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Get It Growing News For 05/23/08
By Dan Gill
LSU AgCenter Horticulturist
My introduction to the angel’s trumpet came when I moved to New Orleans. Wandering around a friend’s garden at dusk, I caught a whiff of an amazing fragrance hanging in the air.
Like many gardeners faced with a similar situation, I was not about to ask the origin of the scent. I set off to find it for myself. It didn’t take long. It is hard to overlook a plant that brings such a dramatic presence to the garden.
Two related plants Louisiana gardeners call angel’s trumpet are brugmansia and datura.
The one I first encountered is Brugmansia arborea, although there are other species and hybrids we grow as well. The brugmansias are large-growing, tree-like plants reaching heights of 10 feet in coastal Louisiana if winters are mild. Heights generally will be shorter in parts of the state where the plants freeze back during winter. The trunks and branches are covered with a slightly rough, tan bark. The large leaves generally are about 8 to 12 inches long and are covered with fine hairs.
Members of the Solanaceae family, along with tomatoes and petunias, brugmansias are tropicals native to northwestern South America. They are easily grown in a moist, fertile, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade.
When they come into bloom, the effect is breathtaking. The trumpet-shaped flowers are large (about 9 inches long flaring to about 6 inches across) and can be white, pink, peach or yellow and very showy. A tree in full bloom is covered with these dramatic funnel-shaped flowers hanging down from the branches, as if trumpets were directed at the earth from the heavens above. At dusk the white-flowered types fairly glow. And if the plant is lighted at night, the effect is awesome. (Use a spotlight directed upward below the plant.)
The fragrance of the flowers is most noticeable in the evening, when the soft, seductive scent floats in the air like expensive perfume with light lemony overtones. To stick your nose right in a flower and take a whiff is almost intoxicating.
Brugmansias can begin to bloom as early as April or May if the winter was very mild and they suffered little or no freeze injury. They continue to produce their flowers in flushes or waves through the summer and into the fall (often continuing well into December if the weather stays mild).
As I mentioned, there are more colors available than white. B. versicolor produces flowers that start off white then turn a delicious salmon pink. Cultivars of the hybrid B. x candida produce white, yellow, pale orange or pink flowers. Another hybrid group, B. x insignis, produces white or peach flowers. There are even double forms available and some with variegated leaves.
Angel’s trumpets belong to that wonderful group of plants that are easily propagated and passed from gardener to gardener. It is easy to root a 6- to 8-inch cutting taken from the end of a branch during the summer. Remove leaves from the lower two thirds of the cutting and any flowers or flower buds. Using a rooting hormone is optional, but it can speed rooting. Stick cuttings half their length deep in a pot of potting mix, sharp sand or a half-and-half mix of perlite and vermiculite. Keep the cuttings in a shady area and make sure the rooting mix stays moist. Rooting generally takes place in six to eight weeks.
Nurseries occasionally have angel’s trumpets for sale, and several mail-order companies offer a good selection of colors (check the Internet). Early to mid-summer is a great time to plant them so they will have a longer time to grow and become established before they have to go through their first winter.
During the winter plants growing in the ground will need some protection, especially in north Louisiana. They are reliably root-hardy all over the state, however, and mulched plants usually will re-sprout from the ground in April. Mulch the base of the trunk with about 12 inches of pine straw to protect the roots and lower trunk. If desired, a simple covering can be built to protect the upper portions of the plant if it is not too large. Angel’s trumpets reliably return from temperatures in the mid-teens, especially if provided some protection.
The other plant we call angel’s trumpet is closely related to the brugmansias but looks quite different. Datura metel is shrubbier in appearance and does not grow so tall. The leaves are not hairy and often have a purple tint to them. The young stems are typically shiny, dark purple
The trumpet-shaped flowers may be white, purple and white or pale yellow, and the double-flowered forms are more commonly grown than singles. Unlike the brugmansias, whose flowers hang downward, daturas hold their flowers more upright. The sweet fragrance does not permeate the air around the plants to the extent of the brugmansias, but is delightful, nonetheless.
All parts of brugmansia and datura plants are poisonous, so watch toddlers or young children when they are around these plants. Don’t panic, though. Azaleas, after all, can be fatal if ingested in sufficient quantities. Just be aware, and enjoy these remarkable plants in your own landscape.
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Contact: Dan Gill at (225) 578-2222 or dgill@agcenter.lsu.edu
Editor: Rick Bogren at (225) 578-2263 or rbogren@agcenter.lsu.edu