The Evening Blooms Of Mentzelia

Some years ago I received an assortment of seeds

, among which was a package labeled Nuttallia, Evening Lily. It was entirely new to me, but I planted the seeds and waited for results. But they were longer in coming, than I had expected. The seeds grew and developed into husky plants with sticky, prickly leaves that were not attractive, and no bloom appeared that first year. But I left the plants undisturbed, and the following year they amply repaid me, with quantities of lovely blossoms, large white flowers of ten satiny petals surrounding a huge bunch of stamens.

It was an evening bloomer, the flowers opening in early evening and fading in the next days hot sun. But they sent out many blooms each evening, over a long period. Too late, I learned that it was a biennial. I neglected to save any seed and after blooming prolifically, the plants died. It was some time before I was able to rediscover the plant, under the name of Nuttallia decapetala or Mentzelia decapetala.

In the meantime I found many other members of the family. They are of the Loasa family and commonly called Stickleaf. An annual form, generally listed as Bartonia (mentzelia lindleyi) is a day bloomer with rich yellow blooms, five broad petals surrounding the big ornamental tuft of stamens. An especially fine evening bloomer enchaning my landscape lighting with pale yellow blooms, ten rather pointed petals and stamens by the hundred, came to me without any variety name, but after a long search, a wild flower friend in southern Calif. wrote of finding it, on rare occasions, growing on old. discarded mine dumps, and identified it as Mentzelia laevicaulis.

There are many varieties, some very good, some poor. Most varieties that are good will be found listed in catalogs of wild flower growers of the west coast and the southwest. A few varieties are native to our own middle west. Some I have heard about but am still searching for. All I have tried, grow easily and bloom best in rather poor soil. most are biennial and they dislike being moved, so if they must be transplanted, it should be done when they are quite small.

The evening bloomers are a pleasant addition to our list of plants grown for evening display.

by: Thomas Fryd

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