GARDEN FANATIC:A little Datura for the night

“Listen, little Elia... and I’ll tell you a story.” “” F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic...” “”?Simone Weil

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During a routine cleanup of our library, Catharine spotted “100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names,” now 10 years old. Garden writer Diana Wells selected a number of her favorite flowers and explained how we came to know and love them. She recalls myth and legend, sex, war and conquest, hope, and botanical history”¦ the kind of stuff that should interest every garden fanatic.

I became intrigued by Wells’ claim that Thomas Jefferson was afraid to plant Angel’s Trumpet (Datura or Brugmansia spp.) in Monticello. The plant’s fascinating tubular flowers astonished the former president, who was an avid gardener. However, “he avoided Angel’s Trumpet and other poisons plants,” because his curiosity of growing it was outweighed by its potential risk to his many grandchildren.

Angel’s trumpets are New World and Indian plants that possess beautiful, variously colored trumpet-shaped flowers. The plant is ornamental, and although the leaves and seeds of certain species yield alkaloids with medical and narcotic properties, it should be considered poisonous.

Wells states “Indian thugs once used Angel’s Trumpet to poison their victims, and it was officially used to execute criminals in India.” She adds the Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, did not wish to the use the “barbaric” Indian name of “dhat” for the plant, “so he modified it to the Latin root of dare (to give), because datura was given to those whose sexual powers were weakened.”

“The herbalist John Parkinson called daturas Thorne-Apples,” according to Wells and he admonished visitors that “the East Indian lascivious women perform strange acts with the seed... giving it to their husbands to drink.” Wells notes that Parkinson “didn’t elaborate on the acts.”

The Angel’s Trumpet of our local gardens is closely related to “Jamestown weed” or it’s better known western alteration of jimsonweed. Wells recounts “soldiers sent to Jamestown to quell Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 ate datura leaves, thinking they were salad greens.” They became intoxicated for 11 days and nearly died, according to local legend. Datura does contain the chemical compound, scopolamine, an active ingredient in combating motion sickness.

Potted specimens of Angel’s Trumpet are fashionable back East, while in Laguna, they are dominating shrubs. Fast-growing, the flowers are available in white, pink and yellow (the white flowered are very showy in moonlight and all colors are fragrant at night). The blossoms appear in mid-spring and will bloom as late as December in sheltered gardens.

Although Angel’s Trumpet will grow in full sun or partial shade, it appreciates shelter from the wind. It is a heavy user of water and food (use a balanced fertilizer) during the spring and summer.

Watch out for white fly and spider mites during humid, warm periods. As a reminder, the flowers and seeds may be poisonous if eaten.

I appreciate Catharine’s recycled gift to me. The rediscovered book is certainly worthy of a second reading. But I must say, when Joe Weider’s “Prime Fitness and Health” (a guide to getting in shape for the older man) appeared recently on my side of the bed, she hit a nerve. I was so flummoxed, in fact, I had to consume a quart of Rocky Road to sooth my psyche. See you next time.