Four-O'Clock Limelight

Like all Four o'Clocks, the blooms on Limelight don't open until late afternoon. They're pollinated at night, so they remain wide open and beautiful all evening and night, really standing out in the long, late-evening twilights of summer. Sweetly scented and very attractive, these 5-petaled trumpets are about 1 to 2 inches across, with a color so rich it almost glows! Expect them by the hundred on very well-branched, bushy plants 3 feet high and wide.

And if you like Limelight, you must try multicolored Broken Colors, too! You just can't have too many Four o'Clocks in the garden -- they grow in a snap, bloom for months, and always look terrific when you least expect it!

Best of all, Limelight is super-easy to grow. Sow the seeds in place as soon as the soil is warm in spring. Space about 2½ feet apart in full sun and any well-drained soil. Heat- and drought-tolerant, the plants bloom all summer!

One more note about Four o'Clocks: they are lovely in color and fragrance, but but also useful as a Japanese Beetle trap around roses and veggies. Japanese Beetles are drawn to Four o'Clock blooms like moths to flame, and if your garden is at all bothered by Japanese Beetles, simply plant Four o'Clocks near vulnerable plants (in addition to Roses, the beetles love potatoes, corn, and many berries). Once the Four o'Clocks start blooming, fill a bucket with water, add a squirt of dishwashing detergent, and visit the plants in late afternoon or evening. Chances are the flowers will be loaded with beetles, which you can kill by just dropping them into the soapy water. (And if your Four o'Clock attracts masses of the beetles -- and it might -- you can uproot the whole plant and dunk it in soapy water, killing hundreds of beetles at a single go.) It's a shame to sacrifice Four o'Clocks this way, but they're a fantastic alternative to potentially harmful sprays and other insecticides, and they're wonderfully effective!

As they grow, Four o'Clock plants form a tuber (like Dahlias from seed do) that you can dig up in fall and replant next spring if you live north of Limelight's zone 8-11 hardiness range. How's that for a bargain?! Pkt is 40 seeds.