Datura metel Ballerina Mixed Seeds - Brugmansia

Datura metel 'Ballerina Mixed' is a lovely collection of compact cultivars, producing sweetly fragrant trumpet-shaped blooms in soft shades of yellow, white and purple. Perfect for growing in pots! Also known as Brugmansia meteloides, this perennial species is related to the tall shrub Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpets). It is generally treated an annual in colder regions. However beautiful, Datura is known for its toxicity: all parts of the plant are poisonous to a similar degree as foxgloves, oleander and wolfbane.

There are around fifteen species of Datura or Brugmansia, cultivated for as ornamental plants for flower gardens and terraces. Datura meteloides (or innoxia) belongs to the Solanaceae family, as do tomatoes, tobacco and potatoes. It has many common names including thornapple, jimsonweed, moonflower, devil's weed and hell's bells. Its origins are a little unclear, probably Central America. It has been cultivated for a very long time in southern China, later spreading to the rest of Asia and eventually to Europe. The drought resistant plants occur naturally on wasteland and roadsides. Datura 'Ballerina Mixed' brings together several compact cultivars, featuring scented, single flowers in shades of yellow, purple and white. This tender perennial forms a tuberous root that dreads waterlogged soils and frosts. However, it is fast-growing and can easily be grown as an annual plant in colder climates. In the space of 4 to 5 months, it forms a bushy clump forms, growing to an average height and spread of about 60 cm. The stems are branched, often tinged with purplish or blackish red. They carry whole, elliptical to largely oval, asymmetrical leaves, 5 to 20 cm long and 4 to 15 cm wide. They are a very dark shade of green. The flowering period occurs in summer, from July to October, approximately 4 months after sowing. The flowers are solitary and erect, consisting in a tubular calyx prolonged by a single corolla. The whole flower measures 8 to 20 cm long and gives off a pleasant scent during the daytime and evening, attracting many foraging insects. The flowers are followed by globular fruits of 3-4 cm in diameter, covered with short thorns.

Datura is perfect for growing in pots on the patio or in the veranda, along paths or next to the front door, gracing the evening air with its lovely scent. In milder climates, it can be grown as a perennial, protected from winter frosts under a thick layer of mulch.