Plant of the Week
Ornamental Tobacco
Latin: Nicotiana sylvestris
Growing tobacco in the garden is certainly nothing new. In fact, it has been
going on for centuries but of course for an entirely different purpose. Tobacco
was one of the New World’s first exports, and the leaves of this clammy weed
have caused ongoing turmoil in societies wherever it was introduced.
The ornamental tobaccos, and there are perhaps half a dozen that have been
grown as such, have a strong family resemblance to the N. tabacum used in
cigarettes, but their leaves lack the nicotine content to make them suitable for
smoking.
Nicotiana sylvestris is the most spectacular of the flowering tobaccos
because it has the large bold leaves of the cultivated tobacco on plants that
reach 5 feet tall. The masses of trumpet shaped tubular flowers are snow white
in color, 3 inches long and borne in drooping panicles at the top of the plant.
While there is a hint of sweet fragrance, this species lacks the aroma of it’s
common multi-colored cousin N. alata, the flowering tobacco.
Tobacco belongs to the potato family and, as such, is related to the tomato,
pepper and deadly nightshade. The early explorers and conquistadors encountered
natives smoking the leaf. Cortez shipped leaf back to Spain in 1519. The genus
Nicotiana, named after Jean Nicot who was a French Counsel to Portugal and
responsible for introducing tobacco seeds into Europe in 1560, consists of 70
species scattered throughout the Americas and into Polynesia and Australia. Sir
Walter Raleigh, the explorer who first surveyed the coast from Florida to the
Carolinas and named the land Virginia, introduced tobacco to England in 1586 and
popularized its use in Europe.
Attacks on smoking began soon after the leaf made landfall in Europe. Pope
Urban VIII banned the use of snuff during church services about 1600 and the
Sultan of Turkey prohibited smoking on pain of death if caught. In 1604,
England’s James I wrote a manifesto against what he considered a loathsome and
dangerous habit. Some speculate that James I’s order beheading Raleigh in 1618
may have been because the King really had a thing against smokers.
But the addictive traits of tobacco are hard to resist. Tobacco farming began
in the West Indies in 1535 and in Virginia in 1586. By 1640, 7,000 shops in
London were selling nothing but tobacco, and tobacco leaf was the major source
of currency during much of this nations earliest years. While the multi-billion
dollar tobacco law suits may prove the most effective means of suppressing
cigarette consumption so far, it’s probably too early to say that the smoking
public is ready to switch away from their addiction of choice.
But we stray from the point. N. sylvestris was introduced from
Argentina in 1899 and has been grown occasionally since then as a component of
the Victorian flower garden or, more recently, as a background plant in the
mixed border. While few nurseries carry this annual as a bedding plant, seeds
are available from some of the seed houses such as Thompson and Morgan which
offer wide assortments.
Ornamental tobacco is best seeded inside about eight weeks before the
expected last frost free date. It should be set out in early spring as a rosette
of green leaves, not grown so long that the stem begins to stretch out.
While you want to avoid late season frosts, this plant should be planted as
early in the season as possible. Plants do best in a bright location but
preferably with some late afternoon shade. It needs a good fertile soil and
frequent watering to do its best.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
August 3, 2001
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