Rose-pink

Year-round

Rosepink is worth trying in a Portland yard, but it is not from the Pacific Northwest, so treat it as a plant you are hosting rather than one you are restoring.

• Rosepink grows wild from Ontario down through Michigan and Wisconsin, south to Florida and Texas. It is not native to Oregon or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, so this is about growing it well here, not bringing back a local plant.
• It is a biennial, not a perennial. Year one it is just a low rosette of leaves close to the ground. Year two it sends up branching stems and blooms, then that plant is finished.
• Give it full sun to part shade and soil that stays on the moist side. Loam, sand, or peat all work. It does not want to dry out completely or sit in standing water.
• It is hardy down to USDA zone 5, so Portland's zone 8a to 8b winters are mild by comparison and will not be a problem for it.

Fall

Fall is when the second-year plant finishes up and dies back, and it is the right time to sow next year's seed.

• Once a second-year plant finishes blooming and its seed pods mature, that plant dies. Let the pods dry and drop before you clear anything if you want it to come back on its own next year.
• This is the best time to sow new seed. It needs a stretch of cold to break dormancy, so scatter it right on top of the soil in late fall or winter rather than saving it for spring.
• Portland's first frost can land as early as the first week of November near the airport or as late as the end of November downtown, so get any seed down and cleanup done before the ground turns cold and wet.
• Once the flowering stems are spent and brown, cut them back so the bed does not sit there looking dead through the rest of fall.

A fall cutback of the spent flowering stems is worth doing on a front-facing bed to keep it looking tended.

Winter

Winter is quiet for this plant. Portland's mild wet season is not a cold problem, it is a drainage one.

• This plant is hardy down to USDA zone 5, and Portland sits in zone 8a to 8b, so the rosette sitting in your bed all winter is not at real risk from the cold.
• The bigger risk here is soil that stays waterlogged for weeks at a time during the rainy season. Make sure the bed drains between storms so the roots do not rot.
• There is nothing to prune or feed this time of year. Just leave the first-year rosette alone and it will bolt and bloom the following summer.
• If you sowed seed on the surface back in fall, winter's cold and wet is exactly what it needs to break dormancy, so leave that spot undisturbed.

Spring

Spring is when a fall-sown seed finally sprouts and when a second-year rosette starts bolting toward its summer bloom.

• If you scattered seed on bare soil back in late fall or winter, spring is when the cold and moisture it needed finally breaks dormancy and it germinates.
• Any rosette that has been sitting there since last year will start pushing up its flowering stem this month, heading toward a July to September bloom.
• Portland's last frost date ranges from late February downtown to late March out near the airport, so wait until you are past that window for your spot before moving new starts outside.
• The Willamette Valley's heaviest rain runs from November into early spring, so you likely will not need to water this one on your own yet.

Summer

Summer is bloom time, right when Portland's dry season kicks in, so this plant needs more help from you than it would back home.

• Flowers open pink with a yellow-green center from July through September, which lines up with the driest stretch of the Portland year.
• In its home range it gets natural rain through summer. Here it will not, so plan on watering deeply whenever the top couple inches of soil dry out.
• It wants soil on the moist side, not a dry bed, so do not let it go more than a few days without a check during a hot stretch.
• A layer of mulch around the base helps hold that moisture and keeps the root zone from overheating in the afternoon sun.