Oenothera speciosa is a showy, low-maintenance groundcover. In favorable conditions it will spread readily via seed and rhizomes to form colonies. In late spring and summer, the plant is covered with showy, delicately scented, 2"-3"–wide, cup-shaped flowers. The four-petaled blooms are white and often mature to a rosy pink, thus the common name of pinkladies. Other Oenothera species typically have yellow flowers. Oenothera speciosa is also known as white or pink evening primrose. Its flowers open at the end of the day and last through the night and into the morning (if you are an early riser!). The flowers are borne on somewhat upright to sprawling stems with narrow, lance-shaped leaves.
The species originally grew on the rocky prairies and plains of Missouri and Kansas, south to Texas and Mexico. It has naturalized into other areas—mainly on disturbed sites like roadsides and railroads—from Illinois to Alabama and eastward.
Growing requirements are simple; it's very tolerant of poor soils and drought conditions. Oenothera speciosa thrives in well-drained, average soils in full sun, reflecting its native environment of rocky prairies and plains. It needs good drainage and does not tolerate constantly wet soils. Planting in poor, infertile soil will encourage it to grow in a more clump-like form. In rich soils, it can spread vigorously, so better grown in a naturalized setting, as it can overwhelm a perennial garden or bed. If planted in shadier conditions, it will prosper, but flower sparsely. Disease and pest-resistant.
Space plants 1'-2' on center.
Spacing depends on soil conditions. In poor, infertile soil, space 1'-1.5' on center. In richer soils, try 2'. It will soon spread to form a mat. Again, in a loamy perennial bed, it can spread vigorously and overwhelm its neighbors.
Oenothera speciosa likes to go wandering and stays low, and these forbs play well with it: Gillenia stipulata (American ipecac), Monarda punctata (spotted beebalm), Phlox pilosa (downy phlox), and Scutellaria incana (hoary skullcap). Companion grasses include Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama), Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), and Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed).
Easily grown, low-maintenance, and great for areas where it can ramble without crowding out other plants. The genus name derives from the Greek oinos, for wine, as the plant roots were used for scenting vintages. Possible uses include planting in meadows, roadsides, medians, or informal naturalized areas. On a still summer night, it provides a scented evening pleasure. Attractive to pollinators and to birds for the seeds.
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Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
AL, AR, CT, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MO, MS, NC, NE, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, VA, WV, AZ, CA, FL, LA, NM, TX, UT |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
Class | Magnoliopsida | Dicotyledons |
Subclass | Rosidae | |
Order | Myrtales | |
Family | Onagraceae | Evening Primrose family |
Genus | Oenothera | evening primrose |
Species | Oenothera speciosa | pinkladies |
pink evening primrose, showy evening primrose, Mexican primrose, amapola
Sizes info
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.