Evening Primrose is an easy to grow and extremely useful biennial herb that should be part of every home garden.  The entire plant is quite tasty and is edible from root to flower, and the leaves, roots, and seeds contain medicinal qualities not found in very many other herbs.  The flowers of the most common types are yellow and fragrant, with a faint lemony smell, opening in the evenings and closing again around mid-morning.  Bees and butterflies love this plant, making it a valuable addition to a Habitat-type situation.   

Establishing Evening Primrose in the garden is quite easy to do.  The plant will thrive a well-drained soil, and appreciates a little compost mixed in at planting time, but once established it is extremely drought and heat tolerant and requires little to no maintenance. It prefers full sun, but will also do well in light shade.  It flowers over a long period - from June until October. It is usually started from seed, and is a staple in many perennial and wildflower seed mixes.  It self-sows easily and once planted is almost sure to return year after year.  In fact, in some areas it self-propagates so freely that it is considered a weed, however in the home garden it is easily controlled by just pulling unwanted plants, which can then be used in the kitchen as well as in the medicine cabinet! 

Once established, clumps of Evening Primrose can be propagated by division in the spring.  The most common type (and the type pictured above) grows very quickly to a height of 6-8 feet or more, making this definitely a back of the border type of plant, so plan accordingly.