Terry purslane - a plant for a beautiful "lazy" garden
If you love groundcover flowering plants, plant terry purslane. In a short time, its creeping stems will weave a real rug, painted with bright spots, inflorescences. White or yellow pink or red ... They immediately catch the eye, despite their compact the size of the plant itself. Why are these flowers so remarkable and why they are loved gardeners?
Description plants
Terry purslane refers to undersized annuals that boast fast growth and abundant, colorful, flowering. It grows in the form of a short bush with a maximum height of 20 cm. Pinkish the creeping shoots are decorated with fleshy, needle-shaped leaves. Thereby twigs resemble young Christmas trees. The leaves are also juicy, light green in color.
In early summer, the tops of the stems begin one after others bloom flowers. Compared to the total size of the bushes, they rather large, up to 3 cm in diameter.The inflorescences consist of several tiers wide petals and a little like miniature poppies with a yellow center. Their color can be very varied, from delicate white to rich red or purple.
Purslane blooms only in sunny weather. On dark days, its buds are closed.
Purslane terry - features of cultivation
Flowers called purslane are not only very delicate and beautiful, but also quite unpretentious. One of the features of the plant is good seed germination. They can be sown directly into open ground, which makes cultivation easier if there is no space and opportunity to place seedlings. Of course, in this case, the flowering of the bushes will come later, but it will be just as abundant and chic. But purslane grown from seedlings will delight with the first buds already at the beginning of this summer.
You can start planting as soon as the soil warms up, and return frosts have passed. It is convenient to sow seeds directly into holes or prepared grooves. Although they sprout well and amicably, but relatively long. Full-fledged young seedlings will appear about a month after sowing. During this time, the main task will be to prevent weeds from drowning out the future flower bed with purslane. Of course, you will also need to regularly water the beds, especially if the spring is scanty for precipitation (rains).
It is not necessary to loosen the area where the purslane is sown - you can easily damage the delicate seedlings. It is enough to pull out the grown weeds by hand. And it is easy to distinguish a young purslane from other vegetation by its peculiar appearance - it looks like small Christmas trees.
For the rest, caring for a terry purslane is one of the most uncomplicated.
Herringbone bushes will not take a lot of attention and time, it is enough to simply fulfill the most important requirements, namely:
- Water the beds in a timely manner.
- Weed to remove weeds.
But purslane does not need feeding at all and can develop without additional fertilization of the beds. And another nice one bonus: next year, on the site of previous plantings, lush bushes. Purslane reproduces well by self-seeding, but there is one caveat - new plants will not all be terry. But they will remain all the same bright charming and beautiful.