nicotiana- not the dwarf. the best scent is from n. sylvestris, the white one. Fantastic evening scent. stocks, too. oh, there are lots. sweet peas. moonvine. If I think of more, I'll be back.

No. I look at this plant every day. It's like other milkweed flowering stems where you have one main stem and then it branches to several stems where the flowers bloom, except instead of flowers, it's seed pods - like 5 seed pods opening at different times on the one main stem. And they have Milkweed Bugs just waiting for that pod to open! The seeds are flat brown (like a flattened dried up black-eyed pea) and attached to a silky white blow-away "parachute"... to help carry them for growing. Each pod holds no less than 50 seeds. Now, the seed pod may start out looking like a teeny tiny cauliflower (if I recall), but it's nothing that produces nectar as there is nothing that comes to it - Monarchs/bees/hummers/flies flutter around my flowering milkweed all day. I will try to get a pic when I can. Monarch Watch was at our local botanical garden last weekend and I talked to a few of the workers and no one could help. Maybe I need to go back to the nursery where they were purchased! And I agree, Orange Butterfly Weed is pretty! I wish I had some!!! The leaves of this one are identical to the Swamp Milkweed (with the light pink flowers).

Actually the most trifoliate strains,including flying dragon, FD,can be made to grow in clay but they really grow slow. The main thing is acidity or alkalinity in the soil. Here is the best rule of thumb for the Gulf Coast (and inland to San Antonio in Texas]. Look around for wild conifers. If you see them trifoliate will grow well. If you dont see them, do some research. Trifoliate also grows south of Houston along ancient streams courses and newer, still flowing waterways like Oyster Creek where there is much better soil and yet no conifers. Ask your Ag Extension Agent or Soil Conservation office. Our county library system has a soil altas. What you want is a neutral to slightly acid soil AND subsoil. Also check the water, if you have hard water, its alkaline in this region. If you have alkaline clay including down 4 ft, use a raised bed and acidify. You will have a lot less trouble with sour orange in either case. I lost one citrus in this Jan freeze and it was on citrange. My sour orange trees were OK.

Thanks - I agree with those in principle. I don't haircut-prune, so there's always new growth around. I'm not one to fertilize much, but decomposing organic matter should provide sufficient P (supplemented with an occasional sprinkling of milorganite) to bloom - all of the neighboring plants bloom up a storm :-) That leaves the sun/shade question. I don't think I've ever encountered a shade-loving plant that wouldn't bloom in the sun. Usually they just keel over from exhaustion or sunburn, neither of which seems to be afflicting my iochroma. I'll apply some balanced fertilizer when circumstances allow, and see if that does anything. If not, I may try to propagate from cuttings and see if a shadier place suits it better (I don't have many shady places that can take on a tall plant, but I'll see what I can do).