Evening primrose (Oenothera) is a gorgeous flower that makes a fantastic addition to any garden. With its bright lemon-yellow blooms that open up at dusk it brings cheer and vibrant color in the evenings. Evening primroses are also known for their many health benefits, which makes growing them at home even more rewarding.
If you’re looking to add some evening primroses to your garden beds and borders you may be wondering where you can find plants for sale. The good news is that many online and local nurseries carry this popular perennial. Here’s what you need to know about finding quality evening primrose plants for sale.
Online Nurseries Offer Convenience
One of the easiest ways to get your hands on evening primrose plants is to order them from an online nursery. Buying plants online provides a lot of advantages compared to shopping at local garden centers.
Online nurseries give you a wide selection to choose from. You can often find rare or hard-to-find varieties that you wouldn’t come across otherwise. Online sellers also make it very convenient by shipping plants right to your door. This saves you the hassle of lugging plants home from the store.
When ordering online, be sure to shop early in the spring or fall. This avoids exposing plants to extreme summer heat or winter freezes during shipping. Reputable online sellers will pack plants with care to keep the roots moist and protected during transit.
Make sure to order from online retailers who have good customer reviews and guarantees. This ensures you’ll get healthy, thriving plants delivered to your door.
Visit Local Greenhouses and Nurseries
Another excellent option for finding evening primroses is to shop at local greenhouses, nurseries, and garden centers. While the selection might be more limited compared to online, shopping locally has some advantages.
Being able to see the plants in person allows you to pick out the healthiest individuals with the best form and vigor. Speaking with knowledgeable staff at the nursery can provide useful planting and care information. You also get to take your plants home right away, avoiding any shipping stress.
Visit local nurseries early in the bloom season for the best availability. Look for plants with lush green foliage and no signs of disease, wilting, or pests. Make sure the roots are well established but not severely pot bound.
Some small localgreenhouses offer unique or native varieties that might be hard to find through large online retailers. Check your area to see if any small specialty growers offer evening primroses.
What to Look for When Buying
When shopping for evening primrose plants, either online or locally, keep an eye out for:
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Healthy foliage and roots: Avoid plants with yellowing, spotted, or curling leaves. Make sure the root system is white and vigorous.
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Good form: Look for compact, well-branched plants without lanky, leggy growth.
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Established size: Opt for plants that are at least 1-2 years old and 8-12 inches tall. Younger seedlings may struggle to establish.
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Hardiness: Check that the variety you choose is suited for your planting zone. Focus on zone 3-8 for broadly adaptable plants.
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Ideal conditions: Pick plants labeled for full sun and drought tolerance. Mature plants can handle heat, humidity, and some shade.
By inspecting plants carefully and buying from reputable sellers, you can ensure you get quality specimens for your garden.
How to Plant and Care for Evening Primrose
Once you get your hands on some robust evening primrose plants, you’ll want to give them proper care to keep them thriving for years. Here are some tips:
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Plant in full sun in well-drained, infertile soil. Areas that are too fertile cause lanky growth.
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Space plants 12-24 inches apart to allow air circulation.
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Water when first planted, then allow soil to dry between waterings. Avoid overwatering.
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Remove spent blooms to encourage more flowers.
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Cut plants back to 6 inches after blooming finishes in fall.
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Mulch in winter to protect crown and roots in cold climates.
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Divide large clumps every 2-3 years in spring or fall.
With the right planting site, evening primroses are unfussy and maintenance-free. Give them full sun, lean soil, and good drainage for the best floral display.
Add Vibrant Color and Fragrance to Your Garden
One of the best parts of growing evening primroses is getting to enjoy their luminous flowers firsthand. Their lemon-scented blooms open as the sun begins to set, lending gorgeous color in the evening landscape.
You can plant evening primroses in borders, rock gardens, meadows, and open woodland settings. Try combining them with similarly hued flowers like coreopsis, yarrow, and black-eyed Susans. For more contrast, plant with blue flowering herbs and purple coneflowers.
If you want to enjoy their beauty up close, plant evening primroses in containers on a patio, deck, or balcony. Their long bloom period will provide months of bright color and sweet fragrance right outside your door.
With their vibrant beauty and carefree growth, it’s easy to see why gardeners seek out evening primrose plants for sale. Follow the tips above to find healthy plants and get them established in your own landscape. Soon you’ll be enjoying their luminous blooms lighting up your garden at dusk.
Oenothera biennis (Common Evening Primrose)
| Also known as: | |
|---|---|
| Genus: | Oenothera |
| Family: | Onagraceae (Evening Primrose) |
| Life cycle: | biennial, short-lived perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Habitat: | part shade, sun; wet to dry soil; prairies, dunes, roadsides, railroads, waste places, woodland edges, cliffs, shores, river banks |
| Bloom season: | July – October |
| Plant height: | 2 to 6 feet |
| Wetland Indicator Status: | GP: FACU MW: FACU NCNE: FACU |
| MN county distribution (click map to enlarge): | |
| National distribution (click map to enlarge): |
Pick an for a larger view. See the glossary for icon descriptions.
Elongating leafy spike of yellow flowers at the tip of the stem, with flowers blooming at or near the tip and fruit forming below. Flowers are 1 to 2 inches across with 4 yellow heart-shaped petals and 8 yellow stamens surrounding a style with a cross-shaped stigma in the center. The stamens and style are typically shorter than the petals.
The 4 sepals behind the flower are ½ to about 1 inch (12 to 22+ mm) long and bend back away from the flower as it develops, pairs typically connected along one edge (connivent) until the flower opens, are yellowish-green and variously hairy, sometimes with glandular hairs. The floral tube, connecting the ovary nestled in the leaf axil and base of the flower, is ¾ to 1½ inches (20 to 40 mm) long and resembles a flower stalk. The flowers open in the evening and close up during the heat of the day.
Leaves are basal and alternate, the basal and lower stem leaves 4 to 12 inches (10 to 30 cm) long and ¾ to 2 inches (2 to 5 cm) wide, pointed at the tip, tapering at the base, slightly rough to the touch, mostly hairless, and stalked, becoming smaller and stalkless or nearly so as they ascend the stem. Edges are mostly flat, sometimes a bit wavy, and minutely toothed, the teeth often widely spaced. Color is olive to light green and there may be small leaves clustered in the leaf axils. Stems are mostly erect, branched or not, stout, reddish or light green, variously covered in stiff spreading to appressed hairs that may have a pimple-like base (pustulate).
Fruit is an erect to ascending capsule ¾ to 1½ inches (20 to 40 mm) long, tubular but tapering some at the tip end, with 8 tiny erect lobes at the tip and variously hairy across the surface. Inside are angular seeds about 1 mm long.
A very common species, Common Evening Primrose is easily confused with the closely related Northern Evening Primrose (Oenothera parviflora) and Hairy Evening Primrose (Oenothera villosa, formerly O. biennis var. canescens). O. biennis usually has somewhat larger flowers but the sizes and other characteristics overlap between the three species so distinguishing them can be difficult, especially when fresh sepals are not present. For O. parviflora, look for a small ridge or knob at the tip end of the sepal, which O. biennis and O. villosa lack. O. villosa sepals can be striped or tinged red (but not always) where O. biennis sepals are green to yellowish-green.
The types and density of hairs on all 3 species are rather variable: stiff appressed hairs, longer spreading to ascending hairs with or without a pimple-like base, and with or without glandular hairs. Flora of North America notes that when flowers fade, O. villosa petals turn orange where O. biennis turn more whitish and somewhat translucent, but we arent yet convinced orange is limited to O. villosa. Leaves of O. biennis are also said to be more flat along the edges where O. villosa tend to be more wavy. Two subspecies of O. villosa with different characteristics make the distinctions even more challenging. In the coming seasons we will be seeking out good field specimens and working out better or more consistent distinctions, as well as clues on how any of these characteristics may change during the course of the season.
Evening Primrose – TN Nursery
FAQ
When should I plant evening primrose?
You can direct-sow fresh seeds in the ground in the fall. After planting, keep the soil consistently moist but not wet until freezing temperatures arrive. Evening primroses can also be grown in containers, but not all varieties are suited for it—especially those with exceptionally long root systems.
When can you buy primrose plants?
January to March
This is the peak primrose season, The best range of colours can be found during this time, normally sold in flower they can be used to add colour and scent to your planters.
Where is the best place to plant evening primrose?
Where to grow evening primrose. Evening primrose can grow to an average height of around 1m, so plant it towards the middle or back of your border, in full sun to partial shade, and in moist but well-drained soil.
Does evening primrose come back every year?
It is a biennial, meaning that it lives for two years and only blooms during the second year, but will readily self-seed and come back from seed year after year. For the first year, common evening primrose produces a rosette of leaves and puts most of its energy into establishing its root system.
What is an evening primrose flower?
Evening primrose flower (Onagraceae). (US Forest Service) Plants provide us with many things that we use on a daily basis – from the buildings in which we live and work, to our clothing and food. For flowering plants to thrive and reproduce, they often rely on pollinators to transport pollen between flowers.
When do evening primrose flowers open?
The bright yellow flowers of the evening primrose open at dusk and remain open until midday the following day. The perennial plant is a biennial that produces only leaves in its first year and flowers in the second. The showy, one-to-two-inch flowers that appear from summer to fall have a lemon scent.
Is evening primrose a biennial?
Biennial Evening Primrose ( Oenothera biennis) Evening Primrose is a biennial, meaning it completes its life cycle in two years. The first year it forms a flat circle of leaves in the fall, and you are rewarded with showy, fragrant blooms from early summer until late fall the following year.
Is Primrose a weed?
Although labeled as a weed by some, it is a very important native plant with a long bloom time benefiting nectaring moths, butterfiles, caterpillars and many kinds of bees. Much of the life cycle of the stunning pink Primrose Moth (Schinia florida) (see photo) can be in the Common Evening Primrose plant.
Does evening primrose like sunlight?
Contrary to what you may believe about a plant that only blooms at night (making it perfect for moon gardens), evening primrose actually loves sunlight. It should be grown in a spot that gets full sunlight (or partial shade) and somewhere that the plant can soak in at least six to eight hours of warm sunlight daily.
Where does a common evening primrose grow?
Common Evening Primrose grows in recently disturbed soils of prairies, old fields, roadsides and other sunny medium to dry sites. It can reach heights of 6′ in the right conditions but is often shorter. It is one of the last natives blooming late into fall.