Re: nicotiana
- Subject: Re: nicotiana
- From: E*@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 15:49:41 EDT
In a message dated 9/9/01 1:14:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
flowers@simplegiftsfarm.com writes:
<< N. sylvestris is extremely fragrant. In our gardens perhaps the most
fragrant of the Nictotiana although some older white forms of N. alata
might compete. Newer hybrids do not have fragrance at all - or at least the
ones I've grown never have. >>
If you are growing hybrids, perhaps the one with color added, you may be
missing the fragrance. Ours are all true species having never had any other
nicotiana in the garden, all are white and very in size greatly by the amount
of water the receive and if the soil is a good spot or just a piece of the
driveway.
Thompson and Morgan sell the species seed as does Hudson. Or you can always
get some from a fellow gardener. There is certainly a lot of it around here.
If the plant has color, any color other than white it is a hybrid and may not
be fragrant.
I agree with Nancy that sylvestris is a tall gangly plant that has a small
knob of flowers on the top. It takes a lot of space for the few flowers it
produces. It was one of the fad flowers of the past few years. Since it so
tall and the leaves so large, I think men like this plant better than women
do. Men also like those huge white leaved thistles that need to be sawed
down and dahlias that can be seen from a half mile away. It is usually men
growers and breeders that make plants so tall, so full of genes and so
flaming red. Without three centuries of male rose breeders the rest of us
may actually have understood the rose bush.<VBG>
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
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