Searched on "4 O'Clocks" and this discussion came up. Nice old discussion! In my area (Maritime NW) I have never seen 4 O'clocks in the nurseries and big box stores. I'm speculating that's because most of their flowers are sold in bloom, and 4 O'clocks bloom when larger. They probably don't bloom in little 6-packs or even in 1-gallon containers. I'm guessing about that. Also, if the flowers are not reliably open when the stores are open, people might not buy them. I bought seeds via the internet. Feeling nostalgic about gardening from my childhood, and these 4 O'clocks were part of that. I grew some about 10 years ago and as I recall they did OK here. I'm more into gardening now than I was then, so maybe they'll grow better. Plus I have a deer and rabbit problem, and maybe they'll be resistant to those animals. Maybe. I read start them 6 to 8 weeks indoors before the last frost, for cool climates like mine. They can also be planted in the ground, but maybe will start blooming later. A packet has plenty of sees, so I can try both. Nice discussion! I've lost the experiences of older gardeners in my family, and it seems there aren't a lot of gardeners in my neighborhood, so it's up to me to discover what works and what doesn't. Pass-along plants like these are worth preserving for the next generation!

Keep in mind also, the more blossoms, the more fragrance. Think about planting lots of a single fragrant annual, rather than "one of each." You can always try a different one next year. I was happy with four o'clocks the year I had fifteen plants growing in buckets on the front steps. Three five-gallon buckets, five plants per bucket. That was enough plants to actually smell them at night. This year I only grew a couple and with only one plant in bloom, I was getting twigs up my nose trying to catch any scent at all. All of the four o'clocks I've grown have been fragrant, and I've tried several colors and sources. For some reason I had terrible germination with Burpee though, and I planted three different packets from them. Oh, and I second nicotiana, but you have to get the right one if you want scent. Look for the tall white night-blooming nicotiana. It's gangly, floppy, and wilts during the day (I tell curious people it's sleeping), but at night it revives and smells fantastic. The flowers droop and point down during the day but lift themselves and point upwards at night. The plant gets three to five feet tall, so for most people the flowers are near nose level, too. Plant several in a clump, and be prepared to stake them to keep them upright, or the flowers will end up at ankle level and we're back to drunken crawling. I've tried several varieties of the short, bright colored daytime-blooming nicotiana and the original white one blows them all away for scent. I've seen it listed as Nicotiana alata, Nicotiana sanderae, and Jasmine nicotiana. Nicotiana sylvestris is reputed to be fragrant also (and taller), but I haven't tried it yet. For me, neither of these plants was in bloom before July. They also wait until dusk to look good, so I'd recommend adding some companion plants to add interest early in the season and during the day. Edie

Nasturtiums and 4 o'clocks are never a problem for me to WS. I put them out around April 12th-15th and they start germinating around 5/1 and just keep germinating through the end of May. Now sweet peas are another story. Until last year my germination rate on sweet peas, whether they were WS or direct sown is in the zero to 3 seedlings, if I'm lucky. No matter what I did with the seeds, nick them and soak them, soak them and sow them, just sow them, those where my results. BUT Last year I purchased 2 kinds of sweet peas, snoopea and elegant lady and got 2 sets of different instructions from TM seeds. On line it said to surface sow the seeds and on the packets it was cover with 1 inch of soil. Well, the only thing I never tried was surface sow the seeds. So figured, what the heck, one last shot. Soaked the seeds overnight and Surfaced sowed the seeds, just pressed them into the soil and left them on the top and Low and Behold, out of 25 seeds of each kind, I got 25 seedlings. Talk about being shocked. So this year, I sowed more snoopeas, elegant lady and added streamers and high scent and did an experiment. Snoopeas and elegant lady where soaked in water overnight and surfaced sowed, and all the seeds germinated into wonderful seedlings. With the high scent and streamers that say to cover with 1 inch or so of soil, I soaked all the seeds overnight and sowed have the seeds according to the packages and the other half where soaked overnight and surface sowed. 25 high scent seeds soaked and surfaced sowed all germinated, the 25 seeds soaked and sowed as directed with soil on top, only 4 seeds germinated as of this morning. 25 streamer seeds, soaked and surfaced sowed all germinated, the 25 seeds soaked and sowed as directed with soil on top of seeds, only 3 germinated. So from now on, all my sweet pea seeds will be soaked overnight in water, then surfaced sowed. No more soil on top of them. Oh, the sweet peas seeds, all 4 kinds where sowed on 4/12/10 and germinated between 4/25 and 4/29. Fran

The seeds never grow true to the parent, as they have to be cross pollenated. When I got mine, I was told that I should have some interesting crosses. Alas, nothing unusual. I had almost given up. This year, my Mirabilis Jalapa have not yet bloomed, but I do see a lot of buds. No variegated leaves though.