• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • How to Garden
    • Garden Pests
    • Plant Diseases
    • Plant Profiles
    • Raised Bed Gardening
    • Seed Starting
    • Tools & Equipment
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Herbs
  • About
    • Books & Classes
      • Herbalism Classes
      • Books for Christian Herbalists
      • Privacy Policy

Growing Old Fashioned Four O’Clocks, Heirloom Flowers

July 11, 2017 by Jeanne

Four o’clocks are flower seeds, properly called Mirabilis jalapa by those who prefer the Latin name to identify the plant. Whatever you call this heirloom flower, it is beautiful, and I’ve missed it in my garden.

What Are Four O’Clocks?

Four o’clocks are lovely, fun little annual flowers. They’re started from seeds planted directly into the garden. The plants are nicknamed “the miracle of Peru” for many reasons.

First is their intriguing habit of opening around four o’clock in the afternoon – hence the name. They’ll actually open later or earlier, depending on where you’ve planted them in the garden. My own plants are in front of the little garden shed and are mostly in shade, so they stay open a little longer.

The second reason they earned the nickname “the miracle of Peru” is their ability to produce differently colored flowers on the same plant. You can have a plant that begins with all purple flowers, like mine, and then suddenly get yellow flowers on it, or splotched, or striped flowers.  I don’t know of any other plant that naturally produces such a wide range of colors on the same parent stock. Grafted plants will produce different fruit or flowers, but four o’clocks aren’t grafted – the same root stock that produces red flowers may also produce white, yellow, purple, striped, splotches or partially colored flowers.

Four o’clocks have a wonderful fragrance, too. I had forgotten about the fragrance since it’s been years since I’ve grown them. I stepped outside around 6 a.m. the other day to walk the dog and detected a light, flowery perfume on the air. I looked around for honeysuckle or any other fragrant plant and couldn’t find the source. It was then that I discovered the plants in front of my shed. I thought they were volunteer zinnia seeds returning. Then I remember that I’d scatter four o’clock seeds there last year! It seems as if it needed the boost from my new watering schedule to grow!

Mirabilis-jalapa-In-Different-Colors

Growing Four O’Clocks

Four o’clocks will produce a big, fat tuber, and return each year from the tuber in warmer climates. I’m not sure yet what they will do in my zone 6b garden. The area near the shed where they are growing is protected from the worst of the cold, so they might act as perennials. If they do not, seeds are readily available at garden centers each spring, and the plants are easily grown from seed sown directly in the garden.

Four o’clocks are heat and drought tolerant. They may wilt and look sad during hot, dry weather, but at the first rainfall, they perk right up. They can reseed and become a pest from scattered seeds, but you can easily dig up the volunteer plants or let them grow where they will. If you’re like me and love a big field of flowers, allowing them to seed an area of your garden may be a treat rather than a nuisance.

Heirloom Flowers Like Four O’Clocks

Four o’clocks are truly an heirloom or historic flower. During my research on this plant, I discovered that Thomas Jefferson had them growing in his garden at Monticello. For many years, the plants were lost to time and other, more dominant species. Then the gardeners at Monticello were able to find a source for seeds Jefferson grew. Today, you can see the plants as he saw them in the flower garden at Monticello.

Hummingbirds, bees and moths love them, so they also make great butterfly gardening plants.

Gul-Abas-4-O'clock plant

I will probably leave the beautiful four o’clocks growing against my little shed. They give the area a beautiful, cottage-garden feel. These are the types of plants our grandmothers grew, and their grandmothers, too.  Share the prolific seeds with gardening neighbors and sow a neighborhood with fragrant, beautiful four o’clocks.

Happy gardening. Keep growing!

Filed Under: Growing Flowers

Previous Post: « July in the Garden
Next Post: Planting Flowers in July, or What Not to Do in the Garden »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carol

    July 29, 2017 at

    I love four o’clocks! I picked up some seeds that had fallen from some plants in my home town of Bay Head, NJ and they have been happily growing and reseeding here in my new home in Stafford, VA for many years. They sprout up in my lawn and flower beds along with another favorite from NJ, portulacas. I just found your website today and I’m so happy I did!

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

As Seen in Porch

 As Seen in Porch

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

Explore All Gardening Articles

Latest Articles

  • Sunscald on Tomatoes: What It Is and How to Prevent It
  • Herbal Profile: Growing Calendula
  • Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe

Herbalism Classes & Supplies

Goods Shop by Herbal Academy – botanically inspired products

Disclosure

Home Garden Joy participates in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. Home Garden Joy earns a commission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. As an Herbal Academy Associate, HGJ also earns a commission when you sign up for classes or purchase herbs or supplies from The Herbal Academy. Herbal information and recipes on this site are provided for educational purposes only.

Footer

a close up of a cucumber leaf with anthracnose

Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe

If you’ve ever stepped into your garden and noticed strange brown spots or sunken blemishes on your cucumbers, you might be facing a common but troublesome fungal disease known as anthracnose. Caused by Colletotrichum orbiculare, anthracnose thrives in warm, humid conditions and can quickly spread across your crop if not addressed early. This year in…

Read More

cucumbers and tomatoes in harvest basket

How to Grow Cucumbers: A Complete Guide

Learn how to grow cucumbers in this complete guide. I’ve grown cucumbers my entire life, and I still marvel at the prices of them at the supermarket. I can only imagine that we’re all paying for the transportation, for cucumbers are some of the easiest vegetables to grow. In fact, you may find yourself muttering,…

Read More

small round eggplant

Growing Eggplant: A Guide for Gardeners

Growing eggplant (a small garden devoted to fresh, seasonal edibles) is relatively easy in zone 7, where I garden, but combating the bugs is another story. Growing epplant in pots, containers, raised beds, or garden soil is all possible if you are willing to go the extra mile to control its nemesis, the Colorado potato…

Read More

cherry tomatoes in various stages of ripeness

Volunteer Plants – Nature’s Unexpected Gifts

Volunteer plants are one of nature’s most delightful surprises. They spring up unbidden, often in places we didn’t expect—cracks in sidewalks, corners of compost piles, or nestled beside a stone foundation, like the vibrant coleus seedlings growing near my deck shown in these pictures. These botanical freeloaders aren’t weeds; they’re plants that have reseeded themselves…

Read More

  • Privacy Policy
  • About
  • Awards

Copyright © 2025 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme