Pink Evening Primrose

Oenothera speciosa

Also called Mexican evening primrose, this is one of our beautiful native wildflowers. It has dark pink flowers and they start out kind of white and then they turn to pink. It’s a perennial. It dies back in the heat, but re-emerges again in cool weather to bloom in spring.

It’s normally only about 8 to 12 inches tall and 15 inches wide in the landscape. But it does get much wider if given plenty of space. It spreads easily so it makes a great ground cover, especially for large natural areas. As its name suggests, the flowers open in the evening but also during the day.

They also have yellow, powdery pollen pistils, giving them another common name, buttercups.

They’re easily established from seed. Plant in late summer or early fall along with other wildflowers. It’s very happy in the hottest, least cared for part of your landscape. It does great in rocky, shallow soils with no supplemental irrigation so don’t water these plants too much once you establish them. They don’t respond well to that and can have root rot. It also does well in natural, meadowy plantings with other wildflowers. It’s best planted in full sun and well drained soil and it does spread underground in the winter so it pops up all over the place the following spring in your yard.