Pretty Portacula brings carefree colour to gardens
Hinterland Homesteading with Racheal Pascoe.
Are you wanting to brighten up a part of your garden and not spend a lot doing it? Maybe you could consider incorporating the Portulaca plant?
We just love them here at home. They are bright and cheery and so easy to grow. Portulaca really likes the sun. In fact, they require 6-8 hours of sun each day to reach their potential. They don’t really do their best in the shade, as the flowers curl up and the plant gets leggy.
Colour boost
Portulaca is ideal for garden pathway beds, rockeries and pots. They grow quickly when they are happy and I just love that you can simply break off a handful of the plant stems and literally poke them in the ground, keep them watered and they take off. Just terrific when you are planting out a new area and want a boost of colour. The colours are just so bold and amazing… the hottest pinks, vibrant yellow, nearly fluoro yellow and many more.
Easy to grow
Portulaca grows so easily in our climate. They are considered an annual, where they grow, flower and seed all in one year. Here on the Sunshine Coast though, we enjoy the flowers all year round. Portulaca is also a great way of smothering weeds. If you have a sunny area that you are tired of weeding, plant portulaca there and it will suppress the weeds. I feel like it is on my side when it comes to the battle of Me versus the Weeds here at home! Ha.
The plants can grow to be about a metre across and only about 20cm high. I would like to point out that they are so easy to pull out if you want the garden space back or just want to give it a haircut. Portulaca just love a trim and come back with a thousand more flowers.
For the pollinators
At home here we just love having portulaca in the garden for the pollinators. We have a couple of bee hives, and I think having some plants in the garden which are nearly always in flower offer the bees an easy meal. In the morning sun, you can hear the bees humming on the portulaca.
Now if you want to buy a little pot of portulaca it will set you back about $10, but you could see if anyone you know could give you a piece instead?
There are lots of colours to enjoy and even some different varieties which are doubles and fluffy ones.
It can be quite addictive, adding to your collection of portulaca. When you get a little collection going, you will be able to swap with others who have different colours and varieties.
As you well know, garden therapy is a real thing.
I get so much enjoyment out of having little successes in the garden and seeing the super bright colours of the portulaca. I hope you do too. Happy gardening everyone!
