The first pics I have of them is July 14.
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I WSed just a few, and they bloomed a week or 2 before the rest, which were volunteers.

I might just count on volunteers this year. But I'm also thinking of yanking the volunteers and just changing those areas to something else this year. I can't decide.

Karen

littleone has had good luck also with four oclocks (karen, as always, gorgeous photos....)

Mine took a long time to bloom last year because the soil was not well drained and had more shade than usual. When I moved them into better soil and more sun, they took off like crazy. I really like them and hope yours will do well this year.

Carrie

Last year was my first year with these and they didn't start blooming until August 5th....
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Hmmm...well Karen, the middle of August is three weeks earlier than mine. That would be great! I did LOVE mine last year, too. I had grown them the year before and had the fuschia color you had Vera. They were great too and their fragrance in summer of '06 was better than last year. I grew my 06 batch in more sun than last year and I think they did bloom sooner, now that I think of it. Last year I grew them in containers in part sun. They bloomed and grew fine, just later than I would like. So maybe this year I will winter sow them and plant them in a little more sun.

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Thanks for all your great photos! Nice to see you Vera. :-) Have you moved yet?

pm2

Nice photos pm2!! No, not moving until spring:D

Vera

geez mine didn't until like oct. i thought it was a weed or something, but it had a bud, thought i'd let it go, then it looked like a mg. then someone told me it was a 4'clock. my soil was really bad though. eck!!

Thanks Carrie for the mention.

PM2.

I sowed my 4 o'clock seeds on 4/25/07. sowed broken colors and teatime rose.

The germinated on 5/8, all 10 containers of them.
The teatime rose didn't bloom till end of Sept., but that was because they kept getting hacked down by the teeth of the chipmunks. I finally moved them and they did bloom some and got a few seeds for this year.

The broken colors, on the other hand where in part sun and grown in 10 inch pots with one or 2 seedlings or 12 inch pots with 3 seedlings and pure miracle grow potting mix for soil.
I know, they are supposed to grow in poor soil, but I don't have my grandma's green thumb. She could grow them in pure sand that had been washed in salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. Me, on the other hand, can't get them to grow unless they are in pots with miracle grow potting mix.

The broken color 4 o'clocks started blooming on July 18th. I potted them up from their WS containers during the 1st and second week in June.

the first pics of the blooms
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i take it u live in a southern climate w/o freezing temps and threats of frost??????

West9491, not sure if you are referring to me, but I live in MA, right smack in the middle of the snow belt.

This will be my 5th year WS and I've always sown my 4 o'clocks around the same time every year. Even when we've had some frosts late in the season, they have been fine.

The seeds come up when mother nature tells them to and not all of the seeds, even in the same containers, will germinate at the same time.
I've had late season frosts and haven't had any problems

Fran

Thanks Fran for posting your photos and your planting/blooming times. Nice big blooms on nice big plants! So apparently, I might be able to expect bloom three weeks earlier if I winter sow. That would be great.

pm2

ha ha west - We are former New Yorkers living now in North Carolina - and we just got 2 inches of snow! So much for the "southern climate".... LOL

Carrie

I wintersowed them for the first time last year and they were HUGE. Not sure if they will winter over or not, given that I am in zone seven, so I am going to do more. They started blooming in August, I believe. Smelled amazing. They were in full sun.

I had mine and it was those with lime leaves and fuchsia colored flowers, don't remember the name. They did started blooming in the middle- end of July and were spectacular. I collected few seeds though not as much as I hoped and will do them this year, maybe WS few and start indoor few just to give them chance to bloom earlier. In zones as low as mine it is often a problem with WS annuals- they start blooming way too late and if we do not have favorable nice and warm fall we will get only couple of weeks of decent show.

I guess four oclocks are a popular plant..lol. So everyone is winter sowing them though, right? Except you lindalana..you do some of both. Under lights in the house, to get early start? I have sworn off indoor lights, and I do find it an adjustment to rely on winter sowing for all my annual needs. I was used to going to the nursery in the spring and buying annuals for my containers...until I had too many. [g]

I am still working the annuals out too.

threeorangeboys...yes, the fragrance is the reason I grow them. We don't seem to spend as much time outdoors in the evening, but I will walk out there at night just to smell the fragrance of any of the nightbloomers and to check out the night visitors. :-)

Sorry Carrie that you are getting snow! YOu can't seem to win there...no rain when you needed it and now snow!

pm2

I don't sow 4:00 until closer to spring. When I tried them in winter they rotted in the jug.

Karen

Come to think of it - here was my problem with the four oclocks - or so I thought, last year....

I read here that the Jap Beetles like them and die from eating them, but my worry was that they didn't bloom until AFTER the Jap Beetles were "finished"... only a few stragglers left after it seemed hundreds decimated so many plants of mine - mostly the malvas, hollyhocks. Anyway, then someone said that they could die from eating the flowers AND the leaves - but at that time anyway, my four oclocks were quite a distance from where the beetles were feasting everyday. This year, I am planting them close to where the Japs like certain plants and see how that works.

Carrie

I WSed 4 Oclocks one year and haven't had to WS them again. They reseed like crazy here.
Last year, they were slow to bloom (along with many other things), and I think it was because our summer barely had any nights over 65 degrees.
I am WSing some new colors this year, but I know I'll get plenty reseeders from last year.
The JPS seem to chew on the leaves of 4Oclocks then keel over on it after a while...is it the scent of the blooms that attract them? (Even the JP Beetle population was screwed up last summer with the cool nights. Their presence was erratic last year. I actually had a live one drop out of a Basil plant I brought inside in November!)

Linda

linda - not sure if it IS the scent of the blooms (hope not, because mine bloomed so late AFTER a lot of the JBeetles did their damages) and I am hoping they may be attracted to the leaves as well.

Hopefully, mine will bloom along with the influx of those dreaded beetles - I tell you, I must have had 1000s last year.

Carrie

Carrie,
Yeah, you know I think they were chowing on the leaves long before I had blooms. So I don't think it's the scent that attracts them.
The nice thing about 4 OClocks and JPs is that the 4 OClock leaves seem to be able to hold up well to their munching. So it doesn't get to the point where the plant looks sorry, like it does with other plants those critters munch on.

L

Since I got last years wintersow database up just thought I'd tell you I sowed mine on March 28th and more on April 23rd...germination occurring withing 2 weeks for the later sown ones and about a month for the March sown.

I saved a few tubers in fall too.

Vera

I have had 4:00's for the last two years. The first year, I had gotten some tubers from a friend. The second year I had volunteers and started some collected seed under lights. Both bloomed closely enough that I didn't notice a difference - early to mid July. I put them in full sun and they were huge! Between the 4:00's and the flowering tobacco, most other plants were getting smothered. By the middle of August, I had taken to cutting them back and thinning them out to keep them from toppling over the plants in front. My reseeders were pretty invasive. They reseeded EVERYWHERE! In the cracks in the driveway even! I was pulling seedlings up for a month! This year I'm pulling them all up and trying something else.

Vera,
I gave some tubers away this year and saved one for myself. I want to see if the flowers are bigger when grown from a tuber-- not that I want bigger flowers...just curious.
Laura,
I WSed Flowering Tobacco last year and I didn't care for the flowers, and it grew so huge it was choking other things out of the bed...but I did like the leaves on them! I'm thinking they'll probably reseed, and if they do, I'll just keep snipping the stems off them and grow them for the foliage.
And I do wind up pulling out a gazillion 4 OClock seedlings every Spring. I give them away and plant some of them in other places in the yard as a foil for the JPs. Whatever's left after that gets thrown away.

Linda