This is one of my all time favorite flowers, except for one thing: it is invasive! Many of my other favorites have the same characteristics, and are best contained in containers unless you want to be taken over. In hard-to- grow areas, this is an attribute, such as covering hillsides, or in wilder areas with seasons. Bulbs are great for this, but in small gardening areas, invasive species can be very problematic.
The Mexican Evening Primrose – Latin name oenothera speciosa – is a perennial wildflower that lies close to the ground because it is rather a floppy plant even though it can grow rather long in length. What makes the Mexican Evening Primrose a good garden plant, at least for dry areas, is its tolerance of drought and hanging out despite bad growing conditions.
Spread over a hillside or in a small patch, the cheerful pink and yellow center flowers are striking. They are also abundant in bloom, and this is even better in my opinion! The local botanical garden has a number of patches which mix in with other plants.
These flowers are lovely in bouquets, too, as their drooping nature and vining tendencies add a bit of curve to upright flowers along with their beautiful pink.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 
They are pretty. Not sure we have the Mexican version over the pond.
I think, Fraggy, it is unlikely unless conditions are pretty dry. Southern Europe seems a more likely spot for their successful growth as they don’t like really cold or wet weather. From a distance, when the breeze is up, they can almost look like a lot of butterflies!
6 months of rain, 4 days of sun, back to rain, so no chance for me 😦
Lovely images -N!
Hahaha! We had a very rainy winter (for us) so the land is lush and green and the botanical garden was heaven. So, no chance for you to have Mexican Evening Primroses in your yard going wild, but you do get a lot of other beauties I can only dream about . . . .
Thanks so much, Anne!
😊
It is invasive, but as a species native to many parts of this country, it supports many different pollinators, I welcome it here in Seattle.
Nice photos!
Beautiful flowers for sure, tagpipspearl, but I like to keep things contained and low maintenance here in SoCal. These flowers always make me happy – same with Jupiter’s Beard and so many other species. My own gardening area is rather small and so I like to use it to my own whim – mostly flowers for bees and birds and such – along with hot peppers. Happy Holidays!
Thank you! And happy holidays to you, as well.