Last year I purchased a few Nicotania bedding plants, wanting them to fill in some bare spots left by spring bulb foliage dying back. They survived but I wasn’t really satisfied with them so I purchased some seed and started them myself, indoors, in the spring. Nictoania seeds are tiny and need light to germinate, so I just sprinkled them, like pepper, on the surface of a cell pack and misted daily. They sprouted readily and soon formed a thick mat of mossy green. Then I started pricking away baby plants, every week, from each cell so that by late May I had six cells with two plants each. I planted them out in four different spots and have found it interesting to note that the two in one spot have yet to send up a flower spike, the two in a different spot have flower spikes about 180 cm high, and the plants in the other two areas are somewhere in between – flower spikes, but not nearly as high. I also was fascinated with how huge the basal leaves were and had to remember that they were Nicotania, not the biennial Verbascum thapsus, the mullein that grows readily around here.
Another interesting thing I’ve noticed is how, in certain light, the backside of the flowers have an intriguing bluish tinge.
One of the reasons I wanted to have these in my garden is their purported fragrance – which I have yet to notice – and their rumoured attractiveness to sphinx moths…aka hawk moth, and I’ve seen one of those sipping from nearby Verbena bonariensis. Not the Nicotania.
It is quite a gorgeous plant though – the crown of flowers at the top will likely bloom for a long time, and given the variation in growth rates I’ll likely have flowers right through to October frost.
County Gardening 
It’s certainly fun to start from seed…not always a successful venture. Those leaves look very much like Milkweed. Mullein leaves are prettiest after rain…with waterdrops. Special to see a Hummingbird moth…I have yet to see one this year. Last fall, a pottery pot with a ‘faded’ Dahlia joined other pots in the un-heated basement. When brought back up to the deck, this Spring, the Dahlia started growing, again…and is blooming…the ‘wigs have left it alone…and a bonus: several Verbena b. shoots….one measured 4 feet, a few days ago!
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Wow! Sounds like your garden of doing great this year! I have a new dahlia this year that is very small, so if it lasts the winter the normal way, I’ll try planting it in a pot and overwinter in subsequent years as you do.
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I’m growing 4 different Nicotiana this year and I love those pendulous blossoms, which are super fragrant at night… you’ll have to take a walk around your garden at dusk. 🙂 I planted a N. sylvestris beneath my bedroom window, hoping to catch the wafting night perfume!
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Dusk = mosquitos 😆😆😆😆😆 but yes, I’ll definitely be doing that. Ones I planted below the kitchen windows are just starting to bloom so hope to catch a whiff from them while safely indoors!
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🙂 👍🏼
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Your aside about the basal leaves is interesting. The Nicotiana’s look rather smooth. Verbascum thapsus is native in parts of Texas, but its leaves and stems are noticeably fuzzy from the beginning. Are yours as well?
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Fuzzy and sticky!
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They are lovely flowers and I also sowed some, but I do not have your patience to sow them in pots and prick them all out and pot them up! 👍 They came directly into a bare patch of moist soil with a thin layer of grass clippings on top. But mine haven’t flowered yet and only a few seem to have germinated. I had some once that did smell wonderful so I hope yours will soon start wafting their perfume around your garden Chris.
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I can’t imagine how nurseries manage it..plucking out thousands of seedlings….
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What a wonderful video of the hawk moth! I used to grow nicotiana but seem to have let them slip a little. Must try again. It looks to me as if yours is Nicotiana sylvestris? I’ve never noticed a strong scent from that, but I’ve had Nicotiana alata bedding mixes (a smaller plant) and they are lovely at night. Thanks for sharing!
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