Growing Evening Primrose Plants...

Evening primrose plants are known as hardy perennials, which means that they are long lived plants, and will re-appear in your garden every year.

Did you know..... the young roots of the evening primrose plant can be eaten like a vegetable. They enhance the food with a delicious peppery flavour.

Step by step guide to growing evening primrose

Prepare your site

Evening primrose likes to be grown in fertile soil, and can be planted in any ordinary, well-drained area of the garden. It prefers an open site that is in the sun, but can grow just as well in partial shade.

When to plant evening primrose

Evening primrose seeds can be sown in situ from late spring to early summer.

How to plant evening primrose

Dig over designated area and sow seeds thinly. Cover and leave.

Routine care of evening primrose plants

Make sure that weeds are kept down, especially through the growing season. Seeds are borne after the flowering season, which then ripen between late summer and autumn. In the wild, evening primrose tends to grow in undisturbed sites with poor soil, so there is very little care needed.

Uses for evening primrose

The young roots can be eaten like a vegetable

The shoots can be eaten in a salad

The whole plant can be used to prepare an infusion, which can have astringent or sedative properties.

It has been considered to be effective in healing asthmatic coughs, gastric disorders and whooping cough. .

As a poultice, it has fast, wound healing properties and is used to ease bruising,

Recommended varieties of evening primrose

There are over 125 species of evening primrose

Oenothera biennis: Known as the Common evening primrose or the Evening Star. Grows between 30-150 cm in height and has pale yellow flowers. Opens in the evening.

Oenothera caespitosa : Also called the Tufted evening primrose, this smaller variety only grows upto 4 inches in height and is an ideal plant to grow in a rock garden. The flowers are white, but do turn pink with age.

Oenothera odorata: Native to South America, this species of evening primrose offers tall yellow flowers, upto 3ft in height, during the summer months.