Why You Shouldn’t Plant Pink Evening Primrose In Your Yard

As the saying goes, "Heavens to Betsy!" I couldn't believe what my local big box store was offering to innocent homeowners: pots of pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa).

Chances are you're familiar with this pretty native wildflower, but until now, you didn't know its name. Vast sweeps of this flower bloom each spring on roadsides, banks, and fields. Legions of fragrant, pink, 2-inch flowers stand atop 12-inch stems with a weird, four-parted style in the center of each blossom, which always reminds me of a satellite dish. Perhaps it sends a warning, "Plant me in your garden, and I will devour it. A to-go box will not be necessary."

What Is Pink Evening Primrose?

Pink evening primrose was originally native to central grasslands from Missouri and Nebraska south through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas and into Mexico. Confusingly, the flowers tend to open in the mornings in the southern part of their range, but in the evenings in the north. They often bloom in the spring, go dormant in a dry summer, and return with the fall rains. Each flower lasts one day.

What Happens When You Plant Primrose

Evening primrose often escapes cultivation and will invade any well-drained soil on open ground, however dry or damp, rich or poor. My battle with this monster began a decade ago when a wayward seedling popped up in my perennial bed. It subsequently flowered so gloriously that, like a common dolt, I left it there.

What I didn't realize is that every bloom drops lots of seeds. Even worse, after the plant's foliage withers in summer, spreading roots grow by the furlong in every direction. A pink primrose tsunami swept over my garden the following spring, choking the phlox and drowning the daylilies. The flowers also are known for invading sidewalks and driveway cracks, making pulling them an exceptionally difficult task.

How To Remove Pink Evening Primrose

What to do? Where I could dowse this botanical blight with herbicide without harming my good plants, I did so without a second thought. I pulled up all remaining stems I could find—it was surprisingly easy to do. However, any bit of root remaining in the ground grows into another patch that surfaces the following year. Here's what you need to do to get this plant back under control:

1. Remove all flowers and dispose of them so that the plants cannot spread by seed.
2. Spray primrose patches with herbicide, following label directions. Be careful to not allow herbicide to drift onto neighboring plants you want to save.
3. Check the garden frequently and pull or spray new primrose sprouts as they emerge.

You may want to selectively pull primrose that has invaded other plants you want to protect from herbicide, but you'll need to do it repeatedly as any remnants of roots will re-sprout. Primrose removal can take multiple growing seasons, so you will need to keep at it.

What To Plant Instead Of Pink Evening Primrose

If you see these flowers for sale at your garden center, my advice is RUN. Do not buy. Do not say, "It's a native plant, so it must be good." Do not plant any wildflower that can conquer acres of farmland or gulp down your garden in a single sitting.

Other plants in the primrose family are equally tough but much better behaved in the garden. Gaura (O. lindheimeri), a native plant from Texas and Louisiana, has wands topped with pink or white flowers that wave in the breeze. The plant also thrives in poor soil and fits right into a cottage garden.

Sundrops (O. fruticosa) will spread but aren't aggressive. Native throughout the Eastern U.S., sundrops bear bright yellow flowers that look like a primrose but bloom during the day. Sundrops like well-drained, moderately fertile soil. Either of these plants makes a good choice for a Southern garden.