Pink evening primrose, NICE! for spring, summer, and fall

Until not too long ago, I thought that the spring wildflower with four big pink petals is called “primrose” and the one with similar yellow petals is a “buttercup.” That’s what I learned as a kid. Now I know most primroses are yellow, and the “true” buttercup is an entirely different plant. This month’s choice for Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of Common Exotics!) is the pink one.

For Operation NICE!, pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) is representing a whole spectrum of native wildflowers that can add color to home gardens. Wildflowers of one sort or another can provide any color or combination of colors one might want, and once established, wildflowers need little care. Besides that, butterflies, honeybees, and hummingbirds appreciate a yard with wildflowers.

Pink evening primrose is a familiar roadside wildflower at this time of year. Most of the dense patches of pink along rights-of-way are pink evening primroses. They are prolific bloomers from spring to mid-summer and, often, again in the fall. The flowers are 2-3 inches wide and have prominent yellow stamens and pistils. Plants mostly are sprawling and grow no more than a foot high, with the showy flowers on top.

Some of the yellow evening primroses don’t open until the afternoon, but “evening primrose” is a misnomer for the pink species, because its blooms are open all day, at least in the Boerne area. In the western part of the Edwards Plateau some pink evening primroses have white flowers.

Pink is not a color I seek out for our garden or for anything else, but I must admit that pink evening primrose looks great with bluebonnet, mealy blue sage, and penstemon in our backyard wildflower patch. Pink evening primrose spreads underground by rhizomes and can produce massive banks of pink flowers. It must also spread from seed, because every spring new plants pop up where we don’t expect them. As my friend Betty Dunn says, they can provide a NICE! surprise.

Pink evening primrose grows in almost every part of the state. In this area this week I have seen it blooming along the Interstate, in both dry and boggy fields, and in a well-drained raised bed in a garden. Apparently, this species can tolerate a variety of moisture and soil conditions, as long as it has plenty of sun. I haven’t seen it growing in heavy shade. The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas provides free planting and care instructions for pink evening primrose at nurseries participating in Operation NICE! (Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, Barkley’s Nursery Center, and Maldonado Landscape and Nursery).

From time to time, our local nurseries have pink evening primrose for sale, but it is not often available from their wholesalers. Seed for Texas-native pink evening primrose can be purchased from Native American Seed in Junction.

 Here’s what’s blooming in our backyard native-plant zoo:

BLUE OR PURPLE: mealy sage, lyre-leaf sage, Engelmann’s salvia, shrubby blue sage, Drummond’s skullcap, bluebonnet, false day flower, giant spiderwort, prairie verbena, gray vervain, blue-eyed grass, fox-glove penstemon, vetch, Texas wisteria (East Texas native).

YELLOW: Engelmann daisy, bush sunflower, damianita, parralena, Texas greeneyes, dandelion, straggler daisy, zexmenia, columbine, bladderpod, oxalis, huisache daisy, false nightshade, yellow ground cherry, lantana, slender-stem bitterweed, stemless evening primrose.

RED: cedar sage, salvia Greggii, Indian blanket, perfume-ball gaillardia, red yucca, scarlet penstemon, Indian pink (East Texas native).

PINK: pink evening primrose, purple coneflower, limestone gaura, prairie phlox, Drummond’s phlox, fox glove penstemon, wild garlic.

WHITE: blackfoot daisy, antelope-horns milkweed, Anacacho orchid tree, fox glove penstemon, salvia Greggii, crow poison, green lily, water lily.