SUN
PLANT
Family PORTULACACEAE
Portulaca grandiflora
Annual
A half-hardy annual from Brazil, known as the
Sun Plant or Rose Moss. Of semi-prostrate habit,
the plant grows six to nine inches high.
The leaves are fleshy and the flowers, borne
at the ends of the stems, are an inch or more
across and noted for their brilliance of colouring,
which ranges from yellow to pink, scarlet, purple
and crimson.
There are several varieties.
The plant is only suitable for a warm situation
where it is fully exposed to the sun; the soil
must be well drained.
Like the Zinnia, the
Sun Plant gives of its best in a hot and dry summer.
In as much as the seedlings do not transplant
well, it is best to sow the seed out-of-doors
where the seedlings are to flower, under cloches,
in April, giving protection until early June.
Propagation is from seed.
The flowering season is from July to October.
Portulaca
Half Hardy Annual.
Three inches.
Flowers of various colours in August.
The Portulaca is a succulent jointed plant of
a low trailing habit; the single flowers are saucer-shaped,
the double ones like small roses, their colouring
bright and clear white, rose, red, yellow.
The
peculiarity of the Portulaca is that it delights
in heat and drought, and flowers best in a scorching
summer, it is not quite hardy; seed may be sown
on mild heat in April, and the plants put out
in May; but the simplest plan is to sow in shallow
drills in the open about the first week in May.
The position should be fully exposed to the sun,
and if the soil be a southern slope, shallow and
stony, it will be none the worse. The plants may
be thinned out, but not severely.
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