they are so pretty, but I HATE them!

every year I cut them down until they exhaust me then in a matter of a week or 2 of me not in my destructive mode they take over.

Is that Mirabilis?

Wow - those are covered with blooms! They never look like that here!

Hi Liz...no 4 O'clocks................. a weed in my garden!! I am going to cut them down this weekend, I have tons! Do you want seeds? I will let one plant go to seed for you! But they put down a huge deep tuber thingey and it is almost impossible to dig out. They reseed prolifically.......... all over! Perfect for the cheap non gardener!

Yeah! If you are in zone 10, and have no deer. They seem to like them too, so I don't have that problem. I remember them from my childhood, oh how I enjoyed the nectar. MMMM.

Evelyn

Don't say that, I can't even get them to grow from seeds. (Though I only have tried once ;))

BTW, 4 O'clock = Mirabilis jalapa

Krhm :]

Oh thanks Evert, I had no idea! Liz is much smarter than I am! I will send you some seeds of mine Evert if you want. I just found last night they are already dropping them on the ground.............. I did not cut them down fast enough!

Kell, I had a nice bush of this growing last year, and now I have a million seedlings, I cant rip them up fast enough, no sooner do I get them all dug up that there is another batch coming up. The trick is to yank the darned thing before the seeds set......

Thanks, it would be nice. :D

No Pebble, the trick is to NEVER plant it in the first place! LOL Esp if you have a small yard and want diversity!!!

I planted the seeds this year, and they are not a weed for me, but growing in neat little rows. I am very dissappointed that they are not blooming much at all.

Maybe I am over watering? I just read in Burpee, they like poor dry soil. I wish I had just huge amounts of them like you do. My seeds were Thompson and Morgan.

I will be very surprised if they become a weed for me, since they are hardy blooming at all. What can I do to them to make them bloom?

About the tuber roots, that is not happening, they have neat compact little roots that pop right out, if I wish to transplant them. Maybe we are growing different kinds and your are the more hardy ones?

gee, I just clicked on Dave's garden and this thread came up.............weird!! But I see I didnot answer you........SORRY!! I do nothing but try to murder them!! Maybe that is the trick, the instinct to survive...........quick flower, put out seed so this mad, violent woman won't kill us off permanently!! LOL
I have a pile of seeds out in my courtyard that I swept up and need to separate from the chaff. I promised 2 people some seeds but if I have enough I will send you some. THEY ARE WEEDS!!! send me your address and say what I owe you.
thanks

Lol, Kell I feel the same way!! Bug Girl - if you have any flowers at all, you will have a seed for each bloom. They start out green and in just a few days they will look like black pepper corns and reseed themselves. It may be a year or two til the big tubers form. If you just cut them back and don't jerk them up after they quit blooming, next year they will be larger.

Perfect for the cheap gardener for sure..Liz, in 5 of my largest containers in the garden room, these are coming up all over the place..want some seeds???? you got'em!!!!! E.

sounds great Elaine, thanks.

I find them to not be flowering much, and I saw some in another yard, and there won't flower either. I should post a picture of my hopeless ones. This may be because of my climate.

SO what is up on Dave's?? Looks different! I go to sleep early one night and something changes!

Bug Girl, you live where I live...........LOL

Dear Kell, I just posted the photo, can you take a look and tell me what you think? Why are they not blooming? I have a few more rows of them that are not in the photo but they are not blooming either. I really like the purple color however.

What about you, Brugcrazy..you want some too???? Elaine

MS KELL!!!!! i love the smell of 4 o'clocks, is so much cleaner and sweeter than any brug. the roots are horrendous, huge!!!!! i am a cheap gardener, spend my money on brugs and fertilizer!!!! i have old ones in dark pink, some yellows, light pinks, and white. they are perfect for a LAZY gardener!!!!!!! then again, i have six acres to play with and lots of critters to feed......

6 acres, Arlene!!! You could go broke planting and feeding 6 acres! I would be happy with an acre! I never noticed a smell from them. I still have some that snuck thru my extermination program. I will have to go and smell!!

Some are more fragrant than others!

well that explains it!

I don't care about having 4 clock in our yard. LOL We lives on our 18 acres and let them grow everywhere but not close to our home, I mean our new house( it is building right now). Yes They are WEED! My boy likes to collect seeds and bring it to me so I can give it to somebody! lol.

I would love to have some seeds if anyone can spare some.

I grew to hate them as a teen, but now that I am "old" I seem to want the things I remember my gramma and my parents had.

Hugs, Lavanda

I have seeds- if anyone is crazy enough to want some, let me know! LOL
They really are beautiful and once you have them , you have them forever, whether you want to or not. The only way I've ever been succesful at removing them from a planting bed was to dig all the soil out and remove every little bit of tuber I could find, it was a lot of work, but successful.

Carena, I don't think you'll have them forever here ;) Bulbs will surely die outside if let there.

I will sow the 4 O'Clock seeds I got from Kell soon :)

Which are the more fragrant ones?

I had a good removal nothing has come back, it was easy more or less, the tubers were not so old, only being from one season, but I am sure after a few years, the tubers would be much harder to get out.

I have a bunch started but from past experience, I'm kinda afraid to plant them, maybe I'll put them in my neighbors yard! LOL

This message was edited Sunday, Mar 23rd 1:54 AM

I like to grow them along the end of the driveway. I love the fragrance. I do not have trouble with things reseeding there. The soil is heavy and the concrete drive contains them.
I use them to kill the Japanese beetles. We have gobs of them here every year and they tear up my hardy hibiscus with no mercy. I hate those darn bugs.
The plant is apparently poisonous to them and they die from feasting on it.

Windy - I sure didn't know that!! Maybe that's why we didn't have so many last year!! Beetles that is!

I don't have any Japanese Beetles but I heard it comes from composting, and I do a lot that, so I very worried, I will come down with them. I am adding more coffee grounds and more redwood comopost to the bins.

How can you hate anything that beautiful? I love them so much.

They take over and are impossible to get out!!!

ya see one persons flower another person's weed!! I cant get them to grow from seeds or tubers LOL

I planted a number of seeds last year, a huge number in fact, I went over broad. Most of them did not even germinate, but the four o clocks very successful in germination.

Maybe it is your soil? What is your soil like sand or clay? They like full sun. Did you try one in a container? I bet someone could send you a tuber or some seeds, since people who have them have a lot of tubers and seeds to get rid of. The other thing is check for over or underwatering.

I used Thompson and Morgon seeds which is over there in the UK, so you could probably just pick up a pack of those. The one I did was called broken colors.

Very pretty, but one of the biggest pest I have..I spray, pull, chop, dig tubers,try to catch most of the seeds, and still they are all over..LOL
Larkie

Kell,

I'd like to have some seeds, if you can collect them without taking a hammer to them. :)

LAVANDA, About the fragrant ones, I only had a magenta pink and they were super fragrant, unfortunately, I did get tired of them also and yanked em out, might find one somewhere else tho and I'll let ya know!

Gotta be some truth about the Jap Beetles! Sure had very few last year.