• my place
  • the rural story
  • gardening tips
  • using garden tools
  • Privacy Policy
  • Join Me

    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop

About Flowers Garden Stories and Memories Plants

Four O’Clocks


Emily from her Garden Living blog had a post and pictures on four o’clocks that remind her of “grandma”. Hers are a cheerful hot pink color, but four o’clocks come in a mardi gras variety of colors that really brighten up the garden. I grew some a couple years ago and hoped to winter them over, they are hardy- better be as they are native the Andes (hence the name: Marvel of Peru). They are warm-season annuals, but produce lasting underground tuber-like roots. Kind of like skinny dahlia roots, they also can self-sow. But mine did not survive, and I really don’t know the reason. A good gardener tries again for something that is wanted in the garden, so Emily’s post inspired me to try again.

My own memory is of a neighborhood lady who lived on a corner shoehorned tight against the street. Her house was raised up and bounded by a retaining wall that held the four o’ clock hedge right at eye level of pre-teen passersby (me!). The pink, yellow, and fuschia flowers were fascinating to observe as they opened in the late afternoon each day, and their bright colors were striped and speckled red and yellow, mostly. She had them planted on the western sunny side, facing a busy neighborhood street, and as I recall now, she liked to plant other equally interesting (if poisonous) plants. I think she had the biggest Castor plants I had ever seen by her back porch, but it was her stand of four o’ clocks that I remember with nostalgia.

Mirabilis jalapa as they officially known, are easy to grow which makes them one of those fun flowers for children. In fact, if I had a little side garden for my grandchildren I would give them four o’clock seeds, zinnias, and nasturtiums, all which have those fantastically bright colors and grow so satisfactorily quick. I would be very careful to oversee the planting of them, though, as the seeds are reputed to be poisonous. They are planted like morning glories,soaking the seeds for a day before planting. Come to think of it, morning glories would be a fine addition to the easy, bright and cheerful children’s garden. Summer’s delight as remembered on these cool and waning days of October, notes on what to plant in next years garden.

Four O’Clocks are fragrant, drought resistant, butterfly attracting, and easy, bushy little plants.

companion planters take note

supposedly the alkaloids of the plant make for toxic feeding of the Japanese beetles they attract. One more reason for me to plant them in my garden next year

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related


« Overcast Days, Dark and Stormy Nights
October Selection of Poems »

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings

Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening

What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal

Journal, Planner and Log Book

Newest Postings Here

  • Deals from Amazon
  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
buy quality plants

On Facebook

On Facebook

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Top Posts & Pages

  • Mugo Pines: When to Trim and Prune
  • Grandma Can Make Fairy Houses From Forest Finds
  • Flowers that Monet Grew In Giverny
  • Four O'Clocks
  • Time to prune Mugo pines
  • Out Of Your Gourd Gardening
  • Pretty Cottage Garden Accessories
  • St. Francis Joke All About Gardens
  • Garden Logistics
  • Furnishing Grandma's Fairy House

Past Posts

ilonagarden

Instagram post 17959863785360234 Instagram post 17959863785360234
Instagram post 17989258745013455 Instagram post 17989258745013455
Instagram post 17976222752103831 Instagram post 17976222752103831
Instagram post 18056018824416584 Instagram post 18056018824416584
Instagram post 18335731483076224 Instagram post 18335731483076224
Instagram post 17977547744261532 Instagram post 17977547744261532
#atlanta #beautiful day☀️ #atlanta #beautiful day☀️
#atlanta #chattahoocheeriver #atlanta #chattahoocheeriver
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2023 · Part of Ilona’s Garden by Ilona Erwin

Copyright © 2023 · Ilona's Garden Journal