Sunday 14 December 2014

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?

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