Goldfinch and Evening Primrose

Hi folks; I saw the first Pine Siskin in my yard, and my first on a feeder in over 20 years. Had to get Sibley out to check. This was the first I have seen outside of the one on territory on Waterrock Knob (last summer) since graduate studies at Boone in 1986.

On another track, I saw a Goldfinch on the seed head of the lone Evening Primrose that managed to flower last summer. Like many "biennial" plants, they actually flower, not the second year after the seed sprouts (this is under optimum conditions), but after the plant manages to gather enough resources to make flowering a possibility. Many species are also perennials. The past few years of drought has held them back, but a couple of years ago, the ones in my driveway managed a bumper crop of blooms, and thus seeds. In the winter, the Goldfinch covered them up, hanging sideways on the heads, and ignoring black oil seed and "Nyjer" until the Primrose seeds were all gone.

Evening Primrose would likely be a good plant for the bird and butterfly garden, plus, it looks like the host plant for at least one Lep. It is a member of the family Onagraceae, and the genus Oenothera. The one I have in my driveway is probably O. biennis, and is found all over the states of NC and SC in fields and scruffy places. It is probably pulled up by most gardeners as weeds, but if left and allowed to bloom, they grow to almost 6 feet, and make lovely blooms that start blooming late in the evening, and stay blooming until well into the next morning, probably to be pollinated by some giant Sphinx moths. After blooming, they make little cylindrical shaped seed pods about an inch or so long that split into four segments when ripe, releasing a horde of seeds, many of which stay on the seed head well into winter. If the seeds escape the Goldfinches, they fall to the ground and sprout, making a ground hugging rosette the first year, and doing the same thing in subsequent year until they gather up enough steam to flower, then one year, up comes a stem, and flowers that only show for a day, though there are over a months worth of them, sometimes more.

I would imagine that if anybody wants them in a hurry, a wildflower nursery might have them, though you can likely find them somewhere and get a bunch of seeds to take back home to plant. They are really a nice tall plant, often with red veined leaves, tall straight stems, and golden colored flowers in the early morning hours. Their only horticultural drawback is that they often get a nasty case of powdery mildew in the late summer, though it doesn't seem to slow them down any.

I know I ran on a bit, but I think these delightful plants are a perfect addition to the bird and butterfly garden, and the Goldfinch love them!

Alex