Looking for all types of Primrose. I have red castor bean to trade, and some heirloom tomatoes, many flower seed. Send me a list of what you have, and we can trade.

grice38 - you have a classic collection of typical British self seeders. Nice mixture. If you are not into aggressive control you can garden by merely removing really weedy stuff and anything you don't like the look of. The rest will look after itself. Lots of wild life value.

Thanks for all the kind sweet words! CarrieIN, I'll have to try out more modern frames next time but I bet I'll go back to these same ones again. They seem to attract me magnetically. Plus there is room for all three parts of the trifocals. There seem to be lots of different varieties of evening primrose. I've got Oenothera biennis. The link says that a mature plant is 5 feet tall but I've had many of them grow bigger than that. I've also had them flower after I've been mowing them all summer long and then stop. They're only about 6 inches tall when they bloom then. My only regret is that it takes them two years to attain their glory and then they die (but they leave lovely seedpods for the birds.) Katia Here is a link that might be useful: USDA info about Oenothera biennis

I find the changing topic and confusion interesting since 4 or 5 varieties of the evening primrose grow wild on my land. Telling the O speciosa from the O kunthiana can be hard.. It is confusing out there in the front field. Normal wild Oenothera Kuntianas are a paler pink than this magenta creation which has been hybridized and jerked with. The OP plant is not representative of the wild plants around here. The spreading characteristic of O. speciosa will drive the orderly gardener bonkers but the one who likes to work with plant characteristics in their design will appreciate this and the accidents that enrich garden.. My first garden that I saw with it used years and years ago was a really sensitive example of plant characteristics used appropriately. It was a tall bluff with a rock wall about 6' tall and the "lawn"(I use that term loosely) rose in a grade above i the wall. The owner mowed the grass pretty short in early spring and the grass grew and the EP grew up through it and the rocks on the wall making a beautiful cascading effect and covering the grass completely where it grew . Then as summer drew near it disappeared and the owner mowed her grass again. It made me search it out years ago and , believe me, at the time it was not very available in the trade, except by raiding the fields. I got my start from her of the tall bluff. Here in Texas The pink Oenotheras are "spring ephemeral of sorts. It goes dormant and disappears with the beginning of EARLY summer.. SO do not get this plant and expect it to last through the summer. This is its behavior in Texas. Maybe it's behavior is different in Concord New Hampshire or Lansing Michigan. Heat does make it go away till the next year..Also the caterpillars love to eat its foliage. They are long gone in my garden right now. I like the idea for this "does your garden look like your character Thread". YES, YES AND YES. Mine is as disorderly as I am, absolutely.Good thread idea. I think that all should have tolerance of the latin name/common name confusions. Besides, Those latin names change with the mounting regularity these days pushed by the committees of arguing scientists. They do help but there is as much name confusions in them as there is in the common names. Eupatorium, ageratatina, conoclinium , what is it? I asked a salvia guy was it Salvia Reptans or Salvia leptophylla . It seemed like a simple question but he could not give me a simple answer because he did not know what one was the days right one today. The committees were't clear in their last statement... We can educate people to loose their fear of the mysterious latin name. and we can be tolerant of those like me who abuse all language that is given them. I think it is a mark of an intelligent person who is fluid and fills in the blanks and looks for the intended meaning , even when it is through muddy waters. - Mara, Queen of the Maraprop ( I mean malaprop)