Our Flower Gardens #12: Another Unknown Flower

Datura

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

cool
Thanks XO and to the seed-sharer.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Lucky!!!! Been trying to grow them since we moved here and …nothing!!

-- Eklectic, Follow my Bliss, South East Ontario 5a

Definitley Datura.I have white,purple and double yellow growing.Just love how big they can get.Hate the smell though.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

my brother said that some kids around here some time ago smoked it for the hallucinogenic affect and some died…

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

MsD every year there are kids stupid enough to do these seeds and die.I grew them when I lived in Oshawa and the neighbours loved looking at them but they all had something stupid to say about them like aren’t you afraid the teens will take your seeds and use them as drugs.Luckily for me that never happened because I just love datura.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

My datura are growing huge like that also. Actually they are running a battle with one of my brugmansia, and I think the datura are winning.

It is interesting that you comment about the smell, Bon. The first time I saw them, my wife and I were driving through the desert in Nevada. I pointed out the flower, and my wife made me stop the car while she went to investigate. She, an artist, said clearly that that was the flower that Georgia O’Keefe used to paint frequently. My wife picked it to study its structure as we were driving along the road. When she was finished, she placed it on the console and we kept driving and noting the landscape. After a while, we noted that we could detect a familiar smell. It became stronger and stronger. I thought that maybe my wife has snuck some peanuts from the hotel, which she categorically denied. Finally our attention went to the datura flower,as it had lost its form completely, and was a crumpled mess. They are NOT a good cutting flower. For some reason, I smelled it, and realize what we had been smelling.

When the datura is on the plant, I don’t think it has a nice smell at all, although some folks like it. When it is picked, there is a definite peanut butter smell to it.

Oh, I agree, all the references say it is poisonous, so we have to be aware of that. I do love it though. I find that the white one will self seed. The yellows and the purple swirls, will seed, but the seed won’t survive our winters here.

-- jroot