Description for Portulaca, 9 O Clock (Yellow)
Portulaca flowers are truly beautiful in various garden and landscape settings and have been used to beautify old structures and stone walkways, as they grow well in the old cracks in the structures where winds have deposited just enough soil to support them.
Portulaca flowers are beautiful growing around the stones of a garden path with their mix of beautiful colours of pink, red, yellow, orange, deep lavender, cream and white.
. Portulaca plants are native to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Portulaca flowers are easy to grow and enjoy.
| Common name | Flower colours | Bloom time | Height | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moss rose, Pigweed, Purslane | This plant carry yellow, orange, red, and bright pink. White, cream colour | Summer season | 8 inches tall, spreading up to one foot | Easy to grow |
Planting and 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 | Soil | Water | Temperature | Fertilizer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full sunlight | Prefer sandy well drained soils. | When they are watered just a light watering will do as their root zone is very shallow. | The plants can also be started indoor at 70 to 85F (21 to 29C). | There s no need for fertilizer with the portulaca, as it will do fine on its own. |
Caring for Portulaca
- 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.
Typical uses of Portulaca
Special features: 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 very few annual succulents.
Culinary use: Na
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.
References
- http://flowers.about.com/od/Annual-Flowers/p/Growing-Portulaca-The-Moss-Rose-Flower.htm
- http://homeguides.sfgate.com/care-portulaca-40832.html
- http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/portulaca/portulaca-plants.htm
- http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Portulaca
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