A Whiff of Tobacco

I'm growing two different kinds of tobacco in containers this year. Not smoking tobacco, which is Nicotiana tabacum, but fragrant flowering tobaccos. One is Nicotiana sylvestris, woodland tobacco. 

Despite three early spring hailstorms that shredded its big thin leaves, the plant recovered and put out glorious new foliage. The leaves are big and bold and grab the sunlight in a partly shady spot.

By 4th of July I could see the beginning of a flower stalk emerging from inside those exotic leaves.

But it wasn't until the fourth was long over that the tall spindle shot up and exploded into holiday fireworks in mid July.

The white flowers are fragrant, which is why I put this in a corner by the deck where we could sit at night and get a whiff of it. I like that it is so strange looking, sort of Suessian in a garden that has lots of small leaved things that are mostly still new and small. This is a plant. It's a statement.

Flowers of the second tobacco I am growing, Nicotiana alata, are much more delicate and they started blooming much earlier, in June. It's in a shiny red pot right next to the patio glider. As I sit outside on summer evenings, it is highly fragrant. Too much at times. It's called jasmine tobacco, and it's very perfumed.

In my old garden in Connecticut I also grew this variety, but rarely got a whiff of it even though it was near our patio. We just didn't sit out on the patio at night (mosquitos, humidity). New Mexico's great blessing is no mosquitos and dry night breezes, so we are outside in the evenings a lot. I get more than a whiff now, it's quite strong up so close.

The flowers become limp, closed tubes in the daytime, but open at dinnertime. This tobacco also got completely shredded down to a stem and one tattered leaf in the spring hailstorms and then came back, although it regrew into an awkward tall thing that needs a metal support.

It's been blooming non-stop forever. 

There are lots of colored hybridized tobacco plants that are smaller and tidier  -- reds and pinks and lime green -- and they are pretty, but the fragrance has been bred out along with the tall ungainliness. 

The two white flowered plants I have are big things with coarse leaves and awkward growth, but I have them here because of their fragrance. I wanted to sit outside on a cool dry night and get a whiff of exotic jasmine scent.

I did get that -- these smell lovely at night, just as I expected. What I didn't expect was to like the foliage so much. Bold and eye catching, the leaves are the typically broad tobacco leaves, sticky to touch.

These are annuals. If I want to grow them again I need to start over next year with new plants, or seeds. Tobacco seeds are so fine they are like dust, but they germinate easily. The minute bits of dust put up hundreds of seedlings from one tiny sowing -- the biggest issue is thinning them all out to a few plants when they come up in a mass.

I do think I'll grow them again. Jim wants a bigger crop next year, though. He got his pipe out and was pretty excited until I told him the only whiff of tobacco he'd get would be the aroma from sitting on the patio at night. He's good with that.