Attract Pollinators: The Vibrant Annual Flower For Your Container Garden

As you might have heard or read, pollinator populations (including bees, butterflies, and bats) are declining around the world. You might also be aware that pollinators play a vital role in the health of our ecosystems, and that every person can make a difference in helping pollinators out, too. For example, our gardens. We can easily turn them into pollinator-friendly environments, starting with the plants we grow. One such plant is the moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora), an ideal candidate for container gardens.

Native to South America, moss rose is a fast-growing, self-seeding flower that attracts butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators. As a low-growing annual, it's also perfect for adding pops of color to an outdoor space. The flowers come in a variety of vivid shades, including pink, orange, red, and yellow, making it easy to create the blooming, buzzing yard of your dreams. Even better? Moss roses — with their succulent leaves — tolerate heat and drought well, so they're a fairly low-maintenance plant overall. In fact, it's known to be a flower that even the worst gardeners can handle.

If you're thinking about bringing this vibrant annual into your backyard space, first determine the right spot for the moss roses within your container garden. To thrive, the flower should be placed in an area with full sun. Keep in mind that these flowers only open in bright sunlight, and they stay closed at night, as well as when it rains and when the skies turn overcast. (Learn why some flowers close at night.)

In addition to choosing the right location, you'll also need to provide the right base for your moss roses to grow. Simply put, these plants need to be planted in rocky or sandy soil with good drainage; otherwise, they could develop crown rot, a disease that attacks a plant's root system (and can lead to its death). Aside from that, the semi-succulent moss rose is a pretty problem-free flower to grow, though they can attract aphids or slugs.

So, what's the right time of year to plant moss roses? It depends on where you live, but it's typically during spring. One option is to sow the seeds after your region's last frost or when soil temperatures start to warm up. Alternatively, you can start growing the seeds indoors first. Again, you will want to plan for the last frost in your area; start growing the seeds four to eight weeks before this target date. (Not sure when that is? Check out this helpful tool from The National Gardening Association.) Moss roses typically bloom from summer through the first frost of the year.