Desert 4 O'clock Mirabilis multiflora

The Desert 4 O'clock is a great plant for the dry landscape. It is one of the first plants that we planted in our desert garden. Not knowing how it would grow, we were pleasantly surprised. By the end of the summer, it had grown to about five feet in diameter and it flowered most of the summer. The vegetation was lush with magenta flowers that opened when the temperature cooled down in the afternoons and remained opened all night until the late morning when the temperature become hot. It is a hardy plant that survived the cold winter and grew with out water the following years. What seeds that were missed by the mice, germinated the following spring. We had numerous plants the following year.

I had asked some arborists that were pruning trees in the neighborhood if I could have the shredded limbs and branches. They brought a couple of loads over and dumped them in just off the street. I spread them out on the driveway and walkways. I did not get to one pile until the next summer. It had been dumped on a Desert 4 O’clock. The plant grew up through the shredded tree limbs and branches and bloomed of the rest of the summer.

One year the mice ate all the Desert 4 O’clock seeds that I planted. I found out that they do not need to be stratified. When planted in the warm spring, they will germinate in a couple of weeks.