Comments on: Nicotianas I’ve Known and Loved http://hayefield.com/2009/03/06/nicotianas-ive-known-and-loved/ A Pennsylvania Plant Geek's Garden Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:04:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Pomona Belvedere http://hayefield.com/2009/03/06/nicotianas-ive-known-and-loved/#comment-1658 Sun, 03 May 2009 02:25:45 +0000 http://hayefieldhouse.com/?p=1164#comment-1658 I love Tinkerbell and Ondra’s Green. A pity they aren’t scented, but they are beautiful. You may be happy to know that my N. sylvestris died after a couple of years – and I was growing it in the woods. One you must have is N. alata, jasmine tobacco, its unfolding evening blooms breathe out scent, and my plant has lasted in a container for many years through moves and different sun conditions. This year I’m getting the heirloom ‘Cranberry Isle’; it looks as if it might be sort of like mutabilis, but scented, a high priority with me.

About aphids: this may be heresy, but in my garden I often find that they come and they go without much help from me, and without a lot of damage, either.

I appreciate the recommendations, Pomona. I had excellent luck germinating jasmine tobacco this spring and hope to enjoy the fragrance this summer. Good luck with your ‘Cranberry Isle’; it sounds lovely.
-Nan

]]> By: Patrick http://hayefield.com/2009/03/06/nicotianas-ive-known-and-loved/#comment-1479 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:23:33 +0000 http://hayefieldhouse.com/?p=1164#comment-1479 Nancy,

I just stumbled in to your blog. I too realized that I’ve never considered Nicotiana for my garden. I’m a sucker for showy flowers like the “Marshmallow” so I’ll be looking for it now! The GGW Pick of the month was also a nice bit of information. Thanks.

Welcome, Patrick! Sounds like we’ll both be enjoying nicotianas this summer. I’m glad you enjoyed Gardening Gone Wild, too.
-Nan

]]> By: Susan http://hayefield.com/2009/03/06/nicotianas-ive-known-and-loved/#comment-1462 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:53:18 +0000 http://hayefieldhouse.com/?p=1164#comment-1462 Hello Nan,
Bless your heart for your writing and posting of various Nicotianas. Currently I have 10 seedlings of the mutabilis variety for our Hummingbird and Butterfly gardens. I just read in one of the posts above that this is an aphid crop trap plant…
Hmmmmm…Good Grief! LOL
I already hose off about 20 milkweed and Cosmos plants every summer on a near daily basis of those darn things. I’m gonna wind up drowning all the nearby plants now :(
I don’t think purchasing all the yarrow from our local nursery is going to attract enough ladybugs for the astronomical army of aphids I’ll have this year…
Any suggestions Nan?

Poor Susan! Well, one small comfort I can give you is that the orangey aphids that feed on milkweeds don’t bother many other plants, so you shouldn’t have to worry about those. I usually don’t have much of a problem with aphids on cosmos, but if I do, I just snip off and crush the infested tips. The problem with the nicotianas is that they’re so sticky, it’ll probably be hard to wash off the aphids. Why not just wait and see what happens? I have heard of using nasturtiums as a trap crop in veggie gardens (for real), so I guess you could try that next year if you really need to. Good luck!
-Nan

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