A Detailed Guide to Moss Rose Planting Methods and Care Tips
Moss rose (scientific name: Portulaca grandiflora), also known as moss rose purslane or purslane, is a perennial flower of the genus Portulaca in the family Portulacaceae, often grown as an annual. It likes warm, sunny and dry environments; its flowers open in sunlight and close in the early morning, evening and on cloudy days, hence the names "sun flower" and "noon flower".
Moss rose growing methods and moss rose planting methods
1. Prepare the pot and soil: Although "tolerance of poor soil" is one of the characteristics of moss rose, and its growth does not depend on whether the soil is good or bad, as a flower grower you always hope the flowers can grow with strong roots, abundant leaves and bright blooms, so it is still best to prepare a loose, breathable, fertile soil. During this period, you can collect expired oil-based foods from home, such as sesame powder, the residue from home-ground soy milk (bean dregs, allowed to ferment), or fish intestines (fermented in advance) to use as base fertilizer.
2. Sowing: At the end of April and the beginning of May, the climate conditions in the Jiangnan region are most suitable for sowing. Last year I sowed the seeds on April 28, and three or four days later the flower seeds broke through their shells and sprouted; by June 14 they had produced buds and bloomed. The whole growing period was 1.5 months, a full 10 days earlier than the previous 55 days, which can be called fast growth; the secret lies in the sowing step. To make the seeds contact the soil closely, when sowing moss rose seeds you only need to scatter the seeds evenly on the surface layer of fine-grained potting soil, then cover them with a very thin layer of fine soil.
3. Raising seedlings: To ensure the seedlings pass through this very critical period safely, the seedling-raising stage is very important. You must have enough patience to care for and tend them, just like treating a baby in swaddling clothes; a little carelessness and the seedlings die, greatly reducing the survival rate of the seedlings.
4. Thinning and transplanting seedlings: Thinning, also called pulling seedlings, means keeping a certain spacing between seedlings. For thinning, choose a pair of pointed-tip tweezers. When the flower seedlings have grown a few millimeters tall, you can begin thinning. Adopt a batch-by-batch, timed method, always pulling out the relatively thin and weak ones and keeping the thick and strong ones, until there is still a gap of three or four cm between seedlings.
5. Pinching: When the small seedlings grow to 3 or 4 cm tall, branches grow again from the roots. At this time, pinch off the tip of the main stem, and before long a cluster of shoots will sprout from the broken end. When the branches at the roots have grown to a certain length, you can also pinch the branches. After such treatment, the moss rose is dwarfed and the plant shape also looks better.
6. Watering: During the seedling stage, the weather is not yet very hot and water evaporates slowly, so it is not suitable to water too much. The flowering period is right in the dog days of summer, when it needs to be watered thoroughly so it can fully absorb water.
7. Collecting seeds: Mature moss rose seeds are silver-gray, yet it is very difficult to harvest them at exactly the right moment; either the seed pods have split open or the seeds have already flown away. So you should often touch those yellow seed shells with your hand; the seed shells that fall off at a touch are the best. If they do not fall off when touched, but the outer shell has turned yellow and whitish, also pick it off; pinch it with two fingers, and if what appears is a black seed, this is because it is still a little damp; after a short while, the black seed will turn into a silver-gray seed.
Notes on growing moss rose:
1. Overwintering seedlings: After the Frost's Descent solar term each year (in the Shanghai area), move the double-petaled moss rose indoors to a sunny spot. After winter begins, place it on the inner side of a glass window and let the potting soil be a little on the dry side, and it can overwinter safely. After Qingming the following year, the flower pot can be placed outside the window; if a cold wave strikes, it still needs to be brought inside the window for care.
2. Cutting time: From the beginning of May to the end of August, you can cut tender stem tips about 5 cm long for cuttings.
3. Preparing the growing medium: Use 3 parts mature garden soil, 5 parts yellow sand, 2 parts rice-hull ash or fine sawdust, then add a little superphosphate powder and mix evenly.
4. Planting container: A clay pot, porcelain pot, plastic flower pot or other container that can drain water at the bottom. Place a tile shard over the drainage hole at the bottom to help drainage, then you can fill it with the growing medium and plant.
5. Cutting method: Flatten the surface of the growing medium in the container, insert the cut tender moss rose shoot tips into holes made with a bamboo chopstick, going into the growing medium no more than 2 cm. To make the potted flowers take shape and become full as quickly as possible, depending on the size of the pot, you can insert multiple cuttings in one pot as long as a 2 cm spacing can be maintained (when the seedlings become crowded, they can be divided into other pots). Then water thoroughly. New cuttings can be shaded or not shaded; as long as a certain humidity is maintained, they will generally survive in 10 to 15 days and enter normal care.
6. Routine care: Moss rose has very few pests and diseases. Normally maintain a certain humidity and apply one-thousandth-strength monopotassium phosphate once every half month, and you can achieve large flowers, bright colors and continuous blooming. If multiple varieties are cuttings in one pot, flowers of various colors blooming together in one pot have even higher ornamental value.