Green Garden Dreams

I’m going to use this post to show pictures and talk about a plant that I love: Trumpet Flower, or Angel’s Trumpet, also known by the scientific name “Brugmansia”. These trees, with their extraordinary, large striking flowers give off an amazing perfume, especially in the early evening (to attract large sphinx moths in their native South American habitat). Here is a plant I saw a couple of days ago on a bike ride. Most Brugs I see have yellow or sometimes white flowers. This one had unusual pink-tinged blossoms (click on any of these photos for a larger image):

Brugmansias are related to the beautiful Jimson Weed (Datura). Have you ever seen the huge white and purple-tinged Jimson weed flowers? They grow wild in many places in the United States.

I used to have a yellow-flowering Brug growing in my apartment window. I grew it from a cutting from a local tree. The perfume from the flowers was amazing., You could smell it when you walked into the apartment. I had to move the plant outdoors because it got too large:

This plant came from a cutting from this tree (the flowers came out more orange than those on the “mother”):

Shamans in South America have these trees in front of their houses. They use the plants in their medicinal concoctions. They consider them powerful. Like Jimson weed, they can be halluconogenic, and very poisonous. They certainly are powerful presences, no matter how you look at them.

Here’s a spectacular example of a Brugmansia tree. This is from the Upas Street garden between Florida Canyon Drive and Park Blvd. This garden is a whole story in itself (worthy of an article – stay tuned):

Links:
International Brugmansia and Datura Society