Beautiful But Deadly Angel Trumpet

Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia hybrid), watercolor, 15"h x 12.5"w.

I've been working on this piece for the "Beautiful But Deadly" show that the Botanic Artists Society of the National Capital Regions (BASNCR) is scheduled to have next summer at the Athenaeum in Alexandria. I grew this plant for several years when I lived in Columbia, Maryland. After three years or so, it had reached some four to five feet in height. Being a tender tropical, it needs to be kept indoors during  freezing weather.

During the winter I kept the plant in our unfinished basement by the glass door of the walk-out, and I usually checked it only once a week to water it. I never noticed the buds developing, and then one day, as I was going downstairs to our basement, lo and behold, an amazingly beautiful trumpet flower greeted me! The plant had a number of flower buds, and these bloomed over the next few weeks.

The following summer, I set the pot outside by the walk-out basement door, since it seemed to like the conditions there, and it bloomed profusely. I took many photos of it at various stages. After a few years, the plant wore out, and stopped blooming. I moved it to our new home in Virginia, and re-potted it, but it never put out any more flowers. It was so large and hard to move, one fall I finally gave up and decided to let it die over the winter.  That was a few years ago.

When BASNCR'a proposal for a show on toxic plants was accepted last year, I regretted my decision--an Angel Trumpet would be just the flower to submit for this show! I started working on the painting above from my photos, but the information on the photos wasn't enough.

As fate would have it, this summer I was shopping for plants to bring to my botanical watercolor class at a local nursery, and there I saw a tiny Brugmansia in a 4" pot on sale for $3.99. I was looking it over, wondering if there was still time to bring it into bloom before the first frost struck, when another customer, noticing that I seemed to be mulling over it, came over to me. This lady started telling me that she had bought one just like it a few weeks before and after potting into a much larger pot, her plant had grown very quickly and was now about three and a  half feet tall and covered with buds!  I thanked her for the information and bought the Brugmansia.

After re-potting my plant grew at an amazing rate. Toward the end of August it was about three feet tall, but I hadn't noticed that it had started to branch until I saw one tiny flower bud emerging. Brugmansias won't bloom until the main stem has branched--that's the sign that the plant is ready to bloom.

Brugmansia flower

The first bud opened in September, and more have followed. After seeing the flowers again, I realize that I had not remembered how large they actually are, and I can see so much more detail in real life than in my old photos. I feel the need to re-do my painting, the one above hardly does it justice!

Interior

The interior of the trumpet looks very like a Georgia O'Keefe painting I'm familiar with, her "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1", which sold for millions at auction a few years back. Jimsonweed is  Datura stramonium, another member of the same family as the Brugmansia genus whose flowers differ in being upright or nodding, rather than pendulous.

I've brought my plant inside in case we have an overnight frost. Now, I'm struggling to do more sketches of my buds and flowers from life while they last and work on a composition where I could show several views of the Angel Trumpet in all its intricate beauty.

Fall in My Garden

Swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustiflolius) & Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)

Each year with the approach of the Autumn Equinox, the swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius) on the west side of the house begin their annual show. The date of peak bloom often coincides with my birthday and Herb's a week later. This year they were right on schedule despite a very dry September. 

Autumn Blaze maple turning red

West side of the house in the morning

The leaves of some of my trees have begun to turn, despite the unseasonable heat--likely due to a very dry month. The two photos above were taken within a week, and half of the maple's leaves came down while the swamp sunflowers and the purple asters began their show.

The back yard on an early October morning

This is the time of the year when I look to expanding my garden beds and increasing my stock of shrubs and trees. Seeing that my 'Amber Ghost' Japanese maple has now grown to a size sufficient to cast a bit of shade, I decided to expand the flower bed under it: a lovely Ninebark tree (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Amber Jubilee') in front, an unknown species of hydrangea in back, and three pink Agastaches on the left. The bulbs originally planted under the maple will bloom in spring: Mount Hood daffodils and Muscari armeniacum, whose foliage is emerging in the photo below.

Expanded bed under 'Amber Ghost' maple

West side yard

Here's what the yard on the west side of the house looks like these days from the bottom of the hill. Still has a ways to go before the trees begin to cast much shade, but remembering how bare this hillside was a few years ago, it's coming along nicely. This summer the artichoke plants grew well, but haven't produced any tasty chokes yet. If I can keep them alive through the winter, I may get some chokes next spring, who knows?

Replanted sunflower bed

Herb's sunflowers were setting seed in early September when one morning I discovered that all the flowers had been decapitated! Following the trail for likely suspects I found a couple of torn-off flower heads with scattered seeds at the edge of the woods in back, and it seemed to me that deer would not have easily bitten off a sturdy stem such as a sunflower's and dragged it off. No, a more likely culprit would be a bear--one could have torn all the flower heads to eat the seeds. It's known that bears happen to love sunflower seeds.

Taking that into account, it seemed wiser to replant the flowerbed with other plants that wouldn't be so attractive to bears. I had originally planned to expand Herb's bed to add other plants, and with the sedums beginning their fall show, I bought two new 'Autum Joy' sedums to put there, to echo the others in the Little Indians bed.

Fall is also a great time to take stock of plants that haven't done so well in their present spots and try them out in new locations. I transplanted the small clump of Muhly grass beneath the Seven-son flower tree to the new bed, as well as some yellow mums that were getting scraggly, being shaded out by the cherry tree in front. For a finishing touch, I added one of the three lavender plants bought at the Blooming Hill Lavender Farm when the Outdoor Painters of the Shenandoah painted there this past summer. We'll see how this bed will fill out over the next growing season.

The Badlands bed

The Badlands, as Herb calls the rear-most flower bed, seem to be improving somewhat. The purple aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) here survived the predations of the voles through the winter to put on a decent show--the other plant I had put in the Seven-son flower bed was completely eaten from the roots. The Shasta daisies in front developed only a few buds this year, despite being watered during the dry spell. The bee balm to the left of the Shastas was not doing well (probably too sunny and dry for it here) so I transplanted those to a shadier spot, and moved the native sunflowers (Helianthus sp.) in back which were getting chewed up by deer, to the front. I planted some of the prolific native mints from another bed to the back, in hopes of discouraging the deer. The Badlands have proved to be one of the most discouraging sites so far, but I'm determined to find some plants that can survive the onslaught of the weeds, deer and other rodents that assail this part of my garden, and flourish!

Chrysamthemum & 'Golden Globe' Arbor vitae

 Most of my Chrysanthemums got burned out by the late summer drought and haven't been much to look at this year, but a few plants in more favorable locations such as this one, managed to prosper. I hope to have a better show next year.

Purple aster

The original purple aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) is still the queen of the garden at this time of the year. It is simply covered with butterflies and bees all day long!