Amazing how fast plants cycle back into flower. This brugmansia had dropped all flower buds in response to high temperatures in September, and now this show in November, taken early this morning. These blooms on ‘Charles Grimaldi’ are a pallid impersonation of the color of its true self, a rich gold, but still a most welcome sight. Perhaps the cooler temperatures are affecting the depth of color. Seeing them this morning reminded me of a conversation I overheard at a public garden recently, in which a woman was enlightening her companion as to the culinary potential of these angel trumpets, about their being not just beautiful but useful too, for filling with whipped cream and such. Of course, all parts of the plant are poisonous. I was so startled at overhearing this toxic misinformation that I wasn’t able to form words fast enough before the pair had moved on. So I’ll say it here, in case the idea seems worth pursuing to that woman’s companion: Your friend is dead wrong. Do not fill angel trumpets with whipped cream. (And just how long have you known this friend, anyway?)
Ignorance is frightening.