Angel's trumpet 'Knightii' Brugmansia × candida 'Knightii' (d)

☠ Toxic to humans

🐾 Toxic to pets

🌸 Blooming

🍪 Not edible

‍🌱 Hard-care

ABOUT

'Knightii' is an evergreen shrub or small tree to 4m in height or more, with large elliptic leaves and pendulous, fragrant, hose-in-hose double, white flowers to 30cm in length

Plant Info

Care

Common Problems

About this plant

Names
- Synonyms
  Angel's Trumpet, Datura.
- Common names
  Datura arborea, Datura suaveolens, Brugmansia arborea, Brugmansia suaveolens.
Characteristics
- Life cycle
  Perennials
- Foliage type
  Evergreen
- Color of leaves
  Green
- Flower color
  White
- Height
  10-15 feet (3-4.5 meters)
- Spread
  6-10 feet (1.8-3 meters)
- Plant type
  Shrub
- Hardiness zones
  9
- Native area
  South America

Benefits

General Benefits
- Ornamental Value: Angel's trumpet is known for its large, fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers that add a tropical flair to landscapes.
- Landscape Versatility: Angel's trumpet can be grown as a focal plant in garden beds or as a stunning container specimen, offering flexibility in garden design.
- Nighttime Beauty: The plant's white flowers are especially noticeable in the evening, making it ideal for moon gardens or night-time viewing.
- Wildlife Attraction: The flowers can attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, contributing to the biodiversity of the garden.
- Fast Growth: Angel's trumpet is a fast-growing plant that can quickly provide visual impact and fill in garden spaces.
- Summer Blooming: It offers a profusion of blooms throughout the summer, ensuring a continuous display when many other plants have ceased blooming.
- Height and Structure: Angel's trumpet can reach impressive heights, which can add structure and a sense of verticality to garden compositions.
- Shade Tolerance: While it prefers full sun, angel's trumpet can tolerate partial shade, providing options for gardeners with less sun exposure.
Medical Properties
- Anticholinergic effects - Has compounds such as scopolamine and atropine which affect the nervous system.
- Analgesic properties - Has been used traditionally to alleviate pain, though scientific research is limited and its usage is risky due to toxicity.
- Anesthetic usage - Some components have been used in the past for their sedative and anesthetic properties in traditional medicine, but its use is highly discouraged due to severe toxicity and potential for misuse.
- Anti-inflammatory effects - Traditional use suggests anti-inflammatory properties, but lack of scientific evidence and the high risk of poisoning make its use inadvisable.
- This plant is not used for medical purposes - Brugmansia x candida 'Knightii' is known for its toxic properties and is not recommended for any medical use due to the high risk of poisoning and the absence of established therapeutic benefit.
Air-purifying Qualities
This plant is not specifically known for air purifying qualities.
Other Uses
- Angel's trumpet 'Knightii' can be used as a natural insect repellent due to its strong fragrance, which can deter certain insect pests from gardens.
- The large leaves of Angel's trumpet are sometimes used in crafting, such as for making imprints in concrete garden stepping stones.
- Dried flowers of Angel's trumpet can be incorporated into potpourri mixtures to add a unique scent to rooms when used in sachets.
- The wood of Angel's trumpet is light and soft, making it suitable for crafting lightweight objects such as small containers or decorative boxes.
- Angel's trumpet can be grown in large pots as a patio plant for ornamental purposes, adding a dramatic flair to outdoor living spaces.
- The flowers can be used in the production of natural dyes for fabrics, providing a soft yellow hue when treated properly.
- Sometimes the plant is used in landscape design as a living screen or hedge, though it requires careful handling due to its toxicity.
- Floral artists may use the trumpet-shaped flowers in large, extravagant flower arrangements for events and displays.
- In some cultures, Angel's trumpet is used in religious and spiritual ceremonies for its strong symbolism related to mysticism and the supernatural.
- As a source of inspiration for artists and photographers, Angel's trumpet's striking appearance can be featured in various forms of artwork and botanical photography.

Interesting Facts

Feng Shui
Angel's Trumpet is not used in Feng Shui practice.
Zodiac Sign Compitability
Angel's Trumpet is not used in astrology practice.
Plant Symbolism
- Enchantment: The Brugmansia, commonly known as Angel's Trumpet, with its large, trumpet-like flowers, symbolizes a sense of deep fascination or enchantment, often associated with its surreal appearance and intoxicating scent.
- Beauty: Its striking blooms and stature in the garden represent beauty and magnificence, showcasing the splendor of the natural world.
- Mysticism: Angel's Trumpet has a history of being used in various cultural rituals and medicine, giving it an air of mysticism and spiritual significance.
- Danger and Toxicity: Despite its allure, the plant is highly toxic when ingested. Its symbolism thus includes a warning of danger and the concept of dual beauty—enticing yet potentially harmful.

💧

Every 2-3 days

Water

☀️

2500 - 10000 Lux

Light

💦️

Humidity

🪴

Every year

Repotting

🌱️

Spring to Summer

Propogation

✂️️

As needed

Pruning

Water
Angel's trumpet should be watered thoroughly, ensuring that the soil remains moist but not soggy. Generally, in the growing season, watering once every 2 to 3 days with around 1 to 2 gallons per watering event, depending on the size of the plant and the weather conditions, is appropriate. The soil should be allowed to dry out slightly between waterings to prevent root rot. During the hotter parts of the year, watering frequency should be increased, while in cooler temperatures, it should be decreased. Always check the top inch of soil for dryness before watering to adjust your schedule accordingly.
Light
Angel's trumpet thrives best in a location that receives full sun to partial shade. The ideal spot would provide at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily, with some dappled shade in the afternoon to protect it from the intense heat. Avoid placing the plant in deep shade, as this can inhibit flowering and lead to leggy growth.
Temperature
Angel's trumpet prefers warm temperatures, ideally between 60°F and 85°F. It can tolerate a minimum temperature of around 50°F but should be protected from frost, which can cause significant damage. At temperatures above 85°F, the plant may require additional shading and watering to prevent heat stress.
Pruning
Angel's trumpet benefits from regular pruning to stimulate growth, enhance flower production, and maintain an attractive shape. Prune back in late winter or early spring before the onset of new growth, removing any dead or crossing branches. A heavy prune, cutting back up to one-third of the plant, can be done every few years to rejuvenate older plants. Light pruning and removal of spent flowers can be performed throughout the growing season to encourage further blooming.
Cleaning
As needed
Soil
Angel's Trumpet thrives in well-draining soil with a pH between 5.5 and 7. A mix of equal parts peat, perlite, and compost is ideal to ensure moisture retention and good drainage.
Repotting
Angel's Trumpet should be repotted every 2 to 3 years or when it outgrows its current pot, ensuring it has room for root growth.
Humidity & Misting
Angel's Trumpet prefers high humidity levels, ideally between 60% to 70%, which mimics its native tropical environment.
Suitable locations
- Indoor
  Provide bright indirect light and maintain warmth.
- Outdoor
  Place in partial shade, shelter from wind.
- Hardiness zone
  9-11 USDA
Life cycle
Brugmansia × candida 'Knightii,' commonly known as Angel's Trumpet, begins its life cycle as a seed, which, once sown, will germinate and develop into a seedling under appropriate conditions of warmth and moisture. The seedling then grows into a young plant with characteristic large, soft leaves and begins to establish a root system. As it matures, the plant becomes a bushy shrub and starts to produce its distinctive large, pendulous, white flowers that are fragrant at night, normally during late spring to fall, depending on the climate. After pollination, typically by moths or other nocturnal insects, the flowers will develop into seed pods containing numerous seeds. Angel's Trumpet is a perennial, and in suitable climates, it will experience a period of dormancy during the winter months before resuming growth in the spring. Gardeners often propagate the plant through cuttings, which allow new plants to bypass the seed stage and grow directly into young plants, completing the life cycle.
Propogation
- Propogation time
  Spring to Summer
- Brugmansia × candida 'Knightii', commonly known as Angel's Trumpet, is often propagated through stem cuttings. The most popular method is to take semi-ripe cuttings during late spring or early summer when the plant's growth is most active. A cutting should be about 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) long and include at least two nodes. The leaves near the bottom of the cutting should be removed, and the cut end may be dipped in rooting hormone powder to enhance root development. The cutting is then planted in a well-draining soil mix and kept moist but not waterlogged. It's important to keep the cuttings in a warm area with indirect light until roots develop, which typically takes a few weeks. After sufficient roots have formed, the new Brugmansia plants can be transplanted into individual pots or directly in the garden, depending on the climate.