It’s like an angel sighing

The recent (ish) rain has meant my angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia) is in full flower with lush leaves! I can smell it every night I come in the front gate and it’s divine.

Brugmansia are a member of the Solanaceae or nightshade family. Notable members include tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and capsicum which are all edible (or have edible parts). Other members include deadly nightshade, Datura/jimsonweed and Nicotiana/tobacco – rather less edible if not downright poisonous! As most people are aware, Brugmansia falls into the second category - hiiiiighly toxic. Ingestion of any of the parts can cause delirium, hallucinations and quite often, death (to put it bluntly).

But despite this, when grown in a safe spot, Brugmansia are a beautiful plant with huge trumpet flowers that look just like fairy’s ballgown skirts (or, I suppose, ‘angel’s trumpets’ - that being the name!) And the perfume, especially at night, is intoxicating (not literally).

There are seven species of Brugmansia, originally from South America (along the Andes mountain range and into Brazil), but allare now classified as extinct in the wild, although cultivated escapee populations exist. Luckily, the have been cultivated and hybridized right across the world. A world without angel’s trumpets would be a sad world indeed.

Being from a subtropical / tropical area, angel’s trumpets prefer warm humid conditions – although do like cooler nights. They will grow in full sun to partial shade, and the large leaves and flowers appreciate protection from wind and the harsh afternoon sun. Their big leaves and big flowers mean they need lots of food and water, which is why you often get a flush of flowers after good rain. Plants strike easily from cuttings and they come in all sort of colours and forms, mine are single white but you can get pinks and apricots and yellows and singles and doubles and triples and thinner and fatter and variegated leaves and…. the list goes on.