Beginner Gardening: Need help to identify and find this plant., 0 by serenaski

serenaski wrote:
I first got this plant from a kind local gardener who was thinning her gardens, I thought she called it an Evening Primrose, however I have tried multiple searches under that name and cannot find it. I am in Traverse City, MI, recently changed from zone 5 to zone 6 by the Dept. of Agriculture.

My problem is that mine all died last winter and I miss them terribly. I also have lost the contact information for the person who gave them to me about 3 or 4 years ago. From the first year I planted one it bloomed beautifully, then came back the next year with a couple friends and all again bloomed and spread again, the year before last I moved some of the extras to another location where they came up well and bloomed last summer. But this year none of them have returned, I fear that our overly mild winter did them in, because I had never protected them in previous years when we actually had low temps and lots of snow.

I am not even completely sure that they were the same plants coming back or if it was reseeding itself, but I really did think it was a perennial. The pictures of the Missouri Primroses look like the same or a similar bloom, but this one had stalks that had multiple blooms instead of the single blooms that I have seen. Maybe it is the same plant with a different habit depending on location?

If anyone can tell me what they are, and how I can keep them alive for more than a few years I would be very grateful. Do you think it was our non-winter weather winter that killed them or did they require some special care that I neglected?