I put a few cuttings of a Portulaca in this combo tender succulent pot two years ago. I do bring the tender sucs in for the winter. It did not come back last year. I wonder if this looks like a Portulaca to you experts, It is possible that it is one of my tender succulents that I forgot I had planted in this pot.

But I thought it was strange that if it was a Portulaca that it took 2 yrs to come back and bloom.

What a beautiful arrangement!

Becky is the expert but I see purslane. I don't see portulaca. Beautiful color

Purslane is a Portulaca, P. oleracea. The plant in question looks like P. umbraticola, sold as ornamental purslane or the other moss roses. Interesting question about why it's suddenly back after 2 yrs. The seeds do get around. Love that combo pot!

Thank you so much for that clarification Tiffany.

Happy to share info :+) Just wish it was easier to find more kinds of Portulaca!

To further check that potential ID, P. umbraticola is a morning bloomer, closing later in the day, as early as noon here for plants in sun from sunrise.

It looks like you have I.D. it tiffany. I usually do not go out on the balcony until mid afternoon so I never saw the buds open. Today I went out at 11 am and they were still open but looked like they were ready to close. I just find it strange that the seeds took 2 yrs to bloom.

I went back and looked when I posted if the plant was hardy. This is really one of the slow forums it is on page 2 it was the summer of 2012. I brought the pot inside for the winter because I have other tender sucs in the pot. But they have never showed their face since 2012.

The thread "Hardy or Not" in Purslane and Portulaca forum

This is what the blooms looked like since I was able to see them before they closed.

Love the color

I think they're gorgeous! They are said to be true annuals on sources I can find that include that kind of info, but I'm not convinced. Hardiness info (including whether or not something is a true annual) is often sketchy for sub-tropical & tropical plants. But either way, I would doubt it's a plant that survived and was somehow dormant for so long, & would think that it came from a seed that sprouted this year.

If you'll be bringing that planter in for winter, and I'll be bringing some in also, maybe we can mesh our observations later... if someone in a tropical location hasn't popped in with more info to share before then. Plants brought inside don't always offer opportunity for relevant/accurate observation, but I'll definitely put at least some of mine in the sunniest spot I have to see what it does.

I wintered over my portulaca pot for several years inside my garage. It did not fair well with little sun, but bounced back each spring. One winter, i forgot to water it and it died.

This year i have two new pots of portulaca that will over winter in the greenhouse. I, too am interested to see how it grows in the protected lighted area. I think it should do well as i had a bougainvillea bloom last year in the dead of winter in the greenhouse.

As I think about this I think it was probably the seeds that sat in the pot. We had so much rain this summer the seeds might had finally got enough moisture to wash down into the soil and sprout.

This is one of my pots that does not have a drainage hole and the seed might have been able work its way down into the soil because it was so moist.

It is the only thing I can come up with because as you all have said there is no way it sat dormant for two yrs. but I can see a seed waiting for the opportunity to sprout for two years.

I am bringing it inside so I will see what happens next summer and will post the results.

I bought this Bougainvillea in spring of 2014. In the pot was one weedy looking plant, which I left to see what it was since I suspected Purslane. That is what it turned out to be. In the process of protecting the Bougainvillea from freezing, the Purslane also got protected. The photo is from this morning. It was repotted into a 14" diameter container in spring of 2015, so that's a lot of dense growth. Last year after a hail, there were some loose pieces of the Purslane that floated up in the dunking trough which almost immediately put out roots. I planted those little pieces in the enamel container and also brought it in to protect from freezing. Worked well for me.

Beautiful plants Donald - all very healthy too

I'm late getting here. Sorry.
I love surprise plants and it seems that is what you got, Cinta! Two years is a long time!

I love the color too! My favorites are the hot pinks and bright oranges.

When I over wintered a pot of Purslane it did wonderfully up until the sun changed course. I should have moved the plant to another window. It never died, but eventually thrived again. So keep yours with a lot of sunshine.

The seeds that flew off into the soil took over and gave me summer after summer of beautiful, abundant growth in my former garden.

I only have information about the edible, non-ornamental kind of purslane, but I have been able to keep one plant alive in a container for over a year, in Phoenix's warm winters. December and January are very hard on them. They have to be brought inside at night and put under a grow light and kept warm, and then they need to be put outside in full sun during the day. They were able to survive this way for about a year and a half, but then the hard water deposits (salts) built up in my container, and they ended up dying out anyways. I think if I have used filtered water they might have survived even longer.

Hello. I am just curious by Donalds portulaca. That pretty specimen have leaves which seem to be intermediate of umbraitcola and grandiflora. Is it possible as the hybrid of them ?

@XiaoLong
"I am just curious by Donalds portulaca. That pretty specimen have leaves which seem to be intermediate of umbraitcola and grandiflora. Is it possible as the hybrid of them ?"

I suppose it's possible. Since it arrived with the Bougainvillea, it was probably something that was being cultivated at the place of origin. I think at least it would be an improved variety of some sort. The blooms are large and colorful.

On my attempt at overwintering Purslane and Portulaca, this one overwinters quite well and is still growing in the same blue cooking utensil in the photo. What was in with Bougainvillea I ripped out when I repotted the Boug. Now there are many plants of it up from seed. If it's a hybrid, then maybe those seedlings will tell us. Maybe not. They haven't bloomed yet.

The other plants which are sold commonly as 'Moss Rose' and I call Portulaca did not overwinter. Even some that I managed to get through 'til spring continued to decline. Maybe using a greenhouse and continually taking cuttings to propagate a plant would work. Those containers where I was trying to overwinter them have also produced a lot of seed grown plants. Maybe enough will resemble the selected parents that I'll be happy with them. Time will tell. It's been a cool spring and only a single plant of those has bloomed. It did match what I was trying to overwinter.

@Donald. The bloom resemble to Portulaca samba series purple. But the leaf much different. It will be great if those huge flowers samba can hybridize to umbraticola.

I missed Jeff's post. Rushing I suppose. Beautiful in the blue pot! I'm also in Phoenix and have found pretty much the same thing you described, Jeff.