{"id":8321,"date":"2020-07-19T20:37:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-19T20:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/?p=8321"},"modified":"2020-11-29T04:43:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:43:01","slug":"plant-a-day-2020-day-203-datura-metel-belle-blanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/19\/plant-a-day-2020-day-203-datura-metel-belle-blanche\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant-A-Day 2020 (Day 203) Datura metel “Belle Blanche”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of my newest plants, I started this from seed in spring 2020. Several germinated and I\u2019ve kept them moving along, not expecting flowers this first year and intending to winter them over in the greenhouse and see if I might be blessed with Devil\u2019s trumpets in 2021. The biggest of the seedlings had other ideas, however, and threw a bud and flowered this week (July 15th). It was gorgeous to look at, but I never caught much of a whiff of any fragrance. However, I didn\u2019t get out at night to check on it, so when the next flower opens, I\u2019ll set some alarms!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The species, D. metel, has an interesting provenence. It is unknown in the wild and according to Wikipedia:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026it seems clear that\u00a0D. metel\u00a0is essentially a collection of\u00a0cultivars<\/a>\u00a0and recent critical authors have found it impossible to recognise a wild type for the species. This view is supported by the\u00a0tuberculate<\/a>\u00a0capsules found in\u00a0D. metel\u00a0(as compared with the\u00a0spinose<\/a>\u00a0capsules of other species) and the retention of seeds on the\u00a0placenta<\/a>, at least in cultivars \u2018Fastuosa\u2019 and \u2018Chlorantha\u2019. Both of these traits suggest cultivar selection\u2026The variants of\u00a0D. metel\u00a0have been widely grown as\u00a0ornamentals<\/a>\u00a0over a long period of time\u2026There is no evidence that the variants arose from horticultural plant breeding in the\u00a0Old World<\/a>\u2026These facts taken together strongly suggest that\u00a0D. metel\u00a0was a well-established cultivated species with a range of forms in its place of origin and that these forms arrived ready-made in Europe.[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n