OOOHH LOVELY!!!!
I looked for seeds of the white flowers several years ago but could not find any so I figured they could not grow here.I wanted to plant a flowering white scented night garden by my pool. I have a large datura there now it is flowering now the smell is great.I would love to add the flowering tobacco.
where did you get the seeds??
CB

Hiya CB and everyone,

Thanks for looking and commenting--I'm really happy to see your reply. I bought the seeds years ago and have collected some from friends' gardens and commercial plantings so mine are lovely mongrels now, producing colors from light purple through white. I bought the original super-scented white flowering ones from Select Seeds, one of my favorite seed/plant catalogs. I'm putting a link to the type I bought below.

Let us know if you get some and how they do for you (Select Seed also sells plants, though it's pretty risky to have plants delivered in our heat at this time of year). There's plenty of time to plant seeds now for blooming plants this summer.

By the way, I'm crazy about daturas too--isn't that night scent just wonderful? That's another plant I let self-sow around the garden. I love it! Below is a pic of one of mine from a few weeks ago. Yes, it's the same tennis ball, LOL.

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Keep us posted!
Take care,
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Super-fragrant nicotiana seeds from Select Seeds Co.

hey Grant
I'm trying to down load a photo of one of my datura
I can't figure it out ....yet
CB

Hiya Calb and all,

Drop me an email and I can at least send you the text I use to add pics into emails. You'll also need an online photo hosting site (I use picasa by Google). I'm happy to (try to) help. :)

Or you can just email me the pic and I'll plop it here. We'd love to see!

Take care,
Grant
grant_in_arizona@yahoo.com

Here's a very light purple nicotiana blooming this week too. The scent is really wonderful at night when the flowers fully open.

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Let us see/hear what's looking good in your garden!
Take care,
Grant

Hiya CB and all,

Thanks for emailing me your BEAUTIFUL datura plant--I love it! The pic of it should appear below, and I'm going to email you the text I use to embed pics. We can discuss via email if you have any problems. Your plant is just wonderful, by the way. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Here is the photograph:

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Hi Grant, I followed your Select Seeds link and found several varities of the nicotania. Did you start with the jasmine seeds? It's the only white one I saw.

On another note, could you please send me the instructions for embedding an image on this forum? It sounds like html code is needed. Thanks.

marymcpadden2005@yahoo.com

Hi Mary and all,

Yes, I started with Nicotiana alata 'Jasmine' from Select Seeds. It's definitely the most fragrant. Let us know if you get some and how they do for you.

I'll email you my instructions on how I embed pics in posts. I sent it to CB as well but haven't heard back if they make any sense, LOL, but I'll send to you as well. You need to have an online pic hosting site (I use picasa from Google). I'll send you what I've got. :)

Take care all,
Grant

Will Shutterfly work as an on line hosting site?

Hiya Mary and all,

Yup, Shutterfly works great too. I just emailed you my "instructions", so let me know if they make sense. It's easy to do, but hard to describe. I say the more pics we all post, the better. :)

Take care,
Grant

I don't have any nicotine plants [yet] but did have a very nice datura. Let's see if I can get that picture to display in my message. Grant has been very patient with his instructions......now, Can she do it????

Here is a photograph:

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End of photograph

Awwwwwww, I'm so proud of us Grant. Thanks! Been wanting to figure that out forever!

Congratulations, Mary! It worked! That's one more person to post pics. :) I'll send CB my updated "procedure" document and see if it is helpful.

In any case, your plant is gigantic! Enormous! And beautiful. I bet the scent is just fantastic. How long have you been growing that particular plant? It's very, very impressive!

I am getting a second crop of hovermoth caterpillars on mine (tomato hornworms to you tomato growers, LOL) but the damage is minimal on my big plants and I love having them visit the garden so I don't mind. Besides, I grow my tomatoes winter through late spring before the hornies are very active. At this time of year, I just let them eat what they want. I'll relocate them from small plants to large ones if the damage is great, but otherwise I just enjoy watching them.

Thanks for your persistence in getting the pic posted. Keep them coming!

Take care,
Grant

Grant, Yes it *was* a huge and fragrant plant. It got infested with milkweed bugs and I pulled it out. It had only been growing for a few months....6 maybe.

If it was only caterpillers that turn into pretty butterflys, I would have let them go. That's what I do with my passion vine.

Here is a photograph:

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Except something seems to have damaged the root system on this lovely plant. It died shortly after this picture was taken. Breaks my heart, but there are several suckers of this plant so it will come back but the main vine is a goner, unfortunately.

Hiya Mary and all,

Sorry to hear about the datura getting infested. It sure was pretty though!

Your passionflower pic is great--is that the variety 'Incense'? Whichever type it is, I love it. I have a couple 'Lavender Lady' passion flowers and I do as you do: let the gulf frittilary caterpillars eat the foliage and become those beautiful orange butterflies. My vines are almost naked right now, LOL, but I have a lot of butterflies!

And moths apparently, since there's a new crop of green hornworms on my datura.

Thanks for the great pics and post. Keep us posted on that passionflower vine.

Take care,
Grant

Grant, yes, it's incense passion vine. Too bad I've lost the main vine, which was 2 or 3 years old. Someone told me they thought a critter had munched on the roots. Dunno. There are lots of other plants in that bed and only the main passion vine croaked. Waaaahhhhhh.

Wow! Love the pics of the nicotiana and the white datura. I have some of the datura seeds and will be getting some of the other. I suppose in this heat its a little late to plant them. When is the best time in the Spring or in the fall, so I can mark my calender?

Gemfire

You know it's not too late to direct-sow datura seeds in the ground. I have a few popping up here and there, plus I tucked some seeds in desired spots recently and they've started popping up. They don't mind the heat at all as long as they get watered. You can start them in pots in a protected spot now too, and you'll likely get a few blooms before winter.

That being said, spring is the easiest time to grow them. Though seeds survive the winter just fine, and you'll get higher germination from seeds that have been stratified over the winter, being exposed to alternating temperatures and moisture levels. Sometimes if I plant FRESH seed in spring, it doesn't sprout until the spring following its first winter. That's why my usual strategy is to just scatter seeds whenever I have it and let them do their thing, plus deliberately plant some in the ground or in pots in spring. Untreated seeds can have pretty random, sporadic germination rates/times. Commercial seed is often treated to sprout easier/more evenly.

If you've got enough seeds, I'd say plant some now (if you can keep them watered), plant some in early fall so they can overwinter as seeds, and save a few to plant in spring. If you need any extra seeds, just email me and I'll let some seed pods develop on my plant.

Keep us posted!
Take care,
Grant

Grant, the Nicotiana if lovely. The dark leaves really offset the white blooms.

I brought home a small Datura from a nursery near me and enjoyed it until winter when I lost it. I was assured it would spring back but it wasn't to be.

My only hesitation, is that I have a desert tortoise with basically free run of the yard. Highly toxic I understand. So I put it in a pot and kept it elevated making sure to pic up any blossoms or leaves that fell to the ground.

She was a beauty:

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Wow! I'm sure glad you have mastered the art of embedding images in your post. That's grand.

arizony
you are right to keep it away from your tortoise
I love my datura too but I also have a 60lb sulcata ,Morty, toddling around my yard,,,so I planted the datura around the pool and in areas of my yard that can be blocked off and I pull up any strays I notice growing.
my dad built me this great 18in swing gate the I close when ever I am not in the yard.I will have to get a pic of that up but till then heres Morty and Butter sharing a snack

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Perhaps we should have a 'play date'?

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Hah! I love the tortoise pics you two, so fun to see! You're right to keep daturas away from them and anyone/anything that would nibble them as they are considered toxic.

Arizonny, I love that close up pic of the double flowered datura! It's great. That type is definitely not as hardy as Datura meteloides, so if you really want one to survive the winter, just go with plain old D. meteloides. I've tried those fancy double flowered types because the blooms are so wonderful, but the plants just aren't as vigorous or as cold hardy. Though I do keep trying them now and then, heh heh.

Happy gardening everyone,
Grant