The Ultimate Tradescantia Guide

You may notice this amazing houseplant on social media as it’s a must-have for many indoor plant lovers. The Tradescantia Nanouk also known as the Fantasy Venice and Wandering Dude is absolutely stunning and one of Happy Houseplants favourites for its pink, white, and green striped pattern on its leaves. With the right conditions, the Tradescantia can grow just as long as the trailing ivy houseplant hence the name ‘Wandering Dude’. The Tradescantia Nanouk is a type of species originating from South America that looks great in a hanging basket or container that will grow and hang over the sides

The Tradescantia Nanouk is unlike others in the Tradescantia family has been developed in the Netherlands, aimed to create a more hardy Tradescantia with more vibrant blooms compared to others in its family. 

Caring for Your Tradescantia

At Happy Houseplants, we know and understand the importance of caring for your houseplants. Many people avoid starting their houseplant haven with fears of not having the knack for caring however, we have your covered! Tradescantias tend to be easy and perfect for beginners. The Tradescantia Nanouk is no exemption to this! A super trendy plant that anyone can get the most out of. Even though the Tradescantia Nanouk is easy to care for, there is some basic caring techniques to fully utilise this stunning houseplant.
The Tradescantia Nanouk is best grown in bright, indirect light. We recommend a north or east-facing window, or filtered sun through a sheer curtain so the sun rays are not able to directly hit the leaves or flowers causing sun burn issues. With regards to watering and moisture levels, Happy Houseplants recommends watering the Tradescantia Nanouk when the top inch or 3cm of soil is dry. This is about once every seven days but ensure the soil is dried out between watering to avoid overwatering. On average, we recommend watering about 120ml of water. Tip – if your Tradescantia is near a North-facing window, it will require less watering as it receives less light.

As the Tradescantia Nanouk is natively from South America, it thrives in a humid environment. Therefore, we recommend the Tradescantia Nanouk as a bathroom/shower room plant or placed in a steamy kitchen. If you would like your Tradescantia Nanouk in another room, you can recreate a humid environment by placing the Tradescantia next to other humid loving houseplants and running a humidifier nearby. Another handy technique is placing the plant pot on top of pebbles with added water. The temperature of the room will evaporate the water and humidify the air around the Tradescantia.

Why Do We Love the Tradescantia?

One of the reasons we absolutely love the Tradescantia Nanouk is the fact it’s such a hardy grower, that it doesn’t require fertilising – well that often. If you do decide to fertilise your Tradescantia Nanouk, feed it with our fertiliser every two to four weeks during the growing season, which tends to be spring and summer. It is also a good idea to repot your plant about once a year. We have a blog on repotting plants that is definitely worth taking a look at. Use a pot that’s slightly larger than the existing pot, fill it with fresh potting soil. The benefit of this is the Tradescantia Nanouk will be encouraged to grow fuller, bringing those amazing colours to life!

Regarding the Tradescantia Nanouk growing conditions, we recommend temperatures of around 24 degrees Celsius during daytime and 10-15 degrees Celsius during the night. Ensure that your pot as good drainage. Our Tradescantia Nanouk come with plastic nursery pots that offers adequate drainage. This is to ensure that water does not sit at the bottom of the pot and rot your Tradescantia Nanouk’s roots which potentially will kill your houseplant.