Showy Evening Primrose Oenothera Speciosa is a herbaceous perennial plant native to the south-central United States. Showy Evening Primrose seeds can be started indoors or directly outdoors in spring or late summer and fall. Also commonly called Mexican Primrose and Pink Evening Primrose, Oenothera Speciosa produces white flowers that turn rosy pink from the outer edge of the petals inwards as they age, and the showy flowers open up during the daytime. The flowers are 2-4 inches across, and each flower has 4 broad petals, 8 white stamens with white or yellow anthers, and a long white stigma that is 4-cleft at its tip, resembling a white cross. Showy Evening Primrose blooms all summer long, and its saucer-shaped blossoms attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
Showy Evening Primrose is useful in a wide variety of semi-wild garden settings: in rock gardens, wildflower meadows, naturalistic borders and along the edges of roads and trails. Native to the rocky prairies and savannas of the lower Midwest, Showy Evening Primrose is a wonderful wildflower for roadside beautification, and the plant will readily form showy colonies on rocky highway rights of way or gravelly driveway edges. Pink Evening Primrose is easy to grow from seed, and Oenothera Speciosa seeds can simply be scattered outdoors where they are to grow if the ground is not too hard or densely vegetated.
PLANT PROFILE
Season: Perennial
Height: 12-18 Inches
Bloom Season: Spring/Summer
Environment: Sun/Partial Shade
Soil Type: Average/Poor/Dry/Moist well-drained, pH 5.8-6.8
USDA Zones: 4-10
PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS
Sow Indoors: Winter/Spring (6-8 weeks before last frost)
Sow Outdoors: Spring/Fall
Seed Depth: Surface sowing - press seeds slightly into the soil
Germination Time: 20-45 Days
