A few years back I bought this beautiful ceramic strawberry pot.  Now strawberry pots are just that, a pot to grow strawberries. They come is several sizes and in several colors.  Most of the time they are made from terra cotta clay, but this one was special, it was ceramic.  There is one opening on top and five to six openings going down and around the pot.  Each opening should have one plant per spot and then one or two in the top spot.  So with my new purchase I immediately went out and bought new strawberry plants and organic potting soil just for fruits and vegetables.  I just knew that this was the pot that would solve all my failed strawberry attempts of the past. I filled my new pot with the best organic potting soil, and followed the planting directions perfectly for my new strawberry plants. I had for a short time visions of beautiful, succulent strawberries dancing in my head.  I just love it when I come home from the nursery with all my new plants and have such high hopes for success.  How could it not work out?

Well I guess sometimes Mother Nature has other plans. As the season progressed and my strawberry plants did not, my dreams were slowly fading along with my plants.  There would be no fresh homegrown strawberries this year for all the wonderful recipes I would have tried.

I don't know about you, but I have yet to figure out the secrets to growing strawberry plants in a strawberry pot.  As my beautiful strawberry pot sat empty I began to think about other plants that would grow in my pot. So for the past few years I have tried a few different plants and I finally found the perfect plant for my strawberry pot.

Portulaca or Moss Rose as it is know by it's common name.  Moss Rose will grow in full sun or slight shade.

It has small flowers in bright colors of pink, orange, yellow, and white.  These flowers are about an inch across and look somewhat like a rose.  Moss Rose is extremely tolerant of high temperatures and drought conditions. In the south this plant will re-seed itself. So plant it somewhere you want it to grow year after year.   And that is what is happening to my pot. I planted the Moss Ross last year and the plants are coming back this year!!

Moss Rose comes in solid colors and/or mixed as shown.  You can break off a piece and add it to soil and it will root in very easily. Once they fill in the pot it just overflows with this burst of color. And Moss Rose will bloom non stop until the first freeze.

And the number one reason Moss Rose is becoming my favorite annual plant.....it really loves to grow in my beautiful strawberry pot!!!