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| Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman |
| The trumpet-shaped flowers reach about a foot long and last about a week. |
Tropical plants have become all the rage in US gardens – and with good reason: Their gorgeous lush appearance makes most of us long for a stretch of sandy beach, a hammock and a cool ocean breeze to help us enjoy the good life. While most tropicals have sumptuous foliage, a number are grown for their stunning flowers. Of these, angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia aurea) is perhaps the most spectacular!
This large tree or shrub has big, coarse-textured leaves that reach about 8 inches long, giving the plant a “jungle feel.” In its natural South American environment, it can reach 20 feet tall and wide in the wild – but it only gets about half that size in a most gardens. While the entire plant is glorious in its own right, angel trumpet’s main claim to fame is its incredible foot-long, yellow-, pink- or salmon-colored, trumpet-shaped blooms. These fragrant, tubular flowers are borne singly and hang downward from their stems. The basal half of the floral tube is enclosed in a green calyx. Since so many cultivated forms of this plant have been extensively hybridized, you can now even find angel’s trumpet blooming with peach, red or white flowers. Some double-flowered forms are now even available. While the flowers bloom from spring until fall, the heaviest flowering is actually in autumn.
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