I took a trip to Lowe's to pick up soil for my pumpkins (more on that in a future post.) The heat is getting to us around here. Most of the flowers were 50% off, and for good reason. Almost everything was wilting, leggy, and just sad. I snapped two pics. I didn't feel like taking a ton of pictures of a bunch of dying plants. It was also extremely hot, and again I was hanging with an unenthused nine year-old, so just know that this trip was not very pretty.
"Help us"
I have been enjoying some delicious watermelon to beat this heat, and I hope you have been partaking of this Summer staple! No, I did not grow this watermelon. Someday I may venture on to attempt growing watermelon. For now, baby steps!
"Seedless" does not actually mean seedless, y'all!
Gardening in Southeast Wichita has proved a true challenge. Although Wichita, Kansas is considered the Midwest, it is extremely hot in the Summers here. The weather is incredibly windy and dry. There are actually tumbleweeds here, folks. I have seen them.
I have planted many kinds of vegetation on a trial and error basis. It has been very hard to keep a blooming verdant garden, even with so-called "drought tolerant" "full sun" plants. Until I start seeing plant tags that say "Kansas sun tolerant" at the gardening center, I will not trust any plant tags! My neighbor gave me some nice wire baskets that you line with coconut husk liners. Since I wanted to attach them on my car port, which has a lot of harsh sun during the hottest time of the day, I chose Petunias to fill the baskets. I know from experience that Petunias have been fairly hardy at withstanding the ridiculous heat here in Kansas.
This petunia is très patriotique!
What I did not account for was the quick drying-out of the soil that would occur through the coconut husk liner baskets being exposed to the hot sun. They don't work like a pot. There is not much protection from the penetration of the Kansas sun's mighty rays. My petunias gave it their best college try for a good month or so before they were overtaken and baked to a crisp. Disgusted, I went to the gardening center with cacti on my mind. I did not want to put freaking cacti in my hanging baskets, but I could not think of any other plants that would survive that environment. I was going to fill those baskets with something, darn it! What I didn't account for was how quickly the price would go up while buying multiple cacti plants. I also learned from reading the gardening instructions on these cacti plants, that some of the prettier ones needed more water or shade than you might think! Crestfallen and stressed (I had a very unenthused child with me walking around in the 95° heat), I scanned over all the "full sun" plants looking for something decent to fill the basket planters. I happened upon Purslane.
Khaleesi would approve.
I bought the Purslane, even though I found it uninteresting and scaly-looking, in hopes that it would beat the heat and grow dangling leaves to make up for its reptilian appearance.
As for those coconut husk baskets that offered no protection for the soil, I decided to line them with simple plastic bags to seal some moisture in, so that the watering of the soil would not simply evaporate through the basket! I pat myself on the back for that idea! If you do this, make sure you leave part of the bottom of the basket free from plastic bag lining, because your containers should always have drainage. If your plants are not properly drained, their roots can rot.
The next day I went outside to check my plants, and was rewarded with this unexpected beauty.
Ta-da!
Hours later I walked out again, and discovered many more blooms! I was surprised by the amount of flowers I was being blessed with on the first day. I thought the gardening gods had finally smiled down on me. That night the flowers fell off of the plant. I thought the sun had killed them good and dead, but actually these exotic beauties lose their flowers after a singular bloom, only to push out as many blooms the next day.
In action
Dead buds that gently came off of the plant. No reason to despair! They make new flowers!
Every morning for a month I have glanced out at my hanging baskets. Purslane has quickly become one of my favorites plants in my garden. It is one of the prettiest and definitely the most interesting! It proves to be an avid champion against this Kansas heat!
When I decided to do some digging into these plants, I discovered that there are types of Purslane that are eaten, and that it is actually a weed (Mason online). No wonder it has been kicking butt in this heat! It is native to India and Persia, and can grow in all kinds of conditions (Mason online). Flowering Purslane is sometimes called "the Dolly Parton flower" as its flowers are open from around 9am to 5pm (Aggie Horticulture online).
I hope that my Purslane flowers well into the Fall. I am ecstatic to have serendipitously happened upon this little jewel of a succulent!
