Thanks for your responses Ken and Franeli. The plants are both in ground and ceramic or plastic pots. The ones in the ground did the worst - all of them died one-by-one with just four left. With the heat waves this summer everything was watered regularly and all are in full sun. I had better results with with the potted plants in Miracle Grow potting mix in a plastic pot. All the plants were in close groupings with co-mingling roots, but not all of the plants in the group died... Anyway, with all the baking sun and heat, I did keep the soil mulched well and watered so they probably did get root-rot at the expense of the other flowers that needed lots of water. Next year, in pots only. thanks again.

I'm not saying the law is going to hunt you down where you live or harass you; it's likely the park gardeners won't be around to notice since there's so few staff left after severe budget cuts. But although you might call it weeding, in the eyes of the law, it's theft, like it or not. There are many plants that would do well assuming your dog won't dig them up? - some dogs are manic for digging and others aren't, so I'll assume yours doesn't and the plants can establish themselves well through the winter. We replaced our soil with top quality compost and mulch heavily. I live in the Oakland hills so a bit warmer than you but still at the edge of the fog. We water every two to three weeks, depending upon how many 'heat spells' the Bay Area gets during the summer. The very toughest plant I have is polygonum. A true groundcover, it's actually invasive so only suitable if well-corralled by very long stretches of concrete. And I mean long, I've had this pop up up to 10' away although no further than that! With good soil and mulching it can take a surprisingly small amount of water. Here it is mixed with Oxalis siliquosa. Polygonum is the darker variegated arrowhead-shaped leaf with tiny pink globular flowers: There's nothing more drought-resistant than Stacchys byzantina, or lamb's ears. "Helen von stein" is a variety without flowers, but lacks the silvery hue this one shows. The accompanying plant is Tanacetum, a lovely plant but harder to find: I don't especially like Vinca major or minor. They take quite a while to establish and need a fair amount of water. The two variegated forms are very handsome, however, and when the long stems (think ivy-like) throw out their flowers, they can be a beautiful addition: Lotus berthelotti comes in yellow, orange or red forms, and has beautiful foliage. It does demand more water and feeding, however, to bloom its best: These are commonly called ivy geraniums, a complete misnomer since they are actually pelargoniums. This is a trailing groundcover form, but I have only seen it in this color, oddly enough: If you have room to break up the groundcover look with some subshrubs, osteospermums are truly amazing plants. They are drought resistant, flower almost continually, reseed with abandon but are easily pulled out if unwanted. They come in a number of colors now and generally stay 1-2' high: Like L. berthelotti, the following have slightly higher water requirements, but are still manageable and would like your SF temps. Lamium maculatum 'Anne Greenaway' (the little white daisy-like plant in the top LH is the Santa Barbara daisy, also a contender for tough, drought-resistant; but more of a mounding plant than a groundcover): Lamium maculatum 'Pink Dragon' (there's a white flowering form as well): Oxalis siliquosa 'Copper Sunset' and a variegated yellow plectranthus, forget the variety name but has pretty little spikes of pale lilac flowers:

Hmmmm ... I've had that happen too; here are a few thoughts. You didn't say whether they were planted from seeds or plants, but if from 4 in. pots could be that they were slightly root bound when you planted them and the roots never really spread out. It's better to get the smaller plants when buying. If you find they are root bound when planted it's best to cut back the tops and pull the roots out a bit so they will spread. Or perhaps they were planted just a little late in the year and never got established before warm weather set in. Or they could be a different variety than the ones you had before. Perhaps the growing situation changed a bit. Maybe there's a bit more shade or tree root have invaded the area. Portulaca's don't need much in the way of nutrients, but maybe what little they needed was used up by the plant the first year or two they were planted in that spot. That's often the case with more heavy feeders. It ground has been so dry this year maybe they just needed a bit more water to get them going earlier. Just some things to think about. Maybe someone else will have some ideas also.

I'm with dowlinggram on this. One seed will produce one plant of one color. But I will tell you this....the seeds of portulaca are so small and the seedlings so teensy and delicate that they are never planted as an individual. When you purchase portulaca seeds, you will find that you can buy packages of all one color OR packages of mixed colors. You will not get the assortment by accident......it consists of numerous seeds of each color. When I was in the business of plant production, I used to mix the portulaca seed with grits in order to be able to sow them uniformly in the flats. As they grew, it looked like I was growing a portulaca cake.....fabulous! I would then cut 'the cake' into very small 'servings' for cell packs. A grower can produce baskets or pots of all one color OR of a mix of colors, each consisting of numerous small plants. Duluth, the blog author was wrong. At least about that paragraph.