Every year I plant moss roses among my miniature roses against the foundation as I love the look. I am in the habit of very gently removing the faded bloom to expose the little nub so it will bloom some more, my mom said she never does that. Now I am wondering will the old bloom fall off on it`s own the the new nub bloom....or go to seed?

I'm assuming from the context this is Portulaca (moss rose) rather than the type of actual rose called a moss rose. I don't deadhead Portulaca and they keep on flowering so deadheading would be for appearances sake (the old flowers can look ugly for a while) and to prevent self-seeding where this happens, although In my location I don't find they do self-seed.

See also

http://garden.org/nga/searchqa...

If you're asking about Portulaca grandiflora &/or umbraticola, each flower lasts for 1 day. The inflorescence can produce new flowers for many days. When I see a stem without any more unopened buds, I cut them off.

This pic of P. umbraticola shows yesterday's shriveled petals, seed pods forming where older flowers were, and new buds that will open today or tomorrow.


When this whole inflorescence is finished, I will cut it off. Shriveled P. grandiflora petals do seem more apt to get stuck on the foliage than umbraticola. If it makes you feel better to remove them, go for it, but it won't stop seeds from forming unless you remove the little pod that's left or cut off the whole inflorescence when you see there are no more buds forming there.

Portulaca (moss rose) is what I have, thanks for the answers, the only reason I was removing them is because I did not think it would bloom again once a flower
was spent. And I don`t mind if they self seed, would love it for next spring, but they likely would not come up anyway, although my mom said hers does.

It depends on what you're removing, just petals or more of the inflorescence.

purpleinopp said:It depends on what you're removing, just petals or more of the inflorescence.

just the petals removed, no seed pods, removing the petals before seed pods form and fill with seeds.

Removing only the petals shouldn't make a difference to future flowering even if these were plants that stopped flowering if not deadheaded. Here moss roses flower all season without anything being removed, I never deadhead them, but what they would do in a longer growing season I don't know. For plants that do need deadheading for repeat flowering you need to remove the ovary as well as the petals.

You have a way with words, Sue!

I try but they don't always come out right