Easy Flower ID

onlylobster · Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:50 pm

This should be an easy one but it's new to me. I did not plant it so it must be from the previous owners and it's all over my front and back flower beds. I'm assuming it's a perennial and not a self-seeding annual. It seems to grow better in the areas with morning sun better than the areas with the afternoon sun. It is more open during the day and closes up in early evening (like shown). From this behavior I'd guess they are four o clocks but when the flowers are open they aren't nearly as spectacular as the pictures I see online.

told2b · Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:07 am

It looks like Four-O-Clock to me too.

Mr_bobo_ · Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:59 am

Mirabilis jalapa

purpleinopp · Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:05 am

Agreed (Mirabilis jalapa is the botanical name for 4'o'clocks.)

onlylobster · Tue Jul 21, 2015 6:00 pm

I guess that was an easy ID! Now I just need to figure out how to get larger blooms on them.

GardeningCook · Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:42 pm

Four-O'Clock. I loved growing these plants back in NY, but here in VA it's just not possible with all the deer.

onlylobster · Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:52 pm

That's the one plus to urban gardening. We don't have deer here. We have a couple rabbits but they are pretty unusual too. In my old place we couldn't grow much because the deer would go right up to the house and eat anything with buds or tender leaves.

purpleinopp · Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:28 am

That's the size of the flowers.

rainbowgardener · Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:10 am

Maybe you don't have urban deer, but we do around here. I live 4 miles from downtown, which for us is still the edge of the inner city, on a big busy street. Deer will browse my front yard veggie bed with cars whizzing by 20 feet away and then will walk up the sidewalk to the next yard. They have adapted quite well to city life.

onlylobster · Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:00 pm

purpleinopp wrote:That's the size of the flowers.

I didn't know that! The pictures I see online make them look bigger because they are close up and fully open. At least I know I'm not doing anything to stunt them.

rainbowgardener wrote:Maybe you don't have urban deer, but we do around here. I live 4 miles from downtown, which for us is still the edge of the inner city, on a big busy street. Deer will browse my front yard veggie bed with cars whizzing by 20 feet away and then will walk up the sidewalk to the next yard. They have adapted quite well to city life.

Now that's something I've never seen. They must be even more destructive to gardens without having much in the way of wild sources of food!

purpleinopp · Thu Jul 23, 2015 11:09 am

Yes, your plants look like great specimens! I didn't want you to think there was anything wrong. Agree about flower macros being confusing sometimes too, usually confusing, though almost always very visually appealing, and often helpful for ID.

In NJ it would be possible the tubers overwintered. I've had them do that in OH, Z5, against a basement wall. Too late to determine now if your particular plants came from overwintered tubers or new seedlings, but in the future, seedlings will have roundish cotyledons as their first greenery. Overwintered tubers send up regular leaves as their first greenery, and have a much thicker, reddish stem.

(Knocking wood.) I've not gardened around deer. And from what I've read about them, hope I never do. They are beautiful, majestic creatures, but I sure can't afford to feed them in the style to which they are accustomed! LOL! My empathy to anyone trying to co-exist.

GardeningCook · Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:40 pm

Thanks!

We love them too - particularly the majestic bucks in the Fall/Winter & the antics of the Spring/Summer fawns - but we do have an awful lot of "Gosh darn it" gardening & landscaping moments that counterbalance that "love".

purpleinopp · Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:28 pm

Happy swap anecdotes. Well said!