These come up as seeds in my garden. Sometimes I forget what they are – I once got very worried they were Japanese knotweed…. But they are these:

They made the Other Garden look good all late summer and Autumn. They come up late and last for months and they are crazy cheerful.

They only open their flowers in the late afternoon, hence the name. According to the internet they come from Peru. But these ones came via Turkey. The lady who lived next door when we moved in 2001 was Maltese (I think) and she went to Turkey on her holiday. She planted some in her back garden and she gave some seeds to Max who lives over the road. You can see a few of them in gardens round here where they have seeded over the years.

They crossed the fence into my garden. Max gave me some seedlings for the Other Garden, and Chris (who gave me some tomatoes for it) and is another older-style lady, took some of the seeds for her garden. And I harvested some seed and shared it.

I love that they all come from Gina’s Turkish holiday. Who knows how many other gardens round here will have 4 o’clock flowers one day?