Four o’clock flower, advice on caring for it

Four o’clock flower is a perennial with abundant flowering all summer long… but only at 4 PM!

Four o’clock flower facts

Name – Mirabilis
Family – Nyctaginaceae
Type – perennial, annual

Height – 32 inches (80 cm)
Soil – ordinary, well drained

Exposure: full sun  –  Flowering: summer → mid-fall, after 4PM (16:00)

Four o’clock flower spreads quite fast, sometimes to the point of being invasive. But if growth is monitored, it becomes an easy flower plant to care for and is very ornamental.

Planting four o’clock flower

April to May for plants purchased in nursery pots or containers.

• Keep a space between plants of around 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm).

To sow four o’clock flowers from seed,

• Sow in a sheltered place starting from the month of March and put in place during the month of May.
• Alternatively, you can sow directly in the ground starting from the month of May.

Pruning and caring for four o’clock flower

No pruning is really required, but if you remove wilted flowers when they appear, this will enhance production of new flowers.

Even though it tends to become invasive because four o’clock flower re-sows itself year after year, it is still quite easy to control its growth by pulling out excess plants when they sprout.

All there is to know about four o’clock flower

This cute perennial with funnel-shaped flowers owes its name to the peculiar fact that its flowers open up in the evening and wilt away in the following spring. Other names for this flower are Marvel of Peru or lady-of-the-night.

Its blooming time is the opposite of that of morning glory…

Colors range from red to white and include pink and yellow. They’ll be much deeper if you provide organic perennial plant fertilizer at the beginning of spring.

• Ferment fertilizer from weeds

This is the ideal plant for gardens designed to look a bit wild.