Nicotiana reseeds in my garden every year. I am thankful for such generous gifts from last years flowers. The small starts are called volunteers. This is a good time to get these transplanted in a place that works in the garden design so that by summer they are established and blooming in just the right spots.

I originally enjoyed the nicotiana volunteers for three or four years when I planted seeds in the house we lived in before. This move took place 22 years ago. We had moved in the winter time so I couldn’t transplant any nicotiana plants, but, the following spring at our new house I was delighted to discover nicotiana volunteers coming up in several of the potted boxwoods we had moved.

Nicotiana (nicotiana alata grandiflora) is an old fashioned heirloom variety that has fragrance in the evening and grows three to five feet tall. It is covered with an abundance of lovely trumpet blooms that last all summer and into the fall. The flower colors vary from white and cream to many varieties of pink and an especially exquisite violet purple.

This variety like many of the nicotiana varieties that are available at plant stores is an annual, however, most of the commercially grown plants are hybrids that are compact and dwarf and do not reseed.

To date I have had over twenty five years of flowers, fragrance and beauty from one planting of one packet of seeds.