What's not to love about Daturas? Well yes, they are poisonous, but so are foxgloves, lilies of the valley, et al. And they're not perennial for most zones (though easily grown from seed). And they are related to jimson weed (Datura stramonium), which are found all over North America as a roadside weed.
But do you like drama in your garden? Large-leaved, architectural forms? Eye popping, heavily-scented flowers that draw visitors to them such that even the non-gardener asks you what it is? Then Daturas are for you.
Let me enthuse a bit about two of them. For years when people have walked onto my deck, their eyes are almost immediately drawn to the pot of Datura metel. They want to touch it and to seek out any scent the giant, trumpet-shaped blooms might have. This plant exudes such a presence, with its dramatic, shrubby size, its rounded form, its large, blue-green leaves and purplish downy branches. Of course, then there are the 7" white flowers that stand out on top of all of this. It's that kind of conversation starter.
When talking about Daturas in the garden, most are referring to this plant, D. metel (syn. D. fastuosa, D. cornucopia), with common names including Horn of Plenty, Downy Thorn Apple, Stinkweed (wait, don't judge it yet!) and Angel's Trumpet. The nomenclature can be confusing, since the term Angel's Trumpet is also used for Brugsmanias. Around 1970, the Datura genus was split into Datura and Brugsmania because of its large variety. In general Daturas are smaller, forming rounded mounds wider than they are tall, and whose blooms are held upright. Brugsmanias are larger, forming more tree-like shapes, and whose blooms hang down. When rubbed, the leaves of Daturas have a unpleasant smell (thus, Stinkweed), but the odor is not apparent unless they are bruised.
What I can't give you is a sense of how the plant looks alone, but in my z5 climate, they can get 4-5' wide and 3 1/2' tall in the ground, less so in a pot. Mine happens to be in a pot that forces it to seek the sun a bit as it grows near a Sweet Autumn clematis, so it ends up draping itself into a very pleasing Japanese maple-like form.
Touching these velvety stems is like touching the soft, new horns of a baby fawn, if they came in purple. And the flowers are amazing. When they emerge from their buds, they do so dramatically. The folded petals pop up like this in a single day, extending out 6 or so inches in as many hours, the tips starting out a creamy/dirty purple color.
As the evening comes, this color becomes more purple, and less coffee-like.
Then around twilight you can actually see them open up within 10 or so minutes.
The tips fade to a light dusting of brighter purple.
An as they open further, this fades to a bright white. They finish in the early part of the evening as recurved trumpets.
Then comes the good part: all evening and into the next morning, they release a overwhelming fragrance. It's a unique scent profile, unlike other garden scents, and you will revel in it. I plant night blooming stocks (Matthiola bicornis) and night blooming phlox (Zaluzianskya capensis) nearby for a fragrance fest you can practically taste (the stock smells a bit like cinnamon-vanilla ice cream, the phlox like vanilla sugar). The flowers fade by the next afternoon.
The other I love is a double purple form. There are at least three named cultivars of D. metel that I've found seed for with double purple blooms, 'Eryngium Blue', the purple in the 'Ballerina' series and 'Blackcurrant Swirl'. I grew them all last year, and they looked identical. Perhaps they are, as each seed came from a different company.
These are smaller, topping out at 3' x 2' in a pot for me. The branches and leaf stems are a wonderful almost-black purple, held much more stiffly upright in branching "Y" patterns than the single white form.
The buds are the deep, glossy purple of some exotic beetle, and are especially attractive in the sun.
The flowers are showstoppers. Though not quite as heavenly scented as the white form, The plant makes up for it by coming into flower from seed about two weeks earlier than the white form, by being much more floriferous, and by having the flowers last longer. Whereas I can have three or four blooms on a good day on the original white form, I can have five or six on the double purples. And whereas the white flowers fade quickly, the purple ones can go on almost another day, though their scent fades.
Both Daturas form the most menacing seedpods you've ever seen this side of a horror movie. Spiny, painful globes. I deadhead until around this time of the season, so I have none to show. But beware - it can reseed in my garden if allowed. I usually take them inside to dry so they don't pop open outside.
These are best grown in full sun, in rich soil. They are very hungry feeders, and it's sometimes difficult in a rainy season to keep enough nutrients in the pot. They demonstrate this by dropping their yellowing lower leaves and ceasing their bud production. I've had success fertilizing weekly with a high phosphorous liquid, and topping the pots off with compost a few times during the season.
Whereas they are listed as hardy to zone 10, they are not difficult to start from seed. Six to eight weeks before my final frost date, I soak the seeds in warm water overnight. Though I've skipped this step in the past, this speeds up their sometimes slow germination period of 3 - 6 weeks. I provide some bottom heat, though in past years I did not with equal, if slower, success. For those in zonal denial, I once had a Datura that I had planted in the ground resprout from its chubby, fibrous roots. It was mulched, though not with the intention of overwintering it, and it came through my zone 5 winter by sprouting up during the late spring, perhaps an alternative method of keeping one going in the garden?
The 'Ballerina' series also comes in a double white and double yellow, though I haven't grown these. This year I tried also Datura meteloides (syn. Datura metel) 'La Fleur Lilac', a dwarf 18-24" plant with more serrated, jimson-weedy leaves and small, single not-as-interesting flowers with much less scent. Both of my plants are struggling with what looks like tobacco mosaic virus, and are not as impactful anyway because of their size.
I've purchased seed at Thompson & Morgan, Plants of Distinction and Parks, though I've seen it offered elsewhere. And for those seeking interesting variations, the J.L. Hudson catalog mentions quite a number of other Datura including:
D. ceratocaula
D. discolor
D. ferox
D. leifhhardtii
D. stramonium
D. tatula
...plus a few variations of the above.
Like some other members of the Solanaceae, or nightshade family, all parts of Daturas are poisonous, and these deadly compounds also have narcotic properties. They were used in old world China as a treatment for colds and nervous conditions. In India, the seed was crushed and mixed with butter, and ingested as a cure for impotence. The Aztecs called D. meteloides "the magic plant," and used it to treat cuts and wounds.
But Datura's narcotic effects have a more colorful past. Aztec shamans used it as drug to stimulate communication with spirits and to inspire visions and prophesies. Datura inoxia, native to the American Southwest and Mexico, has a history of use as a mind expanding drug among the Zuni, Navajo, and several other tribes. Referred to it as toloache, it was used as a pain reliever but was also taken by young boys in male initiation rituals. Supposedly, when British soldiers were sent to Jamestown, Virginia to quell Bacon's Rebellion in 1671, they included D. stramonium in a salad, not knowing the hallucinogenic properties of the plant. The soldiers were reported to have gone mad for eleven days before the effects wore off. This story, true or not, finds its way into the name Jimsonweed (D. stramonium), a simplification of James Town Weed.
All this leads to the obvious warning: don't consume any part of this plant, and be sensible when planting it where children could accidentally ingest parts of it. Enjoy the visions that the flowers alone can provide!
As the evening comes, this color becomes more purple, and less coffee-like.
Then around twilight you can actually see them open up within 10 or so minutes.
The tips fade to a light dusting of brighter purple.
An as they open further, this fades to a bright white. They finish in the early part of the evening as recurved trumpets.
The buds are the deep, glossy purple of some exotic beetle, and are especially attractive in the sun.
