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Project Noah Nature School
Datura inoxia
A perennial flower grown from seed of what I believe my mother called a Moon Flower. Large white trumpet-shaped blooms with large, elephant-ear leaves and spiny seedpods that thrived in my garden in full sun
Suburban backyard garden with full, direct sun and weekly watering. I gave them liquid Miracle Grow monthly or bi-monthly as needed before and during the growing season and had a 3-4 inch layer of cocoa bean mulch
My mother found some of these growing in poor soil next to a garage in the inner city one summer in 2007 while garage saling. She asked the owner if she could come back and harvest some of the seeds. She kept some seeds for herself and split the rest with my aunt and myself. The flowers never took off well for my mother, who lived less than three miles away and had similar flowers in her garden. My aunt who lived 15-20 miles north in Bloomington had a little success with her but the ones in my garden flourished, coming back each year thereafter thicker, taller and packed with blooms. My Mother thought these were called Moon Flowers and that they could be or were poisonous if ingested. Having no little kids in the fenced yard, we never had a problem with that.
YukoChartraw-They really were beautiful flowers and reminded me of similar ones we saw hanging from trees in Kauai Hawaii only in peach, yellow and other colors and much larger. I never noticed a special fragrance coming from them and I never saw any birds on or near them but they were so pretty and thrived with very little care. What made them a little extra special is that they typically only bloomed on extremely overcast days or at night, thus the less than perfect lighting conditions. I think I have more, perhaps better, images of them when it wasn't quite so overcast. If I can find them, I'll be sure to post them. Thank you!! :-)
VineWorld-Thank you so very much!! My mother told me she thought ingesting it was toxic but my children were older and never spent time in our garden for fear of being "put to work" weeding it. "-) I've since sold the house and the new people that bought it let everything in the gardens die so, no worry about selling it or sharing it any more.
It's related to the extremely toxic jimsonweed; Datura stramonium.
So care should be advised If giving to someone with pets or kids.
Spotted on Aug 14, 2008
Submitted on Dec 22, 2012
