Hello everyone,
I am brand new to gardening. This summer was the 1st time ever that I planted flowers. I was never good at raising house plants & so I just never thought about gardening till I moved into the perfect home.
Please bare w/me as I have quite a few problems/questions.
I am also having an issue with my two varieties of Portulaca. One has brownish/reddish stems w/all red flowers & the other green stems w/multi colors of pinks, cream & white & solid colors.
I erroneously assumed the plant required the same soil it came in and so I used regular Miracle Grow soil not the quick draining or moisture control and had no idea sand mixed in would help.
Regardless, my plants thrived all summer until around August when many issues occurred w/all sorts of my plants.
Well, now I'm pretty certain both have black stem disease. I'm planning to repot them in more appropriate material. And I'm using an antifungal spray.
The green stemmed plant has these tiny, tiny pin head black spots on its stems. I had assumed it was a normal part of the plant as it grew older. But, I finally decided to clip a stem to see if these spots would rub off and low & behold w/a bit of fingernail effort they came off!
Do you think this could be a mite of some kind? I worry about using oils because I would imagine it would interfere with photosynthesis. Not sure what other options I have.
Before I noticed this issue my green & red stemmed plant's flowers would take forever to bloom & when they did they wouldn't fully open and would have gray stuff all over them. What could this be? Mold? If so, is it systemic? Can I cure them? Or are they a total loss? I just hate to think I failed these beautiful living things!
My green stemmed plant began life w/me as a fully packed plant with tons of flowers. I had no idea I needed to cut their height and still fear doing so. Will the cut stems produce flowers again?
The green stemmed one has now become spaced out, i.e. not as full looking and tall. The red one was about dead when I rescued it from Walmart. They don't take very good care of their plants. My BF named it Charlie after Charlie Brown's Xmas tree. He never filled out & has become leggy but he did thrive well for a while. He's got more black stem rot and I've lost about half of the plant.
I'm planning to bring them in for the winter as they've both been in large pots all summer.
Any ideas or thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I've attached a pic of the "dots". Sorry it's sorta blurry but my phone won't focus on tiny details.
Sorry to write so much!
