If the stakes and tape are too much bother you can also buy hoops like peony hoops that you put on early and let the plant grow into it. Both systems work good and give the plants support so they don't fall over with the weight

I'm not sure water has anything to do with it - flowers aren't large enough to hold water to weigh them down and the plants flopped regardless of how wet it was. And too short a plant a bother staking! But not too short to still want to flop. The Chicago Botanical Garden has included Tradescantias in their performance trials and reseeding and flopping are discussed. Deterioration of the foliage - including flopping - after blooming is pretty common and they recommend shearing the plants back at the end of the bloom season.

I wrote similarly in another thread but others were convinced that all 'tradescandia' are invasive monsters and this isnt the case for the goldy coloured ones such as 'Kate'.

This import from the UK is taking the gardening world by storm! Discovered in the garden of Mrs. Stevens of Rusthall, Kent, it was named after her blond-haired daughter, Kate Stevens.

Of the five eliminated taxa, 'Charlotte', 'Osprey', and
'Satin Doll' were incorrectly identified and not retested.'Sweet Kate' is synonymous with 'Blue and Gold', which is the valid name.

I knew Blue and Gold already when it was available on the market many years ago. The name Sweet Kate popped up suddenly several years later making a major confusion .

Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate' was introduced by Hillier Nurseries at the 2000 Chelsea Flower Show, where its clear blue blossoms and golden foliage created a sensation.Nowhere in the gardening literature, as far as I can tell, is the real "Kate" acknowledged, but, by the next growing season, the new cultivar named for her appeared in the catalogs of cutting-edge nurseries in the U.S.The double advantages of outstanding flower and foliage ensured her reputation. Inexplicably, Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate' came to be listed as T. 'Blue and Gold' in the U.S., and both cultivar designations are used here and in England.Despite the confusing nomenclature, this herbaceous perennial performs admirably wherever she is planted.

"Some nurseries list 'Sweet Kate' and 'Blue and Gold' as synonymous, one-in-the-same; however, the RHS, currently lists them as separate cultivars."

Annette

Annette

The Charm Series is supposed to be an improvement over 'Sweet Kate', compact and free flowering.

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I saw these Tradescantia in person and took the picture myself and have experience with 'Sweet Kate' which I shovel pruned for being floppy and few flowered and I could clearly see that this plant is an improvement in form and flowering. We've had record spring rain and these were standing up beautifully in full sun and not foliage burned either.

I do not personally grow Mac 'n Cheese nor Now Cheesier but I do know from decades of experience in sales that no one keeps producing and selling anything that does not sell. If consumers are complaining and returning and the growers are in turn complaining, production will cease. There is no profit in continually producing a dog. It/They must be continuing to sell. Therefore they must not be dogs for everyone. No garden center is going to keep ordering a plant they get complaints on....

I have been to an open garden at Dan Heims personal home and also to Terra Nova and if he has earned "billions" it wasn't spent there except on the tissue culture laboratory which we were told Saturday cost multiple millions. Tissue culture is very time consuming and it is cloning, there are no mutants...It costs a fortune to travel the world and seek out new plants and he is extremely well respected in the field. He is damn nice in person too. funny too.

By September in full sun there is some leaf burning in these photos and the plant is not as upright as in June but much nicer than 'Sweet Kate' ever was for me.