Datura

Datura opening up in the evening

      When I first moved to Dripping Springs from Austin, a neighbor welcomed me and invited me to her house to see her place. It was very pretty, but she had fences around all her plants. Even the "deer resistant" plants I had seen at the garden center.

Can you see the bees?

I asked her why she had the plants fenced in, "it would be so much prettier open", I said.

She gave me a "you stupid city slicker" smile and said  "they just say they are deer resistant, the deer eat everything" 

Oh you poor ignorant bumpkin, I thought... I'll show you how it's done.You just have to put out soap, or blood meal or urine or something........ 

Guess what? I found out she was right! I would plant something and sure enough the next day it would be fine, but second or third night it would have just disappeared.

Those beautiful, angelic looking creatures were monsters who would eat anything that didn't  kill them.

There! you can see them now.

Then one day I saw these Datura growing wild along the side of the road, hmm.

I took some seed pods home and scattered them around.

Guess what! The deer don't eat them! No!

 True they are very, very poisonous, so don't feed them to your kids... but they are so pretty

and the fragrance, is wonderful.  They open in the evening and bloom through the night. And the bees love them, so do the giant moths.

One of the best things about this plant is that it is very, drought resistant and it reseeds every year. 

It is also known as Jameson Weed. Either the colonist in James Town enjoyed the high from smoking the leaves or it killed them.

Any way, it just goes to show what I will put up with for a few flowers in my life.