Four O’Clock, Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis jalapa), packet of 10 seeds

Family:  Four O’Clock (Nyctaginacea)

Hardy to Zones 7 to 10, otherwise grown as an easy annual, 100 days to blossoms.

(Marvel of Peru) Woody perennial sub-shrub in warm zones. Native to the Peruvian Andes, the plant is now grown worldwide. The flowers unfold into deep-throated arching trumpets in the afternoon, and last well into the next morning. Beguilingly aromatic.  The color of this strain,  collected originally from Zanzibar, is deep pink, almost lavender.  Traditional usage (TWM): moistening, mucilaginous, skin maladies.  Marvel of Peru makes a large underground tuber.  In colder areas, these can be heavily mulched to bring a plant through the winter, or they may be lifted and kept cool and dry in a root cellar and replanted successfully in the spring.  It may not make sense to go through the trouble, though, since Four O’Clocks will readily self-seed and are easy to grow by planting in pots or by direct seeding in the spring garden. Plant prefers sun to part shade and moist soils.  If you sow the seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost, then you will have big bushes and plenty of flowers come summer.

10 seeds per packet, open pollinated, untreated, no gmo’s