It's about knowing the right people to ask.

Oh! I so agree with you! A couple of years ago, when wanting to do some re-vamping of the garden, I was lucky enough to be able to ask questions of the panel of experts attending Southport Flower Show. What a difference it made!

Thank you for sharing this with us. Like you I have an insatiable appetite for finding the correct names for plants. Well done on persevering to find out this name. I felt it was a familiar plant even though I know I have never seen it before and when I googled it there was very little about it except this:-
https://clevelandlandscapegarden.com/tropical-indianapolis/
Each step through the garden brought new discoveries. Tinantia pringlei coll. #A1M-77 (Mexican Speckled Wandering Jew, available from Plant Delights, was a groundcovering filler that I had never seen before. When happy, it spreads delightfully and the dark foliage is a great foil for lighter colored plants like the chartreuse branch of Deutzia ‘Chardonnay Pearls’.
According to Beth Chatto website the aster is a tall non spreading upright perennial. Your soil must be very much just what this one needs.

well I'd hate to argue wuth the late Beth Chatto but this does seem to like my soil and does 'run' a bit.
interesting about the Tinantia. if it produces young ones would you like one scotsgran?

waddy I so agree. I often go to RHS Harlow Carr when they have 'ask us' days.

Glad you had a reliable I’d for your plant, Eileen, and that you had the right people to ask. Even the RHS experts aren’t infallible . . . I once took a sprig of an evergreen from my garden with cream, green and pink leaves to Wisley’s information desk, but they couldn’t help! Later I found that a member of my gardening group had the same pretty shrub, and she knew it was Photinia ‘davidii’ - I was just pleased to have a name for it :)

That's brilliant Seaburn, very satisfying.

Yes please to the offer if and when the Titantia produces young ones. It will be interesting to see if it can survive outside up here. If you look in Wikipedia one of the synonyms is Tradescantia pringei. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinantia_pringlei

I am pleased for you. It's good to know the true identity of a plant because it helps with it's care.

I quite agree with you, Hywel, knowing the proper, botanical, name of a plant helps a lot. I also like to know the true names as many plants have the same name but are totally different from one another!

I also did a search for it on Wikipedia but it only has a stub of information. Nevertheless I found out that one of its "popular" names is 'Mexican Wandering Jew'!

I have a couple of the popular 'Wandering Jew' species at home. The purple & silver striped 'Tradescantia zebrina' which, strangely has never flowered for me in the 17 years I've grown it here in the UK but when I grew it in Spain it flowered every year with delightful deep pink flowers. I also have 'Tradescantia flumensis' which has dark green leaves which are a deep purple on the back. This produces lovely 3 petalled white flowers during the summer. It also self seeds as I discovered in the spring this year!

I agree with all the comments above, worth the effort, I know Picton Nursery well, our middle daughter lives in nearby Malvern, and we lived in Worcestershire for many years...