Treasured Tropicals

Last year, I decided that one portion of my yard would be set aside for tropicals. The area is a on the south side of my house and gets plenty of sun. Since I'm such a sucker for fragrant plants, I needed a place for some of the fragrant tropicals that cannot take cold weather. One of the plants I have in this area is my Orange Jasmine (Murraya paniculata.) This plant makes a lovely bush that puts out little white blooms that are very sweetly fragrant. Look at the picture of mine to see just how nice a plant it is even without the blooms. The leaves are very glossy on a full and compact bush. Mine was burnt severely over the winter by freezes, but it has recovered very nicely and I'm anxiously waiting for its first blooms.


Next up is my Angel trumpet (brugmansia.) This a pink cultivar that has committed the cardinal sin of being without scent! Most brugmansias have a fragrance that somewhat (to me) resembles that of an oriental lily. Brugs come in a nice array of colors like yellow, pink, orange, and white. They are extremely easy to get started - just take a cutting and put it in water till roots start coming out, then put it in dirt. They die to the ground after a frost, but reliably come back in zone 8 and higher. If you look at this picture closely, you can see the first bud forming. With shelter, these plants can get as large as a small tree. They love lots of fertilizer. The flowers are large trumpets that hang downwards - I'll have pictures of mine later in the year. I'm told that putting a light on the ground shining up at the flowers makes for a spectacular show at night, especially if the plant is covered in blooms like they often are. I've noticed that some insects especially love eating the leaves of this plant, but it hardly slows down. Put brugs in full sun and don't let them dry out. If you live up north, you can grow these in large pots. If you get one of these be sure it's one with scent.