Hiii, friends of the Hivegarden community, I'm a bit anxious/nervous because this is the first time I publish a post here… Although I can't deny that I've been seeing many posts here, because I love to see plants and nature in general, they are worth admiring, and you know it as much as I do.
I would like to tell you that lately I stopped just admiring the plants with my eyes, but I also decided to start taking care of them myself. Taking care of them is not a new task, I had already tried to do it before, a few years ago, when I was a teenager; however, on that occasion I learned that kindness and good intentions are not enough to take care of someone, you also need knowledge, which unfortunately I did not have and that led to my plants dying irremediably.
I believe that taking care of plants is a science and an art at the same time, because not only love and feeling are needed, but also technique and knowledge. Well, fortunately, knowledge is something that can be obtained.
Now, I have a strong desire to have a small garden, a desire that started since my boyfriend gave me a succulent (Darley Sunshine is its name, according to Google), to which I even dedicated a post full of feelings and emotions. Thanks to this little plant, which I love very much, I have been gaining more courage and confidence to take care of others, and today I can talk a little about my very little experience in this. This journey began with my beloved succulent, and continues with yet another succulent: the portulaca grandiflora. Here we go!
I think it's no secret to anyone that I love flowers, I have since I was a child, and there is even a funny anecdote about that, but this is not the space to tell it, hehe. So, the first flowering plant that has been within my reach is the Portulaca Grandiflora. Also known as (I'm translating it names from Spanish) morning, love for a while, silky flower, beautiful at eleven o'clock, flowering purslane and eleven hours (according to Wikipedia), I call it beautiful at eleven o'clock. In English it is called Eleven o'clock, it seems.
I got it one day when I went to a cousin's house who is also planting her own garden, and since she knows I like flowers, she gave me a sprig of this plant. This was about four months ago, since then, I have been learning myself how to take care of it, experimenting how much light and watering they need, and also propagating them from time to time. The pictures you will see in this post are of a little beautiful at eleven o'clock I am propagating, which I am going to give to my boyfriend, hehehe.
About its flowers, they are like little pompoms, I think, they look very cute, plus they come in a variety of colors like fuchsia, red, orange, yellow, and white (I would have loved to see a blue beautiful at eleven o'clock flower, by the way).
These warm colors in which this plant comes in are very vibrant, they attract a lot of attention, I think that if someone wants a touch of color for their garden, they should plant a beautiful at eleven o'clock; and much better if you plant them in the ground, because another feature of this plant is that it tends to spread quickly, although mine have not grown much, I imagine that is because they are planted in a pot (in a recycled one, in fact)
Look at the vivid color of this flower. My beautiful at eleven o'clock only gives red flowers.
This is one of my cousin's beautiful at eleven o'clock, it is an interesting variation of colors, which shows that among the common colors of these flowers, there can also be mixtures.
Another characteristic of this plant, which I consider to be the most important, is that it is a succulent, which means that it basically stores water. I wish I had known this before, and I will explain why later. I should add that, thanks to the fact that it is a succulent, it is also a fairly hardy plant, so its care is easy.
As a last characteristic, and the saddest of all, is the “duration” of its flowers. If I could describe this plant with one word, it would be “ephemeral”. Its flowers, unfortunately, only bloom for one day, then close forever and die. However, although this makes me sad because its flowers are so beautiful, if we take proper care of it, we will have new flowers almost daily.
So, let's go with the care, so well summarized and nice.
At first, I thought this was hurting them and burning their leaves, because if you see the plant it looks a bit delicate, but this is something far from reality. I thought that its leaves burned and that's why they looked a bit beige and pink, but after researching it on the internet, I realized that it is actually something normal of the plant:
The plant turns that color because it produces something called anthocyanins, which is a pigment present in plants, to protect itself from the sun; more specifically to protect itself from UV rays and the stress that high temperatures can cause. This is, in fact, a characteristic that is present in other succulents. The important thing is that, as long as the plant does not look really wilted and continues growing, there is nothing to worry about.
Regarding watering, it is very important to keep in mind that this plant is a succulent, do not overwater it.
And here I return to the subject of the beige leaves: my mistake was to water it too often, believing that they were wilting, which is actually very harmful for a succulent, as they tend to rot easily.
It is advisable to water them once the soil is completely dry, remember that it is a succulent; I know I repeat it a lot, but I made the mistake of forgetting it and I have been taking bad care of it. A very essential detail that I discovered is that excessive watering can not only cause them to rot, but also slows down their growth; once I started watering them sparingly, new green shoots soon appeared.
About the soil, I don't have much to say, but the most significant fact is that they need good drainage to avoid root rot, and they also prefer sandy soil. So check well that your pot has holes and that the soil is not too heavy.
Here comes my favorite part: propagation, specifically propagation by cuttings.
First I took a twig about 3 cm long, one that had no flower buds, and planted it in the ground, just like that.
3 days later, I carefully pulled the plant out to see if it was already rooted. It is important to know that I wet the soil a lot so that it was quite soft and the root came out without hurting itself, I do not recommend that you do this, I only did it out of curiosity of how long these plants take to take root.
Then I took another sprig from my succulent plant and planted it too, I plan to make like a bouquet of beautiful at eleven o'clock, hehe, do you think I will make it?
Here the plant was already a week old and a flower bud was already coming out.
Three (or four) days later, the flowers usually open. These are the first flowers of this new beautiful at eleven o'clock plant. Their color is a bit pale, yes, I don't know if it could be a matter of color mixtures or is it because the plant is just getting established.
Two weeks old this plant is now, and as you can see, there is a bud about to open, plus new green stems growing rapidly.
The next day, the bud opened, now look at the vivid color of the flower, it may be because the plant is already established.
Finally, I think that if you are a flower lover, the beautiful at eleven o'clock is a good choice, as its care is quite easy; just make sure you don't make the same mistakes as I did, and it will grow very fast.
With nothing more to add, I will continue to trying to take care of my plants as best I can and share my experiences with you. Take care, drink water, don't forget to smile, and have a nice day!
- Traducción al inglés DeepL (lo siento por cualquier error, no sé mucho inglés.)
- Separadores dibujados por mí. Portada y banners hechos en Canva
Todas las fotos han sido tomadas por mí, usando un Samsung Galaxy J6
