Orange Portulaca Grandiflora

I'm collecting different colours of Portulaca Grandiflora. If the plant is not flowering, you will not know what type mose rose you are getting. I had gotten the plant from a friend many months ago and had already forgotten what colour is the mose rose.

I have grown them outdoors but due to recent attack of the aphids, I have propagated them again. I needed to remove all the aphids and made sure that there were none so that the plant can grow well again.

The plants are grown indoors now and they grow very slowly. They do not have direct sunlight but they are very close to the windows. Today, one bud blossoms and I took a picture of it.

Orange Portulaca Grandiflora

Growing Portulaca Grandifora from seeds

Portulaca Grandiflora is a great garden plant. It grows very fast and spread to other areas in your garden pretty fast. You can grow them by stem cutting. Pinch one branch and insert it directly into the soil. Keep the soil moist and the plant will grow roots and new shoots will appear. The good thing about propagation by this method is that you know the color of the flower that you will be getting provided that it was blooming when you cut it. The bad thing is that there may be aphids on the branch that you pinch and it will spread to other plants. Always check that there are no white aphids before you plant them.

I found a pack of the Portulaca Grandiflora seeds in the local supermarket. It has assorted colours and I will not know what I'm getting when I plant them. Maybe I will have a number of different colours or maybe they will be of the same colour. Well, let's see what we can get in the next couple of weeks or months.

Germination after a couple of days 31 Aug 2015

11 Sep 2015

The growth of the Portulaca Grandiflora is quite slow. I think it is probably due to the sunlight that it is lacking.

Aphids attacking portulaca grandiflora (moss rose)

Last few days, I had seen aphids attacking the portulaca grandiflora. I had seen one aphid on the portulaca grandiflora (moss rose) in October. I removed it before I potted the plants. The plants were growing well in November. However, in December, I noticed that the plants are not growing well, leaves are turning yellow. I took a good look at the plants and noticed there were white aphids on the underneath of the leaves. I tried to remove as much as possible but after a couple of days, the aphids will return. I wonder where they come from. In December, it was raining most of the time and no direct sunlight reached the plants. I was thinking that the aphids grew rapidly as there was no heat from the sun to deter the population of the aphids.

Aphid

Today, I find two more aphids and already removed them from the plant. I hope the plants can survive this attack.

How to propagate Portulaca Grandiflora by stem cutting

How to propagate Portulaca Grandiflora by stem cutting? Please refer to my earlier blog.

Today is the seventh day since the cutting was done. The stem is doing well in the water and tiny roots have formed. Yesterday, I did not see the roots. Today, the roots are visible now and I can take macro photo of the roots.

Stem cutting as at 21 Dec 2014

Zoom in of the roots at the cut area

So, after you have taken the stem cutting and placed it into a container with water, it will take at least 7 days before you can see the roots. You have to be patient and wait for the roots to develop. I will wait for another week to see the roots' development. When the roots have matured, I will transplant it to a pot.

Propagating Portulaca grandiflora or Moss rose by stem cutting

I think it is time to propagate my pink portulaca grandiflora by stem cutting. I select a branch which I think is suitable and use a scissor to cut it.

Cutting a branch off the portulaca grandiflora

I place the new stem cutting into a small plastic container and use a piece of wire to secure the stem cutting in place. I pour some water into the container just to cover the cut area. I hope new roots will grow in a few days and I can transfer it into the pot.

The mother plant without one branch on the right.

The new stem cutting in a plastic container filled with water

I left a couple of leaves on the cut area on the mother plant. I hope that new branch may start to grow from the leaves. I will update the progress in this blog. I will monitor the progress of the new stem cutting and will post pictures accordingly.

Portulaca grandiflora or Moss Rose

At last, I know the name to the plants that I saw in Cingjing Taiwan. Thanks to the Green Culture Singapore forum that I'm able to find out the name to this plant.

I was travelling in Cingjing in Taiwan and saw some beautiful flowers outside the Nina de Chocolate 妮娜巧克力工坊. They were beautiful and I couldn't resist plucking one each. One is pink and the other is white. I didn't know whether they will survive one week in my luggage when I'm having vacation in Taiwan. The plants did survive.

Nina de Chocolate

I placed them onto wet tissue to keep the cut area moist and when I was back, I continued to place them in water. Roots started to come out from the cut area and within two days, there were many roots and I felt that it was time to plant them.

Roots from Moss Rose

I planted them into a pot using potting mix from NTUC. The stems were curled because I had placed them into a cup of water and gravity had made the stem curled. It was quite difficult to plant them when the stems were curled, so a portion of the stem was actually buried in the soil.

Portulaca grandiflora planted in a small pot

My friend had a white and pink mixed version and I may try to get one from her when I visit her in the future. I saw the flowers bloomed twice when I was at home. They bloomed at around 9am in the morning and would wither at night on the same day. So, you will need to be there to see them if they bloom. It would be a beautiful sight to see white, pink and white/pink flowers blooming at the same time. Next, I will try to propagate them.

Portulaca grandiflora white & purple flowers

It will be great if I can collect all the colours of this species, Portulaca grandiflora. The flowers are large, about 3 cm in diameter with 5 petals, come in red, orange, pink, white and yellow. So, now I have the pink and white types. Next is to collect red, orange and yellow types. I wonder what is the mixed white and pink type. Do you have the red, orange and yellow types to share?