PlantFiles: Devil's Trumpet, Horn of Plenty, Downy Thorn Apple
Datura metel 'Double Purple'

Love this plant. I grow them as annuals from seed every year. After first frost I cut the spiny seed pods off and put them in a bowl in a dry out of the way spot. The pods will split, then I shake out the seeds and
let them sit a little longer to totally dry out. Do not rinse! I keep the seeds in a jar in my cellar over winter, and start them in February in a good seed starting mix. The seeds take about a month to germinate. I plant them both in the garden as well as pots. They take full sun (lf kept well watered) or nearly full shade. They are beautiful in bloom, and are a plant that always draws comments in my garden.

Beautiful plant, but BEWARE THE TOMATO HORN WORM! I just found the first bloom of the year on the ground, almost all the leaves gone, and four fat green caterpillars feasting on what was left. The datura must be related to the tomato plant. I normally don't spray anything in the garden, but I did spray these. I am trying to grow a couple of the plants to save seeds for our Master Gardeners to propagate for our Spring plant sale. Now I just hope they survive and bloom again. Moral of this story: check your plants often and remove the little caterpillars before they remove your leaves.

A wonderful double or triple flowering Datura.
Flowers open at night and have a nocturnal fragrance.
Very floriferous.
Can be grown as an annual in cooler climates or a perennial in the tropicals where it can reach a height of 6 ft.
Excellent choice for container culture.
Moderate water needs when growing.

Datura metel is thought to be a cultigen, i.e. to have been developed in cultivation.

The flowers on this datura are beautiful, and the scent is best enjoyed at a distance. Just brushing past the plant, especially early in the morning, releases a lovely, delicate scent. Just resist the urge to bury your nose in one of the flowers! Up close and individually, these flowers smell dreadful! They self-seed readily, and can grow quite large and ungainly. They are one of the few things in my garden that the deer leave alone. Keep children and pets away from this beauty, as all parts of the plant are extremely toxic!

I HATE this thing, it stinks, the blooms thank god don't last long, but they look disgusting when they start to go and take forever to fall off making the plant look sickly....worst purchase I ever made! And it outgrows its pot quicker than I can replant it!

planted a tombstone rose by the patio making a deep saucer to hold water. two of these came up at the same time; fear of poisioning our dogs forced us to pull them up. blooms at night; rank grower.

we have a house that is former rental house and figured seeds were there all the time and waiting for right conditions.

would it be possible to wrap a baggie around the pods before they burst to collect the seeds.......just a thought.

Thanks for the information! I have saved my seeds and am now waiting for them to germinate...

This plant has become an all time favorite of mine. I dug up two babies from my parents new house not knowing what it was, just loving the flowers on some of the adult plants in their garden. I was amazed to see how fast they started growing and flowering. It's only been about three months! I hope to catch the seeds before they scatter into my grass and I accidentely mow them over!

The double purple flowers are nice but I think I prefer the regular white flower Datura. The white version seems to be more lively whereas the purple one is slower growing. Also the purple flowers lack any of the great scent of the white flowers.

I'm glad I finally grew the double purple Datura, but I think next year I'll get another white one.

a friend gave me the plant...it's doing quite nicely since i planted it in the ground....i looked it up in ratsch's 'encyclopedia of phychoactive plants' and wondered if anyone had any experiences using that plant as an entheogen??
i was googling around the net about the plant as well and found your site ...

I just acquired one of these plants a few months ago and it has been doing extremely well. Recently it had five open blooms on the same plant at one time. (See photos). Each flower seems to bloom for about two days.

I love this plant. It is so striking. This is the first time I have grown one. I started with a 12" plant about 2 weeks ago. It is planted in full sun (well, a little afternoon shade) and it is now 2 ft tall. It is even growing that well in our heavy clay soil, although the soil in that bed has been amended a little (not enough). It has bloomed once ( I hope for seeds). It doesn't have the greatest fragrance, so I planted it away from the doorway where the moonflowers can overpower it at night. I guess it won't live through the winter here, but hopefully I can get some seeds this year. A lady told me last fall to store my ornamental pepper seeds in cornmeal to prevent mold--maybe that will work for these, too.

This Datura will start blooming even on a small plant. The flowers are beautiful with a lifgt scent.
The leaves are a purpelish green, very interesting.

Seed Saving Tips:

On the double daturas, you really have no way to know until they start cracking when the seeds are ready. I check ours 2-3 times a day and when they start cracking is when I cut them from the bush- even then we miss them sometimes! The double daturas aren't so bad about spewing all their seeds out right away - you should have a few hours after they crack before they really start to drop the seeds - the single whites, however - drop them immediately when they open.

Look for small cracks in the pod - it will seem like it takes forever from the time they bloom and then all of the sudden you will get many pods breaking at one time. I have yet to be able to keep records good enough to time the bloom to pod cracking, but it takes a good while! If you cut one that has just barely started cracking, I would let it sit in a pan or something and let it continue to open more and dry the seeds in the pod more before getting the seeds out.

When saving these seeds, we have found it best to rinse them off in a collander (there is a 'slime' on them that makes them stick together if you don't), dry them with a paper towel and then put them in something where you can set them in the sun to dry well before storing them. They can be stored without rinsing them off, but, as I said, they tend to stick together more that way. Be sure to dry them well and pick out any that are white or sunken in (not nice and plump) - if you store those with your brown ones, they will all mold.

These are VERY prone to molding in storage - make sure you dry them several hours, even a couple of days, in the sun before storing and I would not store them in anything air proof - like plastic bags. I find them better off in something
that will breathe - paper envelopes, for example. I would also suggest checking them every so often to make sure they have not begun molding . If they do start molding, use a paper towel to wipe off as much as you can and put them back in the sun to bake more. They will still be good to plant.

Some people store seeds in the refrigerator or freezer - I have never done that so I can't give any advice in that regard.

Planting Info:
These seeds take 21+ days to germinate. They germinate much better in warmer temps and in bright light. You may get a few up in 21 days, but don't give up, more will come up MUCH LATER than others.

This is the best year for this plant ever. Today, it had 4 flowers blooming. I am freezing the stamens and when my triple yellow Datura blooms within the next few days, I will try to cross-pollenate them & see what I get.

I live in So. Fl & have the peach/pink colored Datura, would love to see if this one will grow as well. I uaually take cuttings off my "tree". Cuttings dipped in root tone & then into soil take right off. Where can we find this purple beauty?