Description
Common Name | Moss rose, Pigweed, Purslane |
Maximum Reachable Height | 8 inches tall, spreading up to one foot |
Flower Colour | This plant carries yellow, orange, red, and bright pink. White, cream colour |
Bloom Time | Summer season |
Difficulty Level | Easy to grow |
Planting And Care
Water the plant only when the top of the soil is dry, as portulaca is a drought-tolerant plant that thrives in dry, desert-like soil.
Fertilize portacula every other week, using a liquid fertilizer with a balanced ratio such as 20-20-20.
Alternatively, apply a balanced, slow-release fertilizer in midsummer.
Pinch off wilted blooms to prevent the plant from self-seeding.
Check portulaca often for aphids, tiny, green insects that gather on the undersides of the leaves or at the joints of the stems and leaves.
Portulaca Care
Portulacas love it hot and dry. You can plant them in poor, even sandy, soil. They also adapt to average garden conditions.
Just give them full sun and any well-drained soil. Water them after planting and watch them go. They ll grow 4 to 8 inches high and spread 6 to 18 inches. You don’t even have to deadhead.
If plants get scraggly, you can cut them back. Don t fertilize too much; it will encourage plants to produce thick foliage but fewer flowers.
Sunlight | Full sunlight |
Watering | When they are watered just a light watering will do as their root zone is very shallow. |
Soil | Prefer sandy well-drained soils. |
Temperature | The plants can also be started indoors at 70 to 85F (21 to 29C). |
Fertilizer | There’s no need for fertilizer with the portulaca, as it will do fine on its own. |
Portulaca Special Feature
Moss rose is a beautiful, bright coloured, low growing annual that blooms all summer long with little or no care required. It is one of the very few annual succulents.
Portulaca Uses
Ornamental Use:
- Plant moss rose in a container or hanging basket and let it spill over like a sedum
- Use moss rose as edging at the front of borders or in the cracks in a rock wall, or the spaces between stepping stones
Medicinal Use:
- The entire plant is depurative
- It is used in the treatment of hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver with ascites, swelling and pain in the pharynx
- The fresh juice of the leaves and stems is applied externally as a lotion to snake and insect bites, burns, scalds and eczema
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