Tag Archives: brugmansia

Autumn flowering fillers

Truly, I have never given much thought to plectranthus. They are just one of those filler plants that can occupy a difficult waste space and put on a good show in flower but need a tight hand to control their spread. Not unlike abutilon and brugmansia, perhaps.

And then there is this one. I have no idea where it came from although I must have planted it in the borders. Maybe it was in an unlabelled pot in the old nursery and, as a juvenile plant, I mistook it for a salvia? That seems the most likely scenario. It is really pretty and, considering the family it comes from, well behaved. It is also a woody shrub.

Most plectranthus are herbaceous perennials that can spread far and wide. There are about 85 species, mostly from tropical and southern Africa and all in the sage family. Presumably frost controls their spread in colder climates but here it is human hands that keep them contained. Mark tells me there is a large patch in our stand of native bush on our property across the road that we need to eradicate. I don’t go over there much so I haven’t seen it but he described it as now taking about the space of our house beneath the stand of tawa trees. That is not the place for it; we can control it in a garden situation but we try and keep that bush restricted to natives, eliminating exotic interlopers.

Quite a good colour but no woody stems on this one so it is not the same as the one I want more of.

I had assumed that the plant in the borders must have crept in from another part of the garden so I set off to look at the others we have. Nope, it is different. It is a more intense colour and definitely woody as opposed to a spreading perennial. I see it has a layer on it so I will remove that and it should also propagate easily from cutting. I want more of it in the borders as a splash of autumn colour.

The one in the centre is my good, woody one that I want more of. Most of the others were a little washed out in comparison and not the right growth habit. On the left is what we knew as P. argentatum but is now a coleus, not a plectranthus at all.

In looking up plectranthus, I see the silver one we have with pastel flowers and which we knew as Plectranthus argentatus is in fact an Australian native and is part of a whole group of plectranthus that have now been transferred to the coleus family, so it is now known as Coleus argentatus. It is always interesting to learn something new.

The odd red abutilon is acceptable.
i have a soft spot for the pure yellow or clean orange shades.

I mentioned abutilons and brugmansia as similar fillers, except they spread by seed. I can’t get excited about abutilons but they fill a space. They cross readily and I only want clean colours so I pull out any murky colour mixes, keeping only the good reds and pure yellows or oranges. I did see a beautiful, big, bushy one in an open garden last year that was laden with bell flowers in the prettiest shade of lilac. It was a showstopper but the owner, one of the best plantsmen in our area, told me it was also the most difficult abutilon he had ever come across to strike from cutting. It won’t grow true from seed, assuming it even sets seed.

We have brugmansias in semi-double white, peachy pink, apricot and a rooted cutting of a pure yellow waiting to be planted out

Brugmansias are also a great autumn feature. They are very brittle and can get extremely tall but the flowers are best observed from below or from some distance. The few we have are generally in shade so they stretch for the light rather than spreading sideways. They are not what one could call a tidy plant but at this time of the year, they can be striking.

How do you tell a brugmansia, common name angel’s trumpets, from its close relative the datura, known as devil’s trumpets? Brugmansias have pendulous flowers that hang down while daturas face upwards or outwards. Both are highly poisonous but it seems only datura has psychoactive properties as well, known to kill suicidal youth who don’t factor in the toxicity in their search for a free hallucinogenic experience. Interestingly, brugmansias are now rated as extinct in the wild; it is only their use as a garden plant that has ensured their survival.

Some plants need a closer eye kept on them than others. If you have spreading plectranthus, never turn your back on it because, in our climate, it will get away and smother whatever it comes across.

Brugmansia Noel’s Blush

Brugmansia Noel's Blush

Brugmansia Noel's Blush

The late summer sight of this brugmansia in full bloom is striking and the trumpets are a pretty peachy pink in colour. Each bloom can measure 25cm long and up to 20cm across which is on the large side. I was reading a description which said strongly scented which I can’t say I have noticed so I rushed out to sniff. No scent in the morning, I am afraid. It appears they are night scented which is an indication that pollination is carried out by night flying insects, usually moths. The plant itself is a big rangy thing of no beauty – you have to work at keeping it more compact and bushy if you want a tidy plant. Otherwise it is just an overgrown solanum which wows when in flower.

This particular one was named for the late Auckland gardener and plantswoman, Noel Scotting and it came into the country about twenty years ago. Brugmansias are all South American and there seems to be quite a bit of shuffling of species, even though there are not many different species to shuffle. I lean towards the likelihood of this being B. suaveolens from south east Brazil. Or it may be a hybrid. All brugmansias are frost tender.

Brugmansias used to be called daturas, to which they are closely related. They are also very toxic. South American tribes have long used them in traditional medicine for purposes as varied as treating dermatitis, arthritis, prophecy, a ritual hallucinogen and, most scary of all, apparently to discipline naughty children by opening them up to the voices of their spirit ancestors. It sounds like scaring them witless to me. All parts of the plants are toxic and fortunately synthetic illegal drugs have replaced their occasional recreational use which was all too often fatal.

The double white brugmansia featured earlier in this series.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Plant Collector – brugmansia

Double white brugmansia - huge, frilled white trumpets

Double white brugmansia - huge, frilled white trumpets

If you are into frills and furbelows, it is hard to go past the charm of this double flowered, pure white brugmansia. It is a member of the solanum family – as are tomatoes, capsicums, aubergines and, indeed, the dreaded woolly nightshade. None are as ornamental. The fragrant brugmansias hail from South America, mostly around Ecuador and the Andes, and are somewhat frost tender so presumably it is low altitude Andes. They are woody shrubs, around 3 metres high. This one is likely to be Brugmansia x candida (or aurea x versicolour), sometimes referred to as B. “Knightii”. We have it growing in open woodland conditions but it is also quite happy in full sun.

The differentiation between brugmansia and datura seems to be on a sliding scale. Brugmansias all used to be classified as datura. Now there is a school of thought that all datura are in fact brugmansia. What is usually referred to as a brugmansia has hanging (pendulous) flowers and woody stems whereas what are commonly called datura have horizontal or upward facing flowers and herbaceous growth. In days gone by, suicidal youths would regularly kill themselves trying for hallucinogenic experiences (now probably replaced by synthetic drugs which, while not safe, are not usually fatal). The problem is that while there are hallucinogenic properties, all parts of this plant are highly poisonous. A psychedelic trip can be a one-off experience with a high price to pay.