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dottie_in_charlotte

Hornworms chewing your tomatoes? Try this..

Datura..

In my back yard, one side of the sidewalk is tomatoes,doing fine. Heirlooms came up by themselves as did the grapes and cherries.

On the other side of the walk the daturas came up by themselves along with sproutings of that So. American tobacco plant I tried last year.

The dats are huge. Too many candles to count and at least 30 blooms after each rainfall. Handsome shrubby sized plants and the leaves are the exact same color as the hawkmoth larvae. It grows and grows and doesn't seem to mind the pruning by the larvae.

Not a one on the tomato plants.

Datura blooms (the ordinary type) pop open(unfurl) in the early evening and stay open til around 10 AM..like moonflowers.

Very fragrant after watering with rain, less fragrant when there is drought.

Related to brugsmansia it has similar growth habit but branches sooner and more frequently and the flowers bloom upwards where brugs bloom headed down.

There are lots of dats varieties in varying colors and doubles but the plain old white is easiest to grow and dropped seeds are persistently viable in the soil for at least three years.

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