in focus: mesembryanthemum

Mesembryanthemum
Plant

Mesembryanthemum is a genus of flowering plants native to southern Africa. Many species formerly placed herein, such as Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, Carpobrotus and Sceletium have since been moved into other genera. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Mesembryanthemum
Rank: Genus
Higher classification: Fig-marigold
Lower classifications: Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum,Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Thank to our friend's at Wikipedia for their description of the plant. A very simple but striking plant to add colour and spread to the edge of a pot or basket. I think they should not be put into borders as they tend to eaten alive by our friendly slugs and snails. Very easy to grow from seed and transplant and grow on. At the transplantation stage they are very fragile so care should be taken not to damage the stems. Even when large enough to plant into your pots or baskets they can still be fragile and care should be taken. Once large enough they will provide weeks of flowering with very little maintenance. of course as with all flowers dead head as required to prolong the flowering time. 

As you can see above a very striking effect in a basket with a mass of pinks and oranges. Although it would be nice to have an even spread but of course it never works out like that. 

This time in a pot, a very good spread can be achieved and with careful dead heading they can be prolonged to last all summer. This pot is coming to the end of the season and still the Mesembryanthemum's are still flowering well. Although the recent thunder storm played havoc with the rest of the pots inhabitants. 

A nice combination above with Linum's in the middle of a basket of Mesembryanthemum's.