In the relative cool of the morning, a huge bumblebee spends a considerable amount of time on the spiderwort in the garden at my back door.

He lumbers from flower to flower, his pollen sacs swelling, and occasionally he stops to rest on the foliage. The flowers are the color of Welch's grape jelly, and in fact, the variety name is "Concord Grape." There are several other "Concord Grapes" scattered around my garden, as well as an unnamed orchid-purple variety and a white one that doesn't produce nearly as many flowers as the others.

If you don't have a spiderwort, you're missing out on one of the prettiest, most interesting plants in the garden. It requires some partial shade, butdiscovered it blooms more heartily with some sun rather than deep shade. The plants are positively strapping this year, thanks to our moist conditions. In most years, the plants set seed and virtually disappear by midsummer, with Oriental lilies and coneflowers taking their place. The plants return the following spring.

Foliage is thin and strappy, and not particularly strong. A good rain can split the plant, but a peony ring can provide some stability. Each flower has three petals, hanging in terminal clusters or dangling "spiders" that resemble spiders clinging to a web. Flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon, offering bloom for weeks. The plants require little maintenance.

Now it's July and they're still holding their own, loaded with blossoms. I've read that like daylilies, each bloom lasts a single day, but I can't confirm that simply because there are so many flowers.

Spiderwort belongs to the Tradescantia species and grows as an American native wildflower in prairies and woodlands. There may be hundreds of varieties, but only a few are appealing enough for breeders.

Horticulture historians say the plant was named for John Tradescant or his son, both English gardeners and plant collectors. They were gardeners for King Charles I of England. The father, who died in 1638, received a Virginia spiderwort before 1629, and the son visited Virginia in 1650. According to University of Arksansas Extension Service, the plant originally was mistaken for one that Algonquian Indians used in weaving.

Native American tribes used the plant to ease digestive problems, historians claim, and to soothe insect stings. Apparently spiderworts were mixed with ale to ward off "dancing madness," the Extension Service said, described as sweating, trembling and twitching that rural people believed was caused by spider bites, but was probably caused by ergot-infected rye.

Plants should be divided every three years, a task that is much easier than digging and dividing daylilies.