Smokey Flowers



Nicotiana - 28th August 2012



This is the second year that I have grown nicotiana flowers, (tobacco flowers), in the garden. Last year the variety grown had white flowers and the plants ended up three feet high. Too tall for the location I had chosen for them. This year I chose a shorter variety with lime coloured flowers. I have them planted in quite a shaded area but they are flowering well and there is quite an intense perfume in the evening air.

Although some of the genus are perennials even those that are tend to be grown as annuals in the UK. The name, "nictotiana," comes from a sixteenth century French ambassador to Portugal called Jean Nicot. It is the plant nictotania tabacum which is grown commercially for tobacco. I remember seeing them being grown in a greenhouse  in the mid nineteen sixties. My recollection is that the leaves were very tacky.