My absolute favorite garden flower

Is the Four o'clock. Especially the kaleidoscope mix, but my bed has a variety of kaleidoscope and standard old time variety which makes it even more interesting. Considered an annual here in my Zone 5 backyard, but I would consider them more of a biennial, reseeding themselves every year for most zone 5 gardens. I will let you in on a little surprise I got this spring, I have mine planted facing South, so they get as much sun available year round. This spring I planned to plant a small shrub to the end of the bed and started to dig my hole for it and found 8 to 10" long Four o'clock tubers! So in addition to the seeds that fell from last year, I had established tubers already in the ground. Bonus!

I remember Four o'clocks from my childhood, trying to remember to go look at 4pm because I was sure I would get to see them magically pop open at 4pm, after all wasn't that why they were called Four o'clocks??? And we would pick the largish black seeds and shoot them at each other through straws, my sister would secretly stockpile them up so when we played I might have more hot air for velocity (What a shock! :-) but she had way more ammunition.

You can read a little more about Four o'clocks here if you'd like.

And here are some shots of mine, they're a little bedraggled looking right now, they've just been through a tough Japanese Beetle season and since I have decided to go pretty much earth friendly as I can, I didn't use any pesticides on them this year. (You should see my poor Harry Lauder's Walking Stick...pitiful! I need to find a replacement for the Sevin I always used.) Hope you like! And if you do, let me know, I will have tons of seeds this year, I'd be glad to share, just let me know!