Prairiemoon2,

What a lovely name! I believe you just read the postings that I recently contributed to. I am sorry if you got alarmed or overly anxious. I've been working with datura and brugs for quite some time now, and this recent incident was the first ever for me. To be honest, I know that I should wash after touching them, but I don't always do so, but I do exercise caution with them. Keeping the sap away from sensitive areas is a good rule to follow. NEVER eat it. Learn from my experience and keep it from touching your eyes. By all means smell it though. I love to gently lift the flower and inhale its perfume. I also encourage my guests to do so too, but I also warn them about being careful with it for a couple of reasons, one being the obvious fact that it is poisonous ( although NOT like poison ivy), and another that I don't want it to be snapped off by an insensitive person, but rather handled gently. This is me touching the flower.....and I am still alive longing to touch more.

{{gwi:494821}}

To answer your questions, No, I do not believe they will poison the soil. Even poison ivy does not poison the soil. Neither do tomatoe plants poison the soil, and I believe these plants are in the same family.

Daturas will usually self seed in one year. I note that you are in zonew 6. I am in zone 5, and have found that the simple white datura often seeds itself, and propogates itself the next year. The more complex ones seem to be more frost sensitive. I had good luck collecting seeds from my double purple swirl datura.

Brugmansia, on the other hand, as a rule, will not produce seeds the first year. In fact, I have never had one go to seed for me here at my place, but friends down the road have had some seed. I have found that the plant takes about 3-4 years from the seed propogation to flowering. It is much easier, and faster to take a cutting and root it. Also you tend to get a truer genetic plant to the mother plant. With pollination, one usually has to be concerned about where the male genetic contribution comes from, as flowers are usually pollinated by bees, birds, or moths.

The more sun you can give it, the better. I have some that get the morning sun similar to yours, and some that get the evening sun similar to yours. Either one is good. The best comes from getting even more sun.

I suggest you enjoy your plants. I LOVE mine, and get very excited when they flower. However, do respect them, and definitely TEACH any young folks around to respect them as well.

You can contaminate the soil if you have a virused Brugmansia or any of the tomatoe family, this is why it's important to keep them healthy!

Thanks jroot and karma :-)

Glad you liked my name jroot. :-) I just chose it over the winter. I love prairies, but I don't have the conditions for one, so at least I can have a name that reminds me of it. lol

jroot, sounds like you LOVE your plants. [g] Thanks for the reassurance that having them in the yard can be manageable. I was disappointed to hear it would take the Brug seedling that long to bloom. I am not sure I will have window space to overwinter such a large plant, so I am considering giving mine away, rather than grow it all year for no bloom and then frustrate myself trying to get it into the house.

OTOH, if the datura will bloom from seed in one season and you can collect the seed and start all over again, that sounds like just the plant for me. I believe the one I have is a double purple too.

karma, I didn't realize there was anything you can do to prevent viruses on any of your plants?

:-)

You may wish to check out this site for information. It will assist in educating you about the toxicity of the parts. And since you aren't going to be ingesting it, you are probably safe to keep growing it!

I just received my first Brug yesterday at the Knoxville (TN) plant swap and I'm truly excited to see how it grows. So, I did a search this morning on Mamma.com and found this link to erowid. VERY informative about the active constituents.

blessings,
Devi

Here is a link that might be useful: erowid.org information vaults

Just a note to say that I overwintered my Brug this last winter (I'm in Seattle) and it did just fine in my kitchen. My 5 year old knows not to mess with it (she won't even go near it) and I basically treat it like Draino - don't swallow it or put it in your eyes and you'll be fine! I am really cautious with my infant around it because she eats everything - so now it's out on my deck surrounded by other plants so she can't get to it.

It overwintered just fine - didn't bloom, but also didn't die back, and this Spring I just put it in a bigger pot and put it on my deck and it's doubled in size already!

FF

Great news, flowerfairy74.

Thanks Devi,for that helpful site. and I am very glad to hear you were able to winter over your Brug Flowerfairy. I have brought my seedlings outside to harden them and I may try them for one season and see how it goes. Thanks very much :-)

pr.moon, i too am new to brugs. last winter i posted about what to do w/ them over the winter and a number of people said you could cut off the tops and stick them in a bucket of water and even in a dark basement, they would root easily and you could plant them out the following season.one poster even posted photos of this process step by step.if i kept this info, i will email it to you, so email me your address via my member pg.best, mindy

I have been wondering the same thing, but I wouldn't say 'poison'. Rather I wonder if the active constituents get in the soil in any way. I sort of think not.

Just a note: I have overwintered brugs fine in the house, but the daturas always have a lot of problems. Now I just save the seed.
Also - the way to prevent the spread of viruses that can affect both tomatoes and brugs is to control insect vectors, rotate crops or solarize your soil, and destroy affected plants.

seahorse