Tag: Durham Master Gardener volunteers

Brugmansia: A Drama Queen

On By durhammastergardenersIn angel's trumpet, beneficial insects, brugmansia, devil's breath plant, Durham NC, fall blooming plants, fall gardening, garden design, gardening, gardening NC, night blooming plants, nightshades, Perennial, Poisonous plants, pollinator gardening, pollinators, solanaceae family, solanaceae fmaily, tomatoes, Uncategorized

By Marcia Kirinus, NC State Extension Master GardenerSM volunteer of Durham County

(Left to right) Buff colored Brugmansia gracing a home in Coimbra, Portugal. Bright orange Brugmansia, ‘Charles Grimaldi’ in Durham, NC. Pink Brugmansia beginning to open up in Durham, NC. (Image credit: Marcia Kirinus)


Brugmansia, known by some sinister common names such as Angel’s Trumpet and Devil’s Breath, embodies high drama in the plant world. With its foot-long, pendulous blooms that sway in the evening breeze and its intoxicating fragrance, it lures both humans and night-flying pollinators from mid-summer to late October. Its scent is so powerful that it has found a place in commercial perfumery. The color palette of its flowers is equally alluring, with blooms ranging from pristine whites to buff, peachy pinks, pale golds, muted oranges, and salmon. In full bloom, mature specimens put on a spectacular display, becoming the star of the garden late in the season when most things have stopped blooming.  However, these seductive flowers come wrapped in folklore, magic, and an unmistakable aura of danger.

Plant of the Night

The life cycle of Brugmansia’s flowers follows the rhythm of day and night. As the sun begins to set, its trumpet-shaped blooms unfurl, releasing a sweet and heady fragrance that fills the evening air. This gives Brugmansia another common name, the “Moonflower.” During the day, its flowers hang like sleeping bats, with their petals tightly closed, and no scent lingers. The timing of their bloom and fragrance production is under circadian control, which works well if you enjoy throwing cocktail or dinner parties on the back deck on a sultry autumn evening. It is also a welcome highlight on Halloween as trick-or-treaters come to your door and your orange Brugmansia is in full bloom. No other decoration needed!

(Left) Single orange Brugmansia planted at the front door greeting trick or treaters. It is next to a double flowered white Brugmansia. Planted below the orange tree is another plant in the same family; Nicotiana sylvestris. (Right) Single yellow flowering 30 foot Brugmansia tree on the back corner of the Melo House in Coimbra, Portugal. (Image credit: Marcia Kirinus)

Cloaked Pollinators

Placidula euryanassa.
(Image credit: Claudio Dias Timm CC BY-NC-SA)

When doing research for this article, I found conflicting information on pollinators. Most sources suggest something that flies around at night since that is when flowers open. Others say hummingbirds. Maybe all of the above depending on the species and geographical location, but it’s clear that we still don’t really know. A publication from the University of South Florida suggests that the dominant pollinators of B. suaveolens are most likely bats and night-flying moths. Butterflies also seem to play a role where B. suaveolens is a larval source for the butterfly Placidula euryanassa. Studies show that the caterpillars can consume the toxins without harm, storing the poisonous alkaloids in their bodies to ward off predators later in their life cycle.

The Weedy Side of Brugmansia

While Brugmansia’s flowers are dramatic, the plant itself can look weedy and unkempt when not in bloom. It is hardy in USDA Zones 7–10 and grows quickly, often reaching heights of 15 to 35 feet. It works well as a background shrub or small tree in garden design. Although Brugmansia is said to prefer full sun, I’ve had more success growing it in partial shade in my Durham, NC (Zone 8a) garden. Like most members of its family, Solanaceae, it likes water, which could be a reason to grow it in some shade. This plant only emerges when the soil warms, so it works well to plant spring and early summer-blooming flowers in front of it until it takes center stage in late summer through autumn.

Growing Brugmansia in My Garden

I first encountered Brugmansia on the roadsides of subtropical Brazil, growing under larger tree canopies. Its large, bell-shaped flowers in shades of white, pink, and orange captivated me instantly. Later, I saw it thriving in northern California gardens and decided to try it in my own garden in Durham, NC.

That was years ago when Durham, NC, was considered USDA Zone 7. Brugmansia is borderline hardy in Zone 7, making each winter a gamble. I eventually started planting the rootstock deeply, below the frost line, to protect it from frost. This delayed its emergence even more, but when the plant finally came up in late summer, it rewarded me with a spectacular display.

Today, I have two dependable Brugmansia plants—a double white and a single orange—that return each year. Interestingly, the orange one blooms earlier, just in time to avoid the first frost, which can otherwise cut short the flowering season. The white one is hit or miss depending on weather conditions. I hear the same from others that have these plants growing in Durham, NC. Apparently the flowers need a very long growing season to fully open.

A Freaky Family

Brugmansia is a member of the Solanaceae family. This family blurs the lines between food, poison, and magic, with plants like Solanum lycopersicum (tomato), Capsicum (pepper), Solanum tuberosum (potato), Nicotiana (tobacco), Atropa belladonna (belladonna), and Hyoscyamus niger (henbane).
The family brews a veritable chemical cauldron of both desirable and deadly compounds referred to as tropane alkaloids. These include nicotine (Nicotiana), solanine (Solanum), capsaicin (Capsicum), atropine (Atropa), scopolamine (Datura), and hyoscyamine (Hyoscyamus)—chemicals that have been used as healing drugs in small doses, misunderstood or abused as addictive substances, and used as pesticides and warfare agents (e.g., sarin) in toxic doses.

(Left to right) Other relatives of Brugmansia that belong in the Solanaceae family: Nicotiana sylvestris, tomato fruit Solanum lycopersicum, Atropa belladonna flower; Datura wrightii. (Image credit: NCSU Plant Toolbox– peganum CC-BY-SA 2.0; Böhringer Friedrich CC BY-SA 2.5; Puusterke CC BY-SA 4.0; Kenraiz CC BY-SA 4.0)


Dangerous Beauty

Every part of Brugmansia is toxic. It contains dangerous alkaloids, like scopolamine, which can induce hallucinations and, in larger doses, have fatal effects. These alkaloids have historically been used in rituals to induce altered states of consciousness or to connect with the divine.

Shrouded in Shadowy Lore

Brugmansia is steeped in mystery and legend. Its downward-pointing flowers are said to serve as a bridge to the afterlife, with folklore suggesting they can draw spirits from graves. In a haunting twist, legend has it that sleeping under a Brugmansia plant may summon angels to claim your soul before you wake. The fragrance is reputedly narcotic. How true any of the stories are is questionable but perhaps telling. Embedded in the legends are nuggets of truth around the toxicity of the plants.

Brugmansia, an intoxicating beauty with folkloric connections, makes it a fitting plant for the Halloween season. Its nocturnal habits, eerie association with spirits, and dramatic blooms bring mystery and enchantment to any garden, especially under the October moon. However, don’t forget the danger of its deadly properties. Inhale its perfume, but keep your distance—it can kill you.

Resources and Additional Information

  • Kew Gardens, University of Chicago press: A horticultural, botanical and ethnobotanical tour-de-force: the first comprehensive monograph on this genus: https://www.brugmansia.us/huanduj/

Article Short Link: https://wp.me/p2nIr1-598


Mustard: It’s Not Just for Hotdogs

On By durhammastergardenersIn adding vegetables to annual flowers, annuals, bees, beneficial insects, container gardening, Durham NC, easy to grow plants, edibles, fall gardening, fall vegetable gardening, garden design, gardening, gardening in pots, Gardening information, gardening NC, growing mustard, landscaping for wildlife, mizuna, mustard plants, pollinator gardening, pollinators, sustainability, Uncategorized, urban garden, urban gardening, vegetable gardening

By Melinda Heigel, NC State Extension Master GardenerSM volunteer of Durham County

(Left) The big, bold leaves of ‘Red Giant‘ mustard take center stage in this large container providing texture, height, volume, and intense color. This mustard was fast growing, survived cold temperatures with minimal protection. It was also slow to bolt when the weather got warm in the spring. (Middle and right) The ‘Miz America’ mizuna-mustard hybrid was equally stunning in a built-in planter box and potted alongside pansies, violas, and a lemon cypress, (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’ ). While these head turners are edible, I planted them for their color and form. (Image credit: Melinda Heigel)1

Wait? I thought this was a blog about gardening, not cooking! Well, the mustard I am referring to isn’t the zippy condiment we all know but is the plant I discovered is a star in fall containers. I’ve written in the past about the herb bloody dock, also known as sorrel, and what a bullet-proof companion it is for pansies, violas, snapdragons, ornamental kale, cabbage, and other autumn-to-spring plants. Last year I tried adding mustard to my potted arrangements and was thrilled with the results.

A Question of Hardiness

Along with broccoli, collards, and kale, mustard is a cole crop that performs best in consistently cool temperatures when grown in the vegetable garden. But over the last couple of years I’ve started seeing different mustard plants at the local nurseries more and more alongside the annual cold-weather ornamentals. The mustard plants offered some really interesting leafy forms for planting in pots. I was dubious, though, about their hardiness over the winter, unprotected in containers, but what is gardening without experimentation? With the exception of a couple nights with temps in the teens in the dead of winter, I did not cover any mustard plants. To my surprise, they performed just as well as their cool-weather container companions.

(Left to right) Mustard plants already making a debut at the local nursery this month alongside fall’s usual suspects. In late spring of 2024, my ‘Miz America’ mustard plants produced bright yellow flowers when they bolted. The plants really earned their keep–providing interesting leaves for months followed by these showy late-spring blooms. And did I mention spring pollinators were drawn to their nectar and pollen? (Image credit: Melinda Heigel)

If the spring weather warmed up too quickly, as it is known to do in central NC, I also wondered whether these cool-temp lovers would bolt (flower) and fade too quickly given their prominent placements. Most of the containers were in the hottest place around our house–on a dark-colored deck that receives full sun. Happily, the mustard tolerated a good number of hot days in late April and early May before bolting. Even after flowering, they were still going strong when I removed them to make way for summer plants. While I may have just the right conditions in my landscape for these results, I can’t chalk this success up to anything remarkable. Mustard plants are easy to grow. And I’ve come to find out, one of the types I planted is actually bred to be bolt resistant, ensuring longevity.

Mustard Varieties for Annual Container Gardening

Red Giant Mustard (Brassica juncea ‘Red Giant’)

I found this to be a striking specimen. In my big container, it quickly grew to be over 3 feet tall, with gracefully arching leaves that reminded me of a classical acanthus—yes, you really can wax poetic about mustard. If grown in optimum conditions, this plant has been reported to grow as large as 4 feet. Though I have not experienced this, don’t underestimate its vigor. When planning your mixed pot, give it plenty of room. ‘Big Giant’ mustard leaves start off green but mature into a deep maroon with contrasting green stems, midribs, and leaf veins. This plant is specifically bred to be both cold-and-bolt tolerant. Frost intensifies the color. It grows best in full sun with well-drained soil. It paired nicely with the flowering cushion spurge ‘Ascot Rainbow’ (Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’) as a backdrop.

In terms of its characteristics as an edible, this mustard has a bold taste like wasabi or horseradish and can be pickled, eaten cooked (mature leaves), and eaten raw (young leaves). Hot weather sharpens the flavor, especially in the older leaves of the plant.

‘Red Giant’
‘Miz America’

Image credit: Melinda Heigel

Miz America Hybrid (Brassica juncea ‘Miz America’)

At once striking and delicate, the deeply lobed and serrated leaves of this mustard are a showy deep burgundy with vibrant hot-pink midribs and venation. Like ‘Red Giant,’ it is a fast grower and prefers full sun. It serves as an excellent filler in containers, given its upright and compact habit.

From a culinary perspective, ‘Miz America’ has a mild peppery flavor. It’s a hybrid plant that comes from crossing two distinct mustard varieties. One of the parents, mizuna, is a mild green mustard, which gives ‘Miz America’ its beautiful serrated edges and mild flavor. You can enjoy the leaves of all mustards in a salad by picking them young—under 6 inches. If picked at a more mature size, they can be added to a dish to impart a hint of sweetness with a mustard tang. Consider adding them to a bowl of hot, creamy soup such as butternut squash or tomato. Not only does it give you additional nutritional value without adding additional calories, but it adds a nice crunch and a bit of zing.

I’ve yet to replant my containers and built-in planter box this fall, but you’d better bet that mustard plants will be making a repeat performance in 2024. I’ve already seen ‘Red Giant’ in the nurseries, but I am also on the hunt for some other intriguing mustards to test out—namely ‘Brazen Brass’ and ‘Dragon Tongue.’ If you want something unusual, showy, and even tasty in your fall plantings, remember to go heavy on the mustard.

Notes

1–Want a closer look at a photo? Simply double click on the image for a better view.

2–According to Missouri Botanical Garden, Brassica juncea, known by its common names Chinese mustard or brown mustard, is listed as a noxious weed in some states including Michigan, Florida, and Alaska and considered invasive. Cultivars discussed here are bred to be used as annual edibles or ornamentals in gardens.

Resources and Additional Information

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