Four O'Clocks are such wonderful cottage garden flowers. I'm collecting seeds from mine to send in the swap. I love their sweet scent. Did you know that they get these huge tubers in the ground? You can hardly pull them up. I have them all over, because of volunteers. Plus I gather seeds, then 'fling' them into different areas where I want them. May you have loads more four o'clocks come next spring.

FlowerLady

Memo,
I have TONS of seeds this year. I grew mine from seeds I got in the swap last year, and they have been a highlight in my garden this year. I've never had them before.
Do you want me to put your name on a packet? Seriously, I have thousands of seeds.

MeMo,

I have tons of seeds, too. In fact, they have re-seeded themselves, and now I have a bunch of baby 4 O'Clocks emerging along side their huge, sprawling "parents"!!!

4 O'Clocks are pretty tough,Memo. I don't think mulch is going to hamper them a bit. I think there is a good chance you are going to see them emerge next spring for you. :-)

It reminds me of a funny story. As I was preparing for our first seed swap and filling envelopes with seed, I had 2 separate piles working on my kitchen table. A pile of 4 O'Clock seeds and a pile of Cosmos seeds.

Apparently I accidentally mixed a 4 O'Clock seed in with a packet of Cosmos, because a thread appeared here from a participant in the swap questioning what kind of seed the little black hand grenade was! :-)

If you need some seed, let me know.

Marilyn

ThreeOrangeBoys, It is surely good to see you here on the forum. I've missed your posts. Hope all is well with you. No thank you, I don't need any Four O'Clock seeds Hee Hee! My biggest worry is that my flowers will spread to the pastures and feilds (Rick will have my head if that happens) so I'll just have to keep a close eye out to see that nothing grows where it shouldn't be and chop it out if it does. But around the yard, seriously, I'd rather see my flowers spreading than see all the weeds that are here.

MeMo

That is so nice of you to say you missed me! :)
I planted them from the seed swap last year as I said. I've never seen them before. They are HUGE. I planted them in the front of the garden cuz somehow I thought they were short plants? No idea where I got that from, but they are taking over the garden! The number of seeds is out of control. I'm glad to hear they will self-sow. My garden at this point has NO design due to the fact that I got so excited last year with winter sowing, I just sowed everything and planted things anywhere. 4 O'clocks sticking up, random cleomes everywhere, a dahlia that looks like it is growing out of a hydrangea! Yikes. Gonna have to do some better planning in the spring I think!

I'm afraid I'm going to have a serious Four O'Clock problem next year. I love them, but they are not good for the smaller garden like mine. We had some growing in the front the previous owner had planted. They were in an area that never got water during the growing season. While we were landscaping the front garden this Spring, we dug up tubers the size of your head. Seriously, they looked like sweet potatoes on steroids and they were buried deep. We foolishly let a few of them grow. and grow. and grow and grow and grow. Our new irrigation system unleashed monsters. The amount of seed has been crazy. I went out with a dustpan (a dustpan!) and swept up as many as I could. There's no telling how many will rear their pretty heads next season.

Be warned. Pretty is is not always as pretty does.

Steven