A new gardening question of the day appears every day of the year on the front page of Almanac.com. Below is the answer to one of the questions from our Gardening Questions and Answers Archive where you can find over 400 more gardening questions (with answers!).
I bought an old house and was blessed with some mirabilis tubers. All I was able to find out about this unusual plant is that it belongs to the four-o'clock family. Can you give me more information on this perennial?
Four-o'clock is the name given to the plants (chiefly annual) of the genus Mirabilis. They are ornamentals, with flowers of various colors, and they get their name from the fact that the flowers open at four o'clock in the afternoon and close the next morning. You may be the proud owner of Mirabilis jalapa, also known as 'Marvel of Peru'. Because the plants are mostly used as annuals, the roots would be very unlikely to live through a harsh winter. But you can lift them before a hard frost and store them indoors for the winter.
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