I bought Portulaca plants during the summer for my balcony. Now that it is getting colder what should I do with them and/or take care of them?

If you want to keep them, they need to stay above freezing and in your sunniest possible spot.

Is it one of these "ornamental purslanes"?

Wingpod Purslane (Portulaca umbraticola)

Hello Miss Tiffany. Thank you so much for your quick response. I am am plant NOVICE and the question you just asked went way over my head.

I think you've come to a good place to get started. I was asking if your plant(s) look like those in the pics in the link I put to "ornamental purslane" in the plant database on this site. There are other kinds of Portulaca but ornamental purslane is the most common.

I checked out your link and yes mine looks like this.

Tip from left field... I have the common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) and I've found that it tends to look a bit leggy and leafless if I don't give it a good trim after it has finished blooming. I just about threw it out because it looked so horrible, and I'm so glad I didn't.

Yes Cheapskate gardner, mine looks like that now. Is it too late to trim back?

It is if you're leaving it outside, which winter will probably put an end to it. I'm planning on trimming mine and then bringing it inside to hang in a sunny window.

I cut back mine to the lowest set of leaves

I do plan on bringing them inside. So I will trim them back. You all are so helpful...much appreciated!!!!!!

If you cut the plant up... and... I don't think you should... But... please don't discard the pieces that you remove.

Around here, if the plants are left alone, they self-sow.

The cuttings root if you insert them into some soil and water them in...
Or... just lay them where you want some next year, and the seeds will drop off and new plants should come up in the Spring.

Agree, snippings do take root easily.

But I've never had a seedling show up. Even when I had hundreds of plants in the ground all over my yard.

Hello Andrea67, thanks for starting this Thread. If you've saved some seed, you can try for next year, and you might get lucky. I was surprised to find some Portulaca growing this year that came from plants I had purchased 4 years ago. In 2017, I bought a pack of Portulaca Happy Hour.


I planted them beside my Daylily Swirling Water, but felt they were in too much shade.




In 2018, a seedling was found, but got transplanted to the Iris slope for better sunshine.



This year 2021, three years later, Portulaca seedlings popped up behind the Irises and surprised me.



And the pink Portulaca seedling looks like the Happy Hour Portulaca from 4 years ago!
- Have fun with your Portulacas!

I've always called them Moss Roses so I had to check Purpleinopp's link. LOL
When I lived in Minnesota (zone 3) I had Portulaca hanging over my gravel driveway and every year I'd have volunteers that I'd transplant into more hanging pots. I always enjoyed going out and searching for the babies.

Moss roses usually refers to P. grandiflora. That species has foliage that look like tiny pine needles. Nora's pics look like P. grandiflora to me. Beautiful! And the daylily too!

Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflora)