They like sun and heat, but will bloom in partial shade over here in NY. My N. alata have somewhat narrower leaves, so I'm wondering if you might have N. sylvestris, which is later blooming?

Best,
Jen

I grew both of these plants when I lived in Seattle, they did famously. It's hard to tell the difference between them from the leaves, but once they bloom there is no doubt. (As this is an old letter, you probably know by now!) Actually, I may be the one responsible for N. mutabilis entering horticulture; a grad student at the UW was doing chromosomal work on as many different species of Nicotiana as she could, and they were growing them in the greenhouse there. I drooled at N. mutabilis, begged seed, and gave it all over the place. The next year I saw it mentioned as a new plant in an English article, which said it was shared by Steven Antonow, a friend in Seattle who got it from me. :) It is beautiful but in good soil it's rather hulking, and unfortunately it is not fragrant.

BUT - if you cross it with N. alata, you get a wonderful plant, taller than N. alata and with bigger flowers than either. They display all the changing color of N. mutabilis *and* they are fragrant, though not quite as powerfully so as N. alata in its pure form. I'd give my eye teeth to grow that thing again. I'm including a link to a picture of the plant but it may require a password.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nicotiana mutabilis x alba

sazji-unfortunately I didn't have a single bloom on either of the plants this year. I understand, in my area, they are an annual so I can't imagine what could have wrong. I will try again next year though, I am not great with bringing plants indoors for winter so I will try that but I don't know how well they will do. I had gotten them for the fragrance so try try again!
Isn't it exciting that you may be the reason that a plant is in circulation!?