order: caryophyllales
family: portulacaceae
genus: portulaca
species: grandiflora
Moss-rose is one of my childhood plants. At that time I didn't know what it was called, or more accurately, not until recently. As kid, probably like many other kids, I had a chance to do some gardening with my family. For some years, I was fully in charge of all the garden work, which I had to get done before I got to school. For many years I've forgotten about my passion in gardening until I finally picked it up again last year after moving into a house with garden. I happened to come across a plant that I had so much to do with in a garden centre. It's known as "mexican heather", the name of which, I also didn't know. Now I've been trying to rediscover and gather a list of all these plants that I had a lot of dealing with back at home in Borneo. It wasn't easy for me to "rediscover" the plant of topic -- "moss-rose" aka "10 o'clock flower", because the flower is usually in full bloom at this hour in tropical Asia. I searched online giving all keywords I could think of although I had not a clue what it was called. Or I did. I thought the name had something to do with the flower carnation. Or the flower that showed up on the cans of condensed milk that mom used to buy. No, all my efforts were to no avail. But because I was determined to find it, I browsed through the entire volumes "DK encyclopedia of plants". My efforts weren't in vain, not only did I find out what this plant is called, there're also a dozen other plants that I used to know.
Coming back to moss-rose. These plants can have flowers in different colours. They can be both single coloured or multicoloured. There are varieties with single, semi-double and double flowers. My elder sister and I used to collect different varieties. We didn't buy; we got them from her school friends, from neighbours or we simply plucked some from the streetside, as they were widely planted as groundcover in curb areas in our city. (At some point, I also want to cover other plants that were used here.) Once back home, we simply pressed the plucked succulent stems into the soil. In a matter of a few days, the plant has already established itself and kept spreading like nobody's business. Because the city changes the plants every now and then, they were slowly forgotten.
I have already got a packet of portulaca grandiflora seeds. Can't wait for summer to come! :)
>>Update:
I've finally sown the seeds in March. I provided them the conditions mentioned on the package including moist soil and the minimum of 18 °C soil temperature. It only took them two days to sprout. I must say it was pretty impressive and unexpected. Now they are so tiny that they still don't look anything like the moss-rose I knew. That gets me wondering if these are really the plants I was looking for. Now I can only sit back and wait to see what they are going to turn into.
Seedlings are so tender, you always have to take extra care handling them. Despite the fine spray I used to water them, the shower flushed them all down against the soil. I think I might have to use a pipette the next time.
family: portulacaceae
genus: portulaca
species: grandiflora
Moss-rose is one of my childhood plants. At that time I didn't know what it was called, or more accurately, not until recently. As kid, probably like many other kids, I had a chance to do some gardening with my family. For some years, I was fully in charge of all the garden work, which I had to get done before I got to school. For many years I've forgotten about my passion in gardening until I finally picked it up again last year after moving into a house with garden. I happened to come across a plant that I had so much to do with in a garden centre. It's known as "mexican heather", the name of which, I also didn't know. Now I've been trying to rediscover and gather a list of all these plants that I had a lot of dealing with back at home in Borneo. It wasn't easy for me to "rediscover" the plant of topic -- "moss-rose" aka "10 o'clock flower", because the flower is usually in full bloom at this hour in tropical Asia. I searched online giving all keywords I could think of although I had not a clue what it was called. Or I did. I thought the name had something to do with the flower carnation. Or the flower that showed up on the cans of condensed milk that mom used to buy. No, all my efforts were to no avail. But because I was determined to find it, I browsed through the entire volumes "DK encyclopedia of plants". My efforts weren't in vain, not only did I find out what this plant is called, there're also a dozen other plants that I used to know.
Coming back to moss-rose. These plants can have flowers in different colours. They can be both single coloured or multicoloured. There are varieties with single, semi-double and double flowers. My elder sister and I used to collect different varieties. We didn't buy; we got them from her school friends, from neighbours or we simply plucked some from the streetside, as they were widely planted as groundcover in curb areas in our city. (At some point, I also want to cover other plants that were used here.) Once back home, we simply pressed the plucked succulent stems into the soil. In a matter of a few days, the plant has already established itself and kept spreading like nobody's business. Because the city changes the plants every now and then, they were slowly forgotten.
I have already got a packet of portulaca grandiflora seeds. Can't wait for summer to come! :)
>>Update:
I've finally sown the seeds in March. I provided them the conditions mentioned on the package including moist soil and the minimum of 18 °C soil temperature. It only took them two days to sprout. I must say it was pretty impressive and unexpected. Now they are so tiny that they still don't look anything like the moss-rose I knew. That gets me wondering if these are really the plants I was looking for. Now I can only sit back and wait to see what they are going to turn into.
Seedlings are so tender, you always have to take extra care handling them. Despite the fine spray I used to water them, the shower flushed them all down against the soil. I think I might have to use a pipette the next time.
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