Growing Evening Primrose

I love to have a garden that is relaxed and inviting - a cottage garden.  But since we live in the high desert of Arizona I am careful to grow plants that don't require too much water and can take the dry early summer and four season climate here.  

Every early spring, of course, even the Arizona low-land deserts are covered with native wildflowers and the show is quite spectacular.  But in a home garden on a small city sized lot, wildflowers can be challenging to incorporate without a scrappy or weedy look.  And often they require quite a bit of water to regularly flourish and reseed on their own.

Enter, the primrose (along with a few other plants I'll tell you about later).  

After much experimentation in my mountain garden here in Prescott, Arizona I have come to depend on this wildflower as a reliable and pretty plant to gives me that meadow feel I love without all the hassle.
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Oenothera 

I love primrose because it creates a tough but delicate looking low carpet of wildflowers in areas where others struggle. 

It's a perfect fit for a rock garden or prairie style garden bed where you might have bulbs that pop up in the early spring.  It's not a plant well suited to formal gardens but looks best in more casual settings. 

There are many cultivars of Oenthera which include mostly pinks and lavender colors but also yellows. 

The varieties that open during the day are called Sundrops and the ones that open late in the day and close the next morning are known as Evening Primroses. 

​Oenothera are related to Gauras and Fuchsias, and are native to the southwest.  

​Mexican Evening Primrose in my garden

Oenothera berlandieri - Mexican Evening Primrose

When I planned the front garden at our historic bungalow in Prescott Arizona, I knew I wanted a swath of wildflowers - so I layed out sort of a kidney shaped bed where we dug down and lined it with river rock, like a catch basin.  I figured that wildflower seeds would do better with a little added moisture caught from the monsoon rains we have here and that the depression would dry out a tiny bit slower than the soil around it.

Also, I wanted to keep it somewhat contained to a "designated" area rather that would make more sense in the overall garden design.   

The Mexican Evening Primrose flowers here in Prescott most profusely in late-spring but will continue flowering sporadically all summer and often all the way to fall.  

As they finish each flush of flowering, I like to cut back the stems about half way and then we get fresh green growth, and more flowers.  Primrose is hardy to zone 4, and we are in zone 7 here in Prescott.  

In the fall the stems will die back to the ground, and I will just pull all the dried stems so it doesn't look too messy and then fresh new growth will appear in the spring.
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I start these from seed, just scattered in a well prepared garden bed, but then they establish themselves and will spread (not aggressively) via rhizomes underground.  

In my experience, they are not liked by deer or javelina.  Mine don't have a fragrance but I've heard than many varieties do.  

Although I have never done so, you can divide the rhizomes and create more plants easily this way.  I love that they do well in full sun and once established need very little water to thrive as well as that they attract hummingbirds and butterflies and bees.
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This is Nellie the cat, having a late evening nap on the front porch.  And I wanted to share this image to show how lovely the blossoms are when they are backlit.  It's hard to tell from the image but they just sort of glow with the warmth of the light.  A lovely and inspiring view to soak in while enjoying a glass of something on The Whiskey Porch (which is a daily event around here most of the year!).
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Thanks for visiting.  I've really enjoyed sharing this bits and pieces about some of my favorite plants for the high desert garden.  Next up I've planned a feature on another wonderful "wildflower" called Blanket Flower or Gaillardia.  Let me know if you've had any luck with Primrose plantings here in your mountain garden - leave a comment below.

Peace and contentment,
​~Miriam

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