FREE: yellow 4 o'clock mix

The listing, yellow 4 o'clock mix has ended.

20 seeds
You can’t exactly set your watch by the colorful four o’clocks in your summer garden, but their timing is pretty good.

The bloom time of four o’clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) is said to correspond to changes in light and temperature, so they open in the cool of the evening, usually between about four and eight p.m., or a bit earlier on cloudy afternoons.

Their abundant, trumpet-shaped blooms may be bright yellow, white, magenta, or wonderfully striped or splashed with pink, orange, or yellow. Sometimes several flower colors can be seen on the same plant. The flowers are fragrant, with a scent that is both lemony and sweet, and hummingbirds and moths are attracted to them.

Four o’clocks are easy to grow from seed. Plants get to be two or three feet tall in sunny spots or in part shade, and they bloom from midsummer until frost. In relatively warm-winter climates, four o’clocks will come back every year from tubers that overwinter in the ground. Seedlings can be a nuisance, but sometimes they find their way to the most interesting places in the garden, and plants you don’t want are easy to weed out when they’re small.