The Tortoise Table

Hello lovely tortoise ladies,

So whilst fighting a landslide of evening primrose flowers at dusk I noticed a slight difference between my plants. I'm now aware I have common evening primrose and small-flowered-evening-primrose. So could you confirm this smaller version "Oenothera cambrica" is a safe feed, as I can't see it on the table itself.

Thanking you, Jody and Jemima from Wirksworth [attachment=0]Screenshot_20220712-205616_Gallery.jpg[/attachment]

Hi Jodie,

Super to hear from you, and I hope that Jemima is enjoying the warm weather we've been having!

Yes, your Oenothera cambrica is absolutely safe to feed. In future years you might find that you have plants that are somewhere between the common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) and the Small-flowered EP, because the O. cambrica rapidly hybridizes with the common one and you will probably get plants that are a bit of each.

Mine are loving their daily dose of Evening Primrose flowers -- I think it is their favourite of all the flowers.

Nina

Hi Nina,

Thankyou for your swift reply, how interesting.

Crikey it's my first year growing the evening primrose. I stupidly grew 3 plants and thank goodness they aren't quite at the same stage!! Most nights I'm lopping off 70 plus flowers and sharing them amongst the streets creeps . DID YOU KNOW that bats feed off them?? I noticed a few bite marks and couldn't fathom what beasty could have a mouth that big until a lady told me about the bats.

Thankyou for asking after Jemima de Ville, she is her usual ungrateful and testy self (see below the holyhock I grew and she sniffed it and ignored it, you can see evening primrose hanging out her mouth) but I wouldn't be without her.

You take care Nina

Aww, I do love Jemima!

I never knew that about bats and Evening Primroses! How interesting. I'm not sure I have any bats nearby, but if there are then I'm more than happy to share my flowers as there are so many of them.

I think you'll find that you never have to intentionally grow Evening Primrose again. Mine seed themselves everywhere (do let some seed pods develop), and they seem to love to grow in inhospitable places, like in the cracks between paving stones (I get quite large plants growing out of a tiny crack in the paving), and they reliably come back every year. I do have another variety which is quite pretty -- a paler and more delicate yellow flower, and much narrower leaves. I'm not sure which variety it is but have attached a photo of it. It also comes back each year, but just not as robust as the common one.

Nina
[attachment=0]Evening Primrose (Linda's) (2) (Copy).JPG[/attachment]