Gardening Articles by Russell Fransham

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Brugmansia 'Vicki'

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Brugmansia 'Kathy'

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Brugmansia 'Angelique'

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Brugmansia 'Matapouri Virgo'

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Brugmansia - "Angel's Trumpets"

Alfresco evenings on the patio with the barbecue smouldering and the kids sneaking quaffs of Dad's beer are the stuff of Summer memories.

Have you noticed how the smells of Summer nights are just as memorable. Every time I smell frangipani I'm vividly transported to Bali and its perfumed night air. I can even taste the food again.

Brugmansias or Angel's Trumpets are one of those unforgettable Summer perfumes.

Planted around the barbecue area, their fantastic flowers, lush foliage, and heady perfume can give the patio a certain spooky, forbidden glamour through the night.

Commonly lumped together in the past with Datura, a separate branch of the family, they all have a nasty reputation as druggie plants, which if eaten can cause hallucinations, convulsions, temporary blindness, brain damage and death. Not always in that order!

Understandably, some people nowadays frown on their inclusion in a garden.

By all accounts they taste pretty vile, which is a good safeguard against little kids harming themselves.

But personally I reckon that anyone stupid enough to go to all the trouble it takes to eat enough of these plants to do any damage deserves what they get.

Its interesting to note that potatoes, Rhododendrons, rhubarb and Daphne are also very poisonous and we don't hear calls for them to be forbidden plants. Growing Brugmansias is not, after all, compulsory.

They all originate in tropical South America and hybridise freely. They are frost-tender and need good wind-shelter, while a major chop back every year or two keeps them lush and youthful. Pity that doesn't work so well with people.

Everyone is familiar with the old-fashioned double white one, Brugmansia candida flore plena, which pours out a river of perfume from sunset to sunrise as if a tap has been turned on. But there are lots of others, ranging in colour through cream, yellow, pink, apricot, orange and red.

Brugmansia 'Noel's Blush' has also become well-known with its mass display of wide pale pink trumpets. This one has a mass flower display three times a year.

Brugmansia aurea is highly variable with soft gold or brilliant white flowers and very large furry leaves. It is the tallest species and flowers prolifically almost all year with beautiful perfume. A stately, dramatic 5m tree.

Brugmansia sanguinea is a smaller plant whose smaller, narrow trumpets are an intense red or orange at the mouth, shading to pale yellow at the stem end. This species comes from higher altitude in the Andes than the other species and is more hardy. This species has no perfume but Brugmansia breeders are hybridising it with others to create a perfumed larger-flowered form. Watch this space.

The most extravagant species of them all is Brugmansia versicolor and its hybrids. The huge trumpets hang straight down and can be up to 500mm long with a texture like fine kid leather. In the wild this species tends to have creamy white or pink flowers("Ecuador Pink") but its hybrids can be richly coloured; 'Grand Marnier' has soft salmon-apricot trumpets while 'Butterscotch' is a lovely golden-orange, which flowers almost continuously all year with beautiful fragrance.

Already a Northland breeder, Brian Rathbone, has produced an even richer orange form of it that he is calling 'Rusty'. See front page of this website.

Brugmansia 'Ecuador Pearl' is a rich cream with the most unusual fragrance, like a spicy blend of jasmine, ginger and frangipani. It has dimpled crimplene texture and elegant long awns curling from the flower tips.

Similar in size and shape but a brilliant ice-white is our new hybrid, "Matapouri Virgo".

Brugmansia versicolor 'Ecuador Pink' is a wild form found in one small area of its natural range, whose beautiful pink flowers are twice the size of 'Noel's Blush'. Again this one is fairly new in NZ. The abundant flowers are damaged by full sun in Summer here so it is best planted in bright dappled light.

Now we have Brian Rathbone's new, more adaptable pink hybrids, "Vicki" and "Ritzi", and the deepest pink ever, "Kathy". The first NZ double pink is called "Angelique" and we hope to have the first double orange available within the next year or two.

Most Brugmansias have three-to-five week flushes of flowering then there is a break for several weeks while they grow new buds. This cycle continues throughout most of the year. Brugmansia "Butterscotch" is notable for flowering almost continuously without a break all year round. Its wonderful perfume is reminiscent of King Alfred Daffodils, like spicy honey.

The perfume of each variety is different; some being pretty heavy and intense while others are more delicate or spicy.

Imagine a screen planting of Brugmansias around the barbecue area. You could create a multimedia extravaganza of exotic evening perfumes and sumptuous, huge flowers, turning the patio into an island of tropical magic in the firelight.  

Just don't eat them!

(Copyright Russell Fransham 2009)