Setcreasea or Purple Queen

One of the beautiful purple groundcovers to choose from for our desert gardening is the Purple Queen or Setcreasea.  It makes an excellent addition to planters or areas that need some contrast against a green background.  These are really hardy in Tucson!!  They will grow easily for you and do need some regular water.  Plus they love sun.  BUT.....Setcreasea can get leggy and spread out losing it's beautiful form.  It came back from our severe frost and actually looks a lot fuller now because of the severe freeze.  It has cute little tiny whitish pink flowers surrounded by purple leaves.  This is a common plant that you'll see in town and is rather easy to transplant......plus it's hard to kill.  Let's look at how this plant is used in a planter setting.....

Look at how the purple leaves accent artistic garden features. It's best used like this in your garden in combination with other things.  It doesn't mind full sun at all and does require regular watering once established.  I don't think it looks attractive by itself, but when combined with other plants, it really stands out. This is a great and dependable performer in Tucson.  Just remember to water this plant and maybe trim it up every now and again when it starts to look scraggly.  Until next time....