH. For large orders of any of our products we can arrange shipping at an extra cost. Please contact the nursery for additional information.
What to Expect…
It’s important to note that when we send plants to you, presentation is everything! We recognize that you’re expecting healthy plants to arrive safely on your doorstep ready to be planted and that is what we’re selling. Further, we want you to know that while we are a fully licensed and inspected perennial nursery in the state of Ohio…we are in Ohio! That means we are subject to Ohio weather. The average frost-free date for our area is May 15. So even though you may live in Florida or California your plants are growing under Ohio conditions and we do not heat our greenhouses due to the expense. Our plants may be slightly delayed but again it’s because we’re in a Zone 5 area. Because we ship nationwide, we ship plants at all times of the year. If it’s winter in Ohio, you’ll be getting dormant plants. If it’s spring or summer in Ohio, you’ll be getting plants of various sizes that are actively growing. Plants shipped during fall in Ohio may be dormant or may be heading towards dormancy. This is all natural and we do not try to modify or prolong the growing season other than to grow them in an unheated greenhouse. Even in an unheated greenhouse our plants are much further along and growing well early in the spring than if they were planted outside in Zone 5. If you would like additional information about sizes for a particular species, please contact us via email.
Notes about Shipping…
In 2021 RNP partnered with a shipping professional to design and develop a shipping system that could reasonably be expected to survive the USPS mail room and transportation process. After several design sessions and going back to the drawing board on more than a couple of occasions we created a shipping box system that, to us, is bulletproof. It is strong, lightweight and, to date, has not failed in shipping thousands of packages of plants to all corners of the country.
Here’s how it works…
Once selected from our greenhouse benches, your plants are placed into a small plastic bag to maintain moisture during shipping. To keep the soil in the pot we created a cardboard insert that perfectly fits into the top of our 35 containers. The insert has a cutout that surrounds to plant stem without damaging it. The plastic bag and insert are secured by two rubber bands. Each bagged plant is then placed into an individual corrugated cardboard box which perfectly fits the 35 container, and which locks it in place so that it will not move during transit. Four individual boxes are then placed into another, even heavier duty corrugated cardboard master shipping box. The whole effect is that of double boxing your plants. They are safe and secure for the long trip to your home landscape!
The system only works with 4 individual boxes being packed into a single master shipping box so we encourage you to buy four plants or a multiple of four plants. You can buy less than four plants but we will need to send all the cardboard for four plants in order for the shipping system to succeed as designed.
