About 5-6 years ago a neighbor gave me a start of a Ballerina Angel Trumpet. It quickly became one of my favorites and the pride of my garden. I'd gather the seeds and start more and pass them around the office and to family and friends. I even brought some seeds to my sister in California last year. Everyone just love the huge, lacey, purple & white flowers. Ballerina Angel Trumpet ( photo / image / picture from cherylad's Garden ) Last year, a co-worker gave me a Moonflower. (Some you may remember my post about having troubles with the flowers.) Even though the flowers were gorgeous, I just wasn't too thrilled about having a flower I had to go outside with a flashlight to look at. But that didn't matter this year, because the plant didn't survive the winter. I did keep a few of it's seeds and once they sprouted, I gave them to a co-worker. Now this is where my quandry begins. My Ballerina Angel Trumpet had it's first bloom last week. ( photo / image / picture from cherylad's Garden ) I thought perhaps the flower just bloomed too soon and didn't get a chance to develop completely. But this is what I woke up to this morning. ( photo / image / picture from cherylad's Garden ) 3 beautiful white flowers (and more too come). UNWANTED white flowers that open late in the evening and dies off the very next morning. Did that darn Moonflower cross-pollinate with my Angel Trumpet??? I have more Angel Trumpet seedlings going, and now I'm afraid they too will get contaminated by this plant. Can anyone explain any other reason my Angel Trumpet has changed so drastically? Anything I can do to protect my other seedlings?
Some of the Brugmansia do easily cross-pollinate but I can't find anything that says the Datura do or don't. Or being a Cultivar there may be some problem with the next generation coming true from seed. Or the white one could have dropped seeds in the other container and that is what you have growing instead. Or any chance of the pots being misidentified and winter killed the purple one instead of the white one?
Toni... This is the same plant that bloomed purple last year. And every seed I've planted from that original plant has bloomed purple. And there's no way the two got mixed up. The Moonflower is a vine and since it was on a trellis, it didn't get put away for winter with the other potted plants. It only put on one seed pod and I kept the seeds in a completely different container than the other. It's got me baffled. I've moved the white flowering one far away from the seedlings of what should be purple flowers. Do you think there's still the chance they'll get cross-pollinated?
I don't know, but in veggies to prevent crossing the advice is to move them across the yard/garden from each other. I guess that makes it more likely that the flying critter doing the pollinating will land on something else and rub off the pollen before finding the plant you don't want changed.
The Moon flower and the white Datura look alike except the Datura stays open longer.Some how you got a Datura seed mixed some where.
The Ballerina Angel Trumpet is the Datura. The only one I've ever had. And it's always bloomed purple and the flowers last for about 3 days. The Moonflower I grew last year was a vine that produced white flowers that only bloomed in late evening and were gone by morning. This is what it looked like. Moonflower2 ( photo / image / picture from cherylad's Garden ) There's no mistaken which is which. The seeds are exteremely different too. I have tons of Datura seeds. I only harvested about 5 seeds of the Moonflower.. they were much larger and rounder than the Datura and a brighter color. So that still leaves me wondering why this same plant that bore beautiful purple flowers last year is now putting out just plain white ones? And most importantly, how can I keep it from happening to my other seedlings?
