Portulaca

Hi all,

My seed grown portulaca are starting to bloom now which makes me very happy, but why are they tall and leggy? I thought they were supposed to be low growing and sprawling. Thanks

Hi PAgirl60, I planted them in my containers and they always have long stems and cascade over the rim . They will bloom beautiful in just a matter of time.

How much sun is shining on them?

purpleinopp, they are in the sun all afternoon.

cytf, about how tall do yours get? Mine are about 8 inches tall and seem to just "flop" all over the pot. Are they supposed to trail like petunias do?

Mine are tall and sprawl outside the box. :)

Your pic is pretty, love it! What you describe sounds normal, generally. More than one kind of Portulaca though. Are you able to show a pic?

Right now they are flopping even more because of rain. Here's a pic of my floppy flowers :>O

Yes, that's not unusual for portulaca. Mine do that even in full sun.

Try this to encourage more and thicker legs, clip off about 1/3 the length of some leggy branches.

Purple, if you mean my pic...thanks. :)

Yes, it was the only one on the page at the time. Wish clicking on "you" brought up a bigger copy!

It looks to me like the plants are growing tooooooo leggy because they are stretching up towards light.
All delicate thin stemmed plants topple in the rain especially heavy falls as that adds weight to the foliage and the flower heads / buds get saturated too, causing them to become top heavy however, most plants can then stand back up after the foliage / flowers dry out a bit, I sometimes go around and gently shake the rain off the plants allowing faster recovery.

I would bring the plants further out from the shade they are receiving overhead, add some canes around the edge if the pot and intertwine soft flower string criss crossed around the canes to help support the flimsy tall stems, as for next years flowering's, make sure they get good light and some form of support, normally when planted in a border / bed, these plants benefit from the support of their neighbouring plants to help support them.
Hope this can give you some help and the plants give you further pleasure for the rest of the season.
Best regards. WeeNel.

Very pretty.

These seem to love hot, searing, egg-frying Texas sun, and are more bushy. Give them as much sun as you can. If you decide to trim them to encourage bushiness, stick the cutting in damp perlite. My mother has pretty good success with rooting them this way. (Me, not so good -- probably because I usually forget them, and don't find them again until they are little gray crunchies.)

Though they can be smaller shorter and fuller in more sun, yours are very attractive as grown.