Four O'Clocks, 'Fairy Trumpets'

(Mirabilis longiflora) Our love for Four O'clocks is well-documented at this point. So named because their flowers open in the afternoon and grace the evening garden with their intoxicating scent before closing the following morning, they are also known as Bella di Notte ("beautiful in the night") in Itay where they grow wild on roadsides and in disturbed areas. I find them to be a good litmus test to find the kind of people I can get along with in life as they offer nothing of monetary value to the grower, being neither edible nor suitable for cutting. They are not for the "utilitarian grower" but for the lover of beauty and those are my people.
'Fairy Trumpets' is a different species than the other four o'clocks we offer, notable for the impossibly long necks to its tube flowers, 6" to 8" or longer ("more like Fairy Trombones if you ask me" - Meira, age 7). The sprawly, sticky plants are covered in the blooms and in the evening, the jasmine green tea scent emanating from them is nothing short of ambrosial. White flowers with magenta throats and contrasting orange protruded anthers remind us of miniature hibiscus blossoms. Plant some in a hanging basket outside your bedroom window or alongside a garden path frequented in the evening. Plants are heat and drought-tolerant and moth pollinated. Grow to 3' tall and wide.
UO. 85 days

Packet: 10 seeds