Saturday 26 September 2015

Orange Portulaca Grandiflora

I'm collecting different colours of Portulaca Grandiflora. If the plant is not flowering, you will not know what type mose rose you are getting. I had gotten the plant from a friend many months ago and had already forgotten what colour is the mose rose.

I have grown them outdoors but due to recent attack of the aphids, I have propagated them again. I needed to remove all the aphids and made sure that there were none so that the plant can grow well again.

The plants are grown indoors now and they grow very slowly. They do not have direct sunlight but they are very close to the windows. Today, one bud blossoms and I took a picture of it.

Orange Portulaca Grandiflora
Orange Portulaca Grandiflora

Sunday 20 September 2015

Growing Portulaca Grandifora from seeds

Portulaca Grandiflora is a great garden plant. It grows very fast and spread to other areas in your garden pretty fast. You can grow them by stem cutting. Pinch one branch and insert it directly into the soil. Keep the soil moist and the plant will grow roots and new shoots will appear. The good thing about propagation by this method is that you know the color of the flower that you will be getting provided that it was blooming when you cut it. The bad thing is that there may be aphids on the branch that you pinch and it will spread to other plants. Always check that there are no white aphids before you plant them.


I found a pack of the Portulaca Grandiflora seeds in the local supermarket. It has assorted colours and I will not know what I'm getting when I plant them. Maybe I will have a number of different colours or maybe they will be of the same colour. Well, let's see what we can get in the next couple of weeks or months.

Germination after a couple of days
Germination after a couple of days 31 Aug 2015
Portulaca Grandiflora after two weeks
11 Sep 2015
The growth of the Portulaca Grandiflora is quite slow. I think it is probably due to the sunlight that it is lacking.

Growing avocado in water - Mid September 2015

I have started growing avocado pit in water a few months back. They had sprouted and grown quite well for a few months and lately something happened.

The pit started to turn colour and I guessed they are rotting and drying up. It has not affected the growth of the seedlings and I'm not sure whether the pits are needed for further growth. The seedlings that are grown in soil after the initial germination in water had the pits still intact. Only one seedling in the soil has half of the pit turning colour. I tried to search in the internet for information on the pit turning colour and rotting but did not get any meaningful answers.

I will try to document in the blog on the colour change and possible rotting of the pits.

The pits were still in their usual colour even when the seedlings had grown to about one feet. I'm not sure whether it is due to the air-conditioning that the plants have been subjected to since the haze has come to Singapore. The seedlings were kept inside the room with the air-conditioning turned on for a few weeks already. I hope this is not the reason.

Growing avocado in water - Mid September 2015
Avocado growing in water

Avocado growing in water
Avocado growing in water

Avocado pit rotting
Avocado pit rotting

Pit rotting and drying up
Pit rotting and drying up

I tried to move one of the small seedling to the living room where it was not subjected to air-conditioning at night. Only one half of the pit has turned colour and dried up. The other half is still in it's usual colour.

Avocado growing in water
Avocado growing in water


There are new roots appearing even when one half of the pit has dried up. I think it is going to survive. I'm thinking of transferring the seedling to a pot with soil soon. But I'm still thinking whether I can still keep it in water.

Avocado moved to living room to avoid air-conditioning
Avocado moved to living room to avoid air-con

The below pit has the tallest seedling but the pit has turned colour and possible rotting. There is no abnormality in the root system and I hope that even without the pit, the seedling can continue to grow. I'm also not thinking of transferring it to a pot with soil soon. I will monitor this for a couple of months. So, now it is mid September 2015. I will update the status in mid October. Stay tuned!

Avocado pit rotting
Avocado pit rotting

The root system still looks ok. There are more branching on the roots and I have changed the water regularly every week. Currently, I have moved the seedling to a room without air-conditioning at night to see whether there is any effect on the seedling.

I will need to prune the seedling too. I hope the pruning will not affect its health. The rotting of the pit may have been stressful to the seedling and the pruning may add further stress.

Avocado root system in water
Avocado root system in water