Not only does it start to bloom late in summer, but as the name implies, four o’clock, Mirabilis jalapa, blooms late in the afternoon to attract nocturnal moths for pollination overnight. By morning, the white, yellow, variable pink or rarely pastel orange flowers are closed, and their yummy fragrance is gone. Individual flowers often display irregular stripes or blotches of alternate colors, and can be divided into zones that are shaped like slices out of a pizza. Plants get nearly three feet high, but then die to the ground with the first frost. They regenerate from big tuberous roots as winter ends, and can seed profusely.
I love the flowers, but I planted them in a flower bed and I’m very unhappy with the reseeding. The plants are impossible to kill or dig up.
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Oh, yes; that can be a problem where they are a bit too happy. The big tuberous roots are not easy to dig up once they get established.
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