Skip to main content
← All plants

Showy Evening Primrose

Oenothera speciosa
Also known as: Pink Ladies, Pink Evening Primrose, Mexican Evening Primrose, Pinkladies

Showy Evening Primrose is a flower in the Onagraceae family. It grows best in full sun to part shade with dry to medium moisture, and is listed for USDA zones 4-9. Plants reach maturity about 91–840 days after planting and sit about 12 inches apart.

Varieties

2 from True Leaf Market & Seeds Now · sorted by days to maturity
  • Showy Evening Primrose91–98 days

    Non-GMO; Container

    91-98 days to Maturity. Showy Evening Primrose oenothera seeds grow one of summer's most familiar, gentle, yet vigorous blooms. Showy Evening Primrose is easy to grow from seed and is a hardy native to the heat and drought of the American midwest. Showy Evening Primrose seeds promise your garden gorgeous 18-24 inch tall oenotheras bursting with delicate 2-3 inch tricolored blooms of pink, lavender, and ivory. Showy Evening Primrose oenothera is an ideal grow for kids or novice gardeners as a showy bedding plant or trim to the garden or walkway.

    View on True Leaf Market
  • Showy Pink Ladies620–840 days

    A hardy, drought-tolerant native perennial bearing showy, cup-shaped four-petaled flowers up to 3 inches across in soft pink to white with a yellow center and darker veins. Blooming May through July, the flowers open in the evening and stay open into late morning. Spreading by rhizomes into low colonies, it is vigorous and can become aggressive in favorable conditions.

    Growing notes: Botanical name: Oenothera speciosa|Hardiness zones: 4-9|Planting season: Spring, summer|Days to maturity: 2nd year|Cold stratify: Yes|Depth to plant seeds: Lightly cover - seeds need light to germinate|Spacing between plants: 12"-18" apart|Days to germinate (sprout): 15-30 days|Germination soil temps: 65F-70F|Soil types: Sandy, loamy, rich, well-drained|Soil pH: 5.5-7.5|Water needs: Average|Sun needs: Full sun, part shade|Frost tolerant: No|Drought tolerant: Yes|Deer resistant: Yes

    View on Seeds Now
Family
Onagraceae
Category
Flower
Form
Bush
Lifecycle
perennial
Zone
4-9
Height
1–2 ft
Spread
1–2 ft
Sun
Full sun to part shade

Plant spacing

1 plant per square footSquare-foot planting diagram: one showy evening primrose fills a 1-foot square, spaced 12 inches from its neighbors.
1 plant per square foot

In a square-foot bed, space showy evening primrose about 12 in apart — that fits 1 plant in each 1-foot square (1×1). Wider rows or containers space the same.

Water
Dry to medium

Plan your showy evening primrose planting

Add showy evening primrose to a free GardenDraft plan and get sow, transplant, and harvest dates computed for your ZIP code — with a drag-and-drop bed layout and reminders when it’s time to plant.

Start your free plan →

At a glance

Days to harvest
91–840 days
From transplant or sow to first harvest
Harvest style
Keep picking
Crops over several weeks
Frost tolerance
Hardy · to ~15°F
Lowest temperature the foliage usually survives

Growing timeline

When to plant and harvest showy evening primrosePlanting timeline for showy evening primrose, relative to last frost: start indoors from 10 weeks before last frost to 2 weeks before last frost; grow from 2 weeks before last frost to 11 weeks after last frost; harvest from 11 weeks after last frost to 118 weeks after last frost.GrowHarvestLast frostTransplant
Start showy evening primrose indoors ~8 weeks before transplanting 2 weeks before last frost; first harvest 11 weeks after last frost.
Seed to transplant
42-56 days
Outdoor planting
-14 to 0 days vs frost
Propagation
Seed
Schedule anchor
Last Frost

Care & troubleshooting

No curated care & troubleshooting advice for showy evening primrose yet. Our extension-sourced library currently focuses on common edible crops; we're expanding it over time.