Tobacco plant? Yes, you read that right – but the ornamental kind: flowering tobacco. At a handful of pick-your-own flower farms in the Netherlands it grows between the dahlias and sunflowers. Flowering tobacco (Nicotiana) isn’t grown for smoking but for its flowers: trumpet- or star-shaped blooms in white, lime green, pink or deep red that smell wonderfully sweet, especially in the evening. Some kinds, like Nicotiana sylvestris, carry long, drooping white trumpets on plants up to one and a half metres tall.
Picking your own
You can pick flowering tobacco from July until the first night frost. Choose stems where the first flowers are open and a few buds are still to come, and cut them just above a leaf. Wear gloves: the large, soft leaves are sticky and the sap contains nicotine. Wash your hands after picking. The plant keeps growing and making new flower stems, so there’s plenty to go around. Pick early in the morning or in the evening, when it’s cool and the flowers are open.
Please note: every part of the plant – leaves and flowers alike – contains nicotine and is toxic. Flowering tobacco is not for eating, not for tea and not for smoking. Keep the flowers out of reach of children and pets.
In the vase at home
At home, recut the stems at an angle, strip the lower leaves and put them in clean water. They last four to seven days; some flowers close a little during the day and open again in the evening, just when the scent is strongest. Put a bunch on the patio or by the bedroom door for a summery evening fragrance, or mix flowering tobacco with dark coneflowers, verbena or ornamental grasses for a loose, wild bouquet.