Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Telling Time with Flowers: Portulaca


We have a little row of these pie plate shaped clay pots lining a wall on our porch. We have found that the drought tolerant portulaca is about the only plant we can sustain in the little pot. Portulaca comes in a wide variety of colors and is a member of the purslane family.

By 9 a.m. the gay little flowers are brightly open and in business for the day, along with the calendulas and the tawny day lilies. All these flowers are brilliantly colored and seem to reflect the sun but tend to sulk if the day is dull or dreary.

2 comments:

Marilyn Miller said...

What a fun thing to do to gauge the weather and time of day by the plants.

I got your schedule for events coming up. I wish I were close enough to enjoy several, but the cheese making class especially caught my attention. Have fun!

bspinner said...

I love portulacas!!!! We planted some a couple of years ago and they keep coming back. Your so right about them being drought tolerant. We have ours in the same bed as our prickly pear cactus and they do very well together.