Description

A truly beautiful low growing ground cover type plant is called the portulaca (Portulaca grandiflora), or sometimes known as the sun rose or moss rose

Plant Specifications

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 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 indoor 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 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