Grow and Care for Baby Sun Rose

Grow baby sun rose in full sun, in soil that drains, and let it dry before you water. Baby sun rose is Aptenia, also sold as heartleaf ice plant.

Give it full sun and soil that drains, then let it dry before you water

Baby sun rose wants a hot, open site and soil that dries between waterings. Soggy soil around the roots is the primary cause of root rot, and shade stretches the mat and cuts the bloom. [1] baby sun rose uses that same sun and drain.

1. Set it in full sun. A bright south or west window works if you grow it in a pot indoors, but the plant flowers best outdoors in open light.
2. Water deeply, then wait until the soil is dry before you water again. Once the mat is established in the ground, it needs little extra irrigation in most years. [2]
3. Use a light feed two or three times during the growing season. Rich, wet soil makes lush stems and fewer flowers.
4. Grow it in a hanging basket or a pot with a hole if you want it to trail. Empty the saucer after you water.

Plant at the same depth as the pot, and space plants about two feet apart

Knock the plant from its pot and set it at the same depth it was already growing. Give each start about two to three feet so the trailing stems can fill in without crowding them into wet soil. [3]

1. Choose a full-sun bed of sand or loam that drains, or a hanging basket filled with cactus mix.
2. Set the crown at the same depth as the nursery pot. Do not bury the stems deeper.
3. Space plants about 24 to 36 inches apart so the mat can spread.
4. Water once to settle the soil. Water through the first few weeks so the roots take hold, then reduce.

variegated baby sun rose uses that same depth and spacing. It is the cream-edged form of the same plant, not a second kind of care.

Take a tip cutting and let the cut dry before you stick it

The usual way to make more baby sun rose is a tip cutting. Trailing stems also root where they touch soil, so a rooted piece from the edge of a mat is another start. [4]

1. Cut a healthy three- to four-inch tip, just below a leaf node, from a stem that is not in heavy bloom.
2. Strip the leaves from the bottom inch. Set the cutting in a dry, shaded spot for one or two days so the cut skins over.
3. Push the cut end about an inch into cactus mix in a small pot with a hole. Keep the mix barely moist until you feel resistance on a gentle tug, usually in one to three weeks.
4. Move the new plant into full sun and treat it like the rest of the bed.

Not hardy ice plant — and not moss rose or rock rose

Heartleaf ice plant is this succulent mat. Hardy ice plant in the dry-garden trade is Delosperma, a thinner carpet that takes more cold — see How to Grow Ice Plant. The thick highway mats on the California coast are Carpobrotus. Trailing ice plant on a frost-free tag is often Lampranthus.

Moss rose is Portulaca, usually grown as a hot-weather annual with needle leaves — see How to Grow Moss Rose. Rock rose is Helianthemum, a woody sun shrub, not this fleshy mat — see How to Grow Rock Rose. Cistus is a larger Mediterranean shrub sold as rockrose.

Dew plant on an Aptenia tag is still baby sun rose. Sundew is How to Grow Sundew, a carnivorous bog plant. Heartleaf on a philodendron tag is a houseplant vine. Tickseed sold as Baby Sun is Coreopsis, not this succulent.

Set it in full sun in soil that drains, and let the mix dry before you water again.