portulaca & trends

More on portulaca. Annie noted that there is a large flowered portulaca (purslane relative), which is actually quite attractive. Paghat recently posted on it too. Around here, it would be an annual and I remember it was used quite a lot when large beds of annuals planted in sweeping blocks of colour(geraniums, petunias, dusty miller, etc.) were really popular -- back in the '70s? Now it seems public gardens have lots of daylilies and that grass -- Feather reed grass, Calamagrostis aucutiflora 'Karl Foerster' .

It's too bad that some plants become so popular that one get a little tired of seeing them (for me that might be impatiens).

Not exactly desired in most North American gardens, purslane was known as a pot herb in Europe and England, falling out of favor by the early 1900's.

It's also a versatile medicinal herb; lots of references to it in many old texts.