Yea I put them in too early. I was convinced they weren’t gonna make it. That’s a good idea, this time I’ll try starting from seeds inside. Mine also don’t open till after dusk and stay open till early-mid morning. It’s so pretty at night sitting outside

The tubers are very easy to save. I dig them out, put them in a paper bag, and put them in an out of the way spot indoors until spring. I leave an inch or two of stem attached so I don't cut the tuber itself; the stump falls off on its own later. If the tubers freeze, they will turn to mush and die.

They are so invasive here in N. TX that it took me about 5 years to get it all out of my bed where I planted it. Never again but yours are beautiful.

I have heard about how invasive they can be! Our winters are brutal and other than a few chance seedlings, would never spread around too much. I feel like up here we complain about not being able to grow tropicals too much. Tropicals do great in our hot humid summers, and we can either let them die at the end of the season or bring them in! Best part is they have no chance of ever becoming a nuisance!

Our garden centers abound with plants like Bananas, Hibiscus, Canna, Croton, Oleander and many other plants people think of as southern staples

I was just going to create a dedicated thread to this plant but I hope you dont mind Rahmel if I add a couple of pictures of our singleton 4 o'clock:

Some years I contemplate not planting the seeds as so much of the time, during the main part of the day, it looks poorly BUT when the flowers are open it is spectacular!

I find it hard to believe that I planted the seed for this plant in June, later than in the past and it is huge now

This is one plant and it is 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide!

Rouge, that is stunning!

I couldn't get any pics to post last time I was on the forum. Today I can share photos. These are from last year. This year my mix of flowers is different and I only have a few four o'clocks.

What's with the massive four o'clocks this year? Mine came back and are four+ feet tall? I had to trim them back just to get past them into the backyard?! We had a lot of rain in February, but other than that, a pretty typical weather year.