06/08/2026
With all this rain lately our 4 O’clocks are blooming beautifully and are filling the air with their sweet aroma.
Thought I’d share what these sweet flowers have taught me.
❤️ our four-o'clocks, whose petals stay all closed up during the heat of the day and start blooming in the afternoon and bloom into early-mid morning and produce such a sweet odor...
And our four- o'clock have taught me about suffering. How God can use the trials and pains in our life to make us into who He created us to be, if we let Him.
Our world today tells us, that suffering is a bad thing, we should sweep it under the rug, medicate it, run from it, get mad at it, or many times we get mad at God because He want take it away or give us what we "think" we need.
What if we offer it up to Him, to use for His purpose?
What if He was using it in our lives to change our course in life, or to change our heart or to change our will, so His will could be done in our life?
Well, my four - o'clock taught me a lesson about suffering when we 1st bought our place 21 years ago and I wrote a poem about what I learned from theses sweet smelling flowers.
When I wrote the poem, it was for a sweet child we came to know & love when we lived in PA. She had been suffering with Lyme Disease since birth & the disease in her teens, caused bouts of blindness and many, many health problems.
Today, a 21 year update since I wrote this poem - from a wheelchair she rose and is a very successful owner and teacher of her own dance studio. ❤️ when I wrote this poem she had to use a wheelchair most days.
But, you know what? The 4 O’Clock continues to remind me every summer, when they start popping up from beneath the earth, how difficult the sanctification process can be in my own life..
Yes, Jim & Julie are not sheltered from storms in our own lives. We all experience the storms, the suffering in which pierce our ❤️'s....
It's amazing how our Lord uses our little 7 acre patch to teach us things, as we work and watch things grow on our property, as the seasons come and go... life changes, people change... And each season brings its own joys, love, hope and even hurts, pains.....sufferings... It's part of life.
I would ❤️ to stay on the mountain tops, but you know what?
The valleys are where I have discovered God's ways and will for my life... It's where the fires of life burn off the bad fruit.
And it's a continuos cycles....each season brings new pruning and growth. My conversion will not be complete until I see Him face to face.... I'm a stubborn women.
I'm sharing because I was reminded today, as I witness their beauty, how special my four-o'clock are to Moe & Willie’s B&B. And just maybe someone who reads this, might need a reminder....God loves you and don't give up.... I think I see gold.
My Poem I wrote for my lil friend 21 years ago, when my 4 O’Clocks taught me something from above. I also sent her some to plant in her garden.
FOUR O'CLOCK, A FLOWERING PLANT
I know your road has not been easy lately and the future at times unsure
That is why I am giving you this four o'clock to plant as a reminder of our Father's sovereign love
I learned of this hardy flowering plant one growing season a few years back
My garden plot of four o'clock needed thinning and when I dug up the roots, I put them in a sack
Not knowing what to do with them, I carried them to the fall burn pile
Among the broken and clipped branches, pine straw and leaves
I tossed in the roots of unwanted four o'clocks to burn with all these things
The fire was hot as Hades as it smoldered through the night
It's heat consuming all the yard trash was my goal in this plight
I noticed among the red embers the four o'clock roots showing through
Seems they were smoking in the red hot flames; not losing shape or even wasting away
A little perplexed in what to do, I buried them deeper in the coals
They just smoldered and smoked as the embers glowed
And laying among the ashes from clipped branches, pine straw and leaves they never caught fire from the coals
I was puzzled in what to do so I left the pile and said to myself "I'll just let them be”
The winter season came and went, spring clean up was my next event
To the burn pile with many things, I noticed the four o'clock roots still to be seen
I started it all over with the fire as hot as Hades and continued to notice
My four o'clocks roots smoldering in the fiery breeze
A red-hot scene of embers, then ashes was all that was left
Except the roots of my four o'clocks, they lay among the wreck of ashes still in tact
The early summer season was then at hand
All the birds were singing and new life was blooming in my sight
I noticed in my burn pile a green plant growing up searching for light
As the days and weeks of summer unfolded, the green plant grew in leaps and bounds
Soon came the sweet aroma of the four o'clocks, from the ashes of the burn pile
They sang out to the hummingbirds and butterflies
Come unto me for I give you food and rest
Because my Lord is using me as I have made it through the test. I think I see Gold..
Note: The attributes of an old-fashioned plant named four o'clock have become
more important because of the changing environmental adversities that have been experienced by the
southern gardening public. Southern Gardeners need a plant which will:
flourish in periods of severe droughts & water restrictions
will bloom in less than full sunlight situations
is deer & rabbit tolerant
is fragrant
is a long-lived tuberous perennial and reseeding annual
is one of a very few hummingbird & butterfly plant.
I always have plenty to share with those who ask.
