Nicotiana tabacum

This is a plant that completely brings me to my knees.

I have always believed that one should stop and smell the roses, but I guess roses never excited me enough to understand the full meaning of that phrase. Roses are nice, with an olfactory palette ranging from fruity to perfumed. Worth stopping for, but in the end they are just nice.

The flowers of tobacco are a different story. I first starting growing tobacco as an annual ornamental with the species Nicotiana alata. A pretty form that has been embraced by the retail nursery trade. It is available in a host of colors, and seems to be sold in abundance for that attribute. The red form is nice, but I get more scent from the white varieties. It is an annual, herbaceous member of the nightshade family with an abundance of flowers throughout most of the growing season. Mine are still flowering this far into autumn, and have left me with abundant seeds for next year.

Pictured above is the result of my first foray into growing Nicotiana tabacum. Now, I have spent only small portions of my life as a smoker. I never could get into it, no matter how enticing the nicotine may have been, because I just like my lungs too much. They've helped me run vast distances, remind me to calm myself down when I fill them slowly, and generally do a good job of keeping me alive. Smoking tobacco just doesn't do it for me. But I think this species may just be my favorite new plant, even encumbered with all of the potential health problems caused by the misuse of the cured leaves. The smell of this plant is among the 10 most wonderful things I have experienced on this planet.

The scent is like jasmine, cardamom, peppercorn, and slightly fermented honeysuckle nectar decided to have a party. For the record, that would be the most awesome party ever. I started my plants late, and hope I get enough seed from them for next year. Even with cold temperatures in the evening, the scent still dominates my driveway at night. When I told my wife on a recent chilly night how much I love this plant, she reminded me that it is one of the components of her favorite perfume. I have to find the URL of that online perfumery.

In addition to alata and tabacum, I've grown rustica as well. Nicotiana rustica is pervasive in shamanic rituals throughout the Americas, but from my experience is pretty lacking in other aesthetic attributes. The depth of its incorporation into Native American shamanism is remarkable. Even though I really don't have a place for much more in my annual flowering bed, I still save a few seed pods year after year to keep the plant going in my yard.

Nicotiana is easy to grow, and adds brightness and perfume to the evening garden for months on end. Find some seeds for sale or trade, and throw them some place easily forgotten in the sunny part of your garden. Some will invariably come up next year. Let the addiction begin.