This was the result of my terrible habit of buying sad-looking plants that nobody wants. The nicotiana was about to flower – the leaves were all torn and it was therefore reduced (I like anything reduced) and the lobelia had suffered from having missed the garden centre spray a few too many times and was wilted and languishing, all shrunk up in its polystyrene cells. I took both home and plonked the nicotiana in the middle with three of the healthiest lobelia around the edge.
The lobelia recovered almost instantly, but the nicotiana took a little longer to grow some new leaves at the bottom (they are so brittle that they almost never survive a garden centre without being decimated). That’s why this offering is two weeks late – the pot was in intensive care. Here it is, good as new and giving out that intoxicating evening scent.
Delicious no?
Here’s what’s in it
you need
1 Nicotiana sylvestris
1 pack of lobelia bedding
Multi-purpose compost
1 pot – mine is 30cm diameter
Keep it watered and make sure you place it near a door or somewhere you’re likely to spend some evening time chilling out – the scent only comes out to play at night because the flowers are mostly pollinated by moths. This is also why the flowers glow seductively in the dark. Now I think about it this is a rather good pot to have around if you’re trying to get someone to snog you.
x
3 Comments
Ooooh, your nicotiana SMELLS? I have a type that looks a wee bit different from yours, not sure of the name of it, and it just doesn’t smell at all. It looks pretty, but there’s no pretty smell!
Hi Croila…a nicotiana that doesn’t smell…well there are a few about, N. langsdorffii – the lime green one, that doesn’t smell…are you sure you’re sniffing it at the right time of day…? It doesn’t really get going till the evening, so that could be it. Otherwise, I have noticed that some nicotianas lose their scent if you let them carry on for another year (i.e. the perennial ones, like N. mutabilis and N sylvestris sometimes come back if they survive the winter but the smell is never there like it was the first time).
Thanks for visiting and your blog looks lovely – I’m saving it up for a good read when I have a nice juicy hour to myself sometime soon x
Well … I’ve tried smelling my nicotiana in the evenings, and I think it must be me because my mother says she can smell it no bother. It’s very odd though, because normally I have an exceedingly keen sense of smell. Nicotiana must be a, well, blind?? spot or something though!
Thanks for your comments on my blog. The poor thing has been grossly neglected over the last couple of years, but as I’ve only taken up gardening in May this year, I’ll need to get some more updates on there and bore everyone with how my cabbages are doing!