When to sow moss rose?
- Botanical name
- Portulaca grandiflora
- Family
- Portulacaceae
Moss rose is sown from May to June. It flowers from June to October.
Moss rose is an annual plant. The edible parts are the seeds.
The flowers open in strong sun and close at night and in cloudy weather. Newer hybrids stay open longer.
Fleshy leaves hold water, so moss rose takes heat and drought. It does well in poor, sandy and stony ground, where annuals normally die. In wet soil the stem and the roots rot.
The seed is so fine that it is mixed with sand before sowing and scattered evenly over the bed. Newer varieties are propagated from cuttings, and a stem broken off roots by itself in soil that is moist enough.
The plant dies at the first frost, and the seed stays in the bed and often comes up the following spring. The seeds are edible raw or cooked, though gathering enough of them for a meal is hard.
Moss rose through the year
- sowing
- flowering
In short
The last frost is not on the same day everywhere, so the recorded weeks are a guide and not a date.
Growing conditions
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- Colonies of small aphids sit on the shoot tips and the underside of the leaves. The leaf curls and puckers, and sticky honeydew is left on everything below. The viruses they carry are more dangerous than the feeding itself.
- Prevention
- Go easy on nitrogen, because soft sappy growth is what aphids are looking for. Encourage the predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps). Use a reflective mulch, which puts them off settling, and a strong jet of water to knock the colony off the tips.
- What to do
- Potassium soap works on contact and only while it is wet, so it has to reach the underside of the leaf. On drought-loving plants and in heat it can scorch, so apply it in the evening.
- Signs
- Holes appear in the middle of the leaf rather than along the edge, young plants are eaten down to the ground, and there are slimy trails in the morning. On low-growing fruit there are gnawed pits.
- Prevention
- Remove the hiding places beside the bed: boards, stones, dense weeds. Water in the morning and not in the evening, so that the night is dry. Spread a band of coarse sand or gravel around the bed. Cover young plants with fleece. Pick them off at night, which is still the most effective measure.
- What to do
- Baits with iron phosphate are held to carry less risk for pets and children. Put them out in bands beside the bed, not scattered over the whole surface.
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Related plants
The plant below is in the same botanical family (Portulacaceae).
Sources about the plant: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: Clemson Cooperative Extension, Royal Horticultural Society, University of Maryland Extension, Utah State University Extension.