Description

Sweet Four O’Clock
Mirabilis longiflora

Annual. Spreading, bushy plant, 60 to 90 cm high and as wide. Small, trumpet-shaped white flowers open in the afternoon and close in the morning. Very fragrant, with an intoxicatingly sweet floral scent. Interesting to grow for its scent rather than its appearance. Blooms from July to frost. Deer resistant. Native to the southern United States. Also known as Angels Trumpets Four O’Clock.

Full sun, part shade. Well-drained, dry soil. Sow indoors 6 to 8 weeks before last frost. 1 cm deep. 30 cm between plants.

Germination: 83% in November 2025
Ecological seeds produced at Catherine’s Ornamental Garden.

Note
During the day, it doesn’t smell at all. It’s a nocturnal flower, releasing its fragrance only at dusk until the following morning, like Sensation mix tobacco. Flowers attract moths. The smell is incredible! And it smells from afar – just a few plants are enough to scent an entire field! Because of its strange appearance, which is not very aesthetic, especially during the day when the flowers are closed, we suggest growing it with other more ornamental plants to hide it a little.

It is a tuberous, shrubby perennial in zone 7 and above. It can easily be grown as an annual in colder zones. It does not re-sow and is not edible.