Can you root portulaca from cutting and if so how?? Do you put them in a certain soil and put them in a plastic bag? Can they even be rooted this way????

I am new to this plant, I am spreading my interest to some plants i've never grown before.A friend told me if i could figure out how to root them i could have some out of a potted plant she has,she only has the one plant.


thank you for any help i can get!!!!

Hi there jojoe and - we're so glad you're here

You "should" be able to root your portulaca in water. That said, it re-seeds heavily.

I love this plant as you can tell by my avatar

Thank you for the warm welcome,

I absolutely love ATP and have the utmost respect and admiration for everyone i've had contact with here so far.I am fairly new to plants or at least they are a new hobby.After being diagnosed with MS i was no longer able to continue my life long passion of horse back riding,training and anything that had to do with horses.I never thought plants or anything else would take the place of that passion.I started with my friends getting me plants saying "they will die if you don't get up and take care of them & oh by the way the dish garden with 8 plants in it needs to be separated because i bought it marked down" hubby bought me my first Hoya i now have 10,then epi's,Rhipsalis and last christmas Holiday cactus.I think you get the picture.

A friend passed away and she had a lot of plants which went to a mutual friend and she's sharing the plants with me.I got sempervivum,gold moss sedum and an upright sedum.She has a gorgeous portulaca and she started to give me the whole plant then realizing it was the only one,I'm happy with cuttings

I am going back today and wanted to check on taking cuttings.I'm going to google it to get some more info to make sure i take the cuttings correctly.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for your help!!!! .

For more showy purslane, I usually buy a few 4" plants in the spring and bump them up later to bigger pots. The other wilder purslane are like weeds in the garden and come up from the scattered seeds when it gets warm. Both provide good nutritious additions to various dishes. I've also rooted pieces from my purchased purslane to make new plants...just get a long enough stem to insert into a pot with potting soil, then pull off most of the leaves and any flowers and keep moist.

Thank you Linda

I snip off purslane and root it without much ado so I imagine portulaca will work the same way!

I tried planting purslane into the ground, without rooting, and it took! And spread and spread!!

I have researched portulaca & purslane.All i have gotten is confused!! I tried to figure out the difference between the 2 and when i google one i get info on both.It's almost as if they are they same plant!! they just look different???I thought what i was rooting was portulaca when actually i was rooting purslane and it roots very very easily,just stick it in some damp soil and in 2 week i can see the roots through the sides and bottom of the white plastic bucket i put them in.Now i'm thinking about making a mixed basket of different colors.It is hard to find different colors of purslane around here though.I have found orange,pink & a hot pink flower with very red stems not green like the other plants.

This is one of the debates and things that drive me crazy as I have posted elsewhere on our Purslane-Portulaca forum her on ATP.



They are "kissing cousins" but not the same plant although most growers make the labels the same. Here is my guide for you:

Purslane = plumper oval leaves
Portulaca = spiny leaves.

Also, generally purslane has 5 single petals. There is a double I have seen but never in person.

Portulaca is ruffled blooms with layers.

I'd also love you to take a little bit of time to browse through the forum and look at some of the beautiful photos people have posted. It will help you identify the two.

ok,thank you so much Becky,

I have found a new love these plants both of the are just beautiful my husband even loves them I have figured out the difference and thank you for helping me,i don't know why nurseries just put any label on a plant.But i know it happens,i get a lot of EA plants around here and Hoya's are also a passion of mine and they are never labeled correctly.I have a new plant now that has a label i just can't find it any where a (lipstick plant)

Correct me if i'm wrong.Portulaca reseeds itself and will come back next year,Purslane doesn't? I heard if i wanted to ask about getting purslane to reseed you were the one to talk to.I can't remember who told me (sorry) but i was told that (Becky was the only one who has gotten Purslane to reseed) please share any secret's to accomplish that.

I try to buy plants that reseed themselves,i just don't have the plant funds to buy a lot of plants and especially the same ones every summer!!! Most of my funds go to my Neurologist to treat my MS.That's life.

Thank you so much for your help!!!!

This makes me grin to know my purslane rep is far and wide.
If I could have only one plant it would be purslane. That is how much I love it!

I must be honest: I did not do anything but water the area where the purslane was in the summer/fall months here in Phoenix. It was in the ground.

As I watered other plants, the ground was always wet. In our mild winters, I would water once a week. Not all of it came back of course but with purslane, all ytou need is a little. IT CAN BE A TAKEOVER PLANT which I allowed it to be. But when kept in baskets, it won't go crazy. It's hard to sut it back when it starts to get leggy but I made myself do it and plant those cuttings in the ground.

I'm so happy you love it so much!

Guess what I found in one of my baskets? PURSLANE and 3 blooms to boot so I guess some of it did germinate

Ok now all of this talk of yall having purslane coming back has gotten my brain started up.I'm going to put mine in the ground,stop dead heading and water them good.Then pray every night as well as keep my finger's crossed.

I have 2 plants and they are totally different.I looked it up and just like most plants there are different cultivars and one of mine is called 'Toucan Scarlet Shades' the leaves are thicker a lot more succulent than the other.The leaves & stems are pink to almost an orange.The blooms are twice the size of my other plant and the buds are huge as well.This plant isn't covered in blooms like the other one.I have been dead heading it every day trying to get more blooms at a time on it.It will be hard not to deadhead the plant once in the ground.But i do need to leave the old bloom alone correct?? that way the seeds will mature and fall to the ground when the dried bloom falls off.

Am i thinking about this correctly or not.Does it reseed or just come back from roots that don't die back completely over a mild winter.The bed will also need to be well mulched this winter as well correct?To protect the plants.

Anything i am going about wrong or just simply have backwards please feel free to let me know!!



The last picture is my favorite it was getting late that day and i caught the blooms as they were closing for the night

YAY VICKI!!!!!

I never deadheaded purslane and I don't think you need to, Jelinda. Your plants are beautiful~

The Toucan series are always amazing, in my opinion. I used to have a grower/nursery I purchased from in the mail and they stopped carrying purslane. Big Bummer.

I don't dead head either - yours are beautiful!

thank you all,

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.My 4 month old granddaughter which lives with me,has the worse case of thrush i have ever seen.I have been on shifts with my daughter taking care of a screaming baby.It's 5:40am and I'm wide awake when i should be dead tired.My day has started early.I have already watered some inside plants.

I have been standing outside on my front porch looking around trying to decide where to plant these 2 purslane,it's still dark but with the lights and it is my yard!! Will they grow the same planted in the ground?They will spread right so give them room,how high will they grow. bout same as they grow in a pot just towards the sun?Will they grow in any soil or do they have any preference and do both kinds grow the same,when planted outside?

HAVE A LOVELY SUNDAY!!!

Here is a photo taken from one of the threads here with purslane planted in the ground. Some of mine reached 12" to 18" but it mostly spreads.

Becky,that is breath taking how many plants did you start out with?I have never seen so many colors.I can only find orange,pink and the big hot pink blooms,they're called toucan shades right? I can only find the hot pink and colors i mentioned above.Want to find more colors but the summer is going to be over soon,good thing we have mild winters most of the time,My bay window is a good bright place.

Jelinda, this isn't my yard but someone else's. Although I have owed white, yellow, peach, pink and the hot pink.
Target stores used to have a nursery dept in Phoenix and they carried some of the best purslane. Even though summer may be ending, Purslane will keep blooming as long as the temps are hot. I grow it well through October.

I love the fact that there is a forum dedicated to purslane and portulaca. Purslane is one of my favorite plants. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and it grows like a weed. The one I grow is common purslane with tiny yellow flowers. I just recently discovered that I can grow it from cuttings, too. I mainly eat it in salads.

Jeff