My "Other" Roses

Nope, these are not miniature roses, neither are they some of the new "Carpet" roses I've seen advertised.  They are moss roses, or portulacas.

Portulacas are a low growing (4" - 6") annual that flowers for months on end with little care.  They come in both single and double flower forms.  The doubles that I have remind me of carnations.  My variety is known as the Sundial portulacas.  The flowers close up at night and on cloudy days.  The leaves are fleshy like most succulents, which explains why they do well in dry heat.

These great annuals are quite easily grown from seeds.  Just dust the ground with them, water in, and watch grow.  Many times they will re-seed themselves voluntarily in sundry neat places.  In fact, the ones pictured in this post are all volunteers.  The ones above are growing near the base of a mock orange I planted this year.  I have no idea how the seeds got here.

Portulacas need full sun and good draining soil.  They are perfect for an area that the hose won't reach.  They also make wonderful "spillers" for containers.  I recommend them to neglectful gardeners who are prone to forget watering their containers for a few days.  The plants will spread to about 12" in diameter.  They are great for rock gardens and sandy areas.  Did I mention that they are an heirloom flower that your grandmother probably grew?  Let us never forget these old time favorites.

Moss Rose Follow-Up

In light of my post the other day on portulacas, I wanted to post a picture that I took this morning.  This particular plant is putting on a show in a container that I sprinkled some seed in a few weeks ago.  My camera is not of good enough quality to really do these blooms justice since it can't seem to capture the actual color.  Anyway, I just wanted to share it with the blogging world.

The Moss Rose Gets No Respect

What would you say if I told you I have a nice annual flower that almost never needs to be watered, thrives in poor soil, readily reseeds in places where other stuff won't grow, and comes in every conceivable color?  You'd jump at the opporunity to get such a plant.  Oddly enough, we have it in the form of the portulaca, or moss rose.  You don't see people singing the praises of this lowly little annual enough.  It's easy to grow from seed, thrives in pots where it gets little care, blends nicely with other plants, and doesn't need any particular soil type.  This first one I'm showing is growing in the cracks of my concrete driveway and reseeds itself every year.

Next up is a pink portulaca - they come in all colors, as you will see in the following pictures.

This is a light yellow one that would be a great companion color to many types of flowers.

Next, my favorite color of the ones I have - bright orange.  Isn't this striking?  All my portulacas are of the Sundial variety, but I haven't met a variety that doesn't do well. 

Last, a deep yellow cultivar.  For those of you who want cheap and easy, moss rose is the flower for you.  Just moisten some dirt and throw the seeds on top.  You don't even need to cover them.  Water only sporadically, if at all.  These things thrive quite well on whatever rain happens to come. 

What NOT To Do - Plant the wrong companion plants

Portulacas ("moss roses") are wonderful annual plants that take dry conditions very well. They are also wonderful companion plants with the right companions. Last year, I did something that you should NOT do. I planted my portulacas at the base of roses. Why not? Aren't they commonly called "moss roses" anyway? The trouble is that portulaca don't drink nearly as much water as roses. In order to keep my roses happy I had to water them way more than the portulacas appreciated. The roses looked wonderful, but the portulacas under them became straggly, ugly, and developed root rot. The above picture was taken before the portulaca started looking bad. The moral of the story is to do your homework and plant compatible plants together. Live and learn!

Rose companions

Last year I had portulaca planted at the base of some of my roses. They look pretty decent in this picture, but didn't do well for long. I'm looking for ideas on what to plant around my roses this year. The roses are already much bigger than in this picture and have significantly more room at their bases now - at least my older ones. I'm thinking that portulaca didn't do so well because I have a drip system installed at the base of each rose and I water them quite a bit. Portulaca like the ground much dryer than roses, so I don't think they are a match made in heaven. How about some better suggestions? Here are some of my ideas:

1. Scabiosa
2. Scaevola
3. Verbena
4. Miniature zinnias
5. Torenia
6. Convolvulus
7. Allysum