Datura Family

In magic, daturas have been associated with both Saturn and Venus--Saturn no doubt because of datura's deadly properties and because some of these plants bloom at night--and Venus because of the large, lush, sweet-scented flower shaped much like the entrance to a womb (and because of the plant's common name, loveapple). In my opinion, the connection with Saturn is made only because of datura's dark nature (Saturn is the trashcan for darkness in many correspondence schemes). But Venus is not a cartoonish force that is all hearts and roses; it has dark aspects, and datura is part of that. In his book, Psychedelic Shamanism, Jim DeKorne noted that datura and other tropane-containing plants are often associated with an aggressive feminine force (he references Kali) that has been viciously repressed in the West and that this might well be the reason so many people have negative experiences with these plants. Certainly something to think about.

Datura has been used to hex and to break hexes, to produce sleep and induce dreams, and for protection from evil (perhaps in the fire against fire sense). It has also been used for divination in Native American milieux, to find one's totem animal, for communing with birds, to allow one to see ghosts, and like all the tropane-containing plants, is said to have gone into flying ointments. Daturas and brugmansias contain the extremely dangerous tropane alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. The flowers are extraordinarily beautiful and often have a very powerful, lily-like fragrance; people who sleep under blooming brugmansias have intense nightmares caused by psychoactive properties of the flowers' scent. The honey of these plants can be poisonous (tropanes apparently have no effect on insects). The main difference between datura and brugmansia is that datura is an annual herbaceous plant (doesn't produce wood) and the flowers face up; brugmansia is a perennial bush or tree and the flowers hang down (in Europe, brugmansias are often referred to as daturas). For more info, check out King's Dispensatory on D. stramonium or this very nice site, Domain of Datura.

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How to grow brugmansia. They like warm and humid weather, but temps over 85 F will cause some of the leaves to fall off. B. sanguinea especially hates heat and is best grown in cooler areas, like the Pacific Northwest. Soak the seeds from 24-72 hours, then carefully peel off the seed's shell. Plant the seed at a depth of about twice its thickness. If you're germinating the seeds in the winter, use a heating pad as I've described in the general growing tips. If you're germinating them during the summer, choose a relatively cool spot. They like the soil to be around 70-72 F. Seeds can take 1-8 weeks to germinate. These plants can be grown in containers and wintered indoors, even though they are bushes, not herbs, and outdoors can get up to 30 feet tall, although they are more likely to reach 6-10 feet outside. Add humus to soil outside and perlite to potting soil. They like morning sun and afternoon shade, so they get light but don't get hot. Once the plants establish themselves, pot up into one-gallon containers, then to five gallon when they are big enough. These are thirsty plants but can put up with standing water. In high heat they can be watered every day. Use plenty of fertilizer with these plants. If you get bugs on your brugs, use a spray made by soaking some cigarette butts in water with a dash of dish soap. It smells like old cigarettes, but it kills insects. You can wash it off after the bugs are dead. Brugmansia will start blooming anywhere from four months to two years after planting. Once you get your plant established, you can root cuttings from it to give to your friends. Root these cuttings in water. Just cut off a piece about as big as your hand, stick in some water, and keep out of the sun until it gets a root system. It can then be potted up in soil. You can also root them in damp sand. Brugmansia usually won't form pods with seeds, so cuttings are the way to get more of them. If they are planted outside in warm climates, they will produce suckers (little baby brugmansia that grow up from the roots next to the parent plant). when kept inside in the winter, the plant will lose a lot of leaves. Don't water it too much in the winter. It's resting, and will come back in the spring. General growing info Top.
How to grow daturas. This plant likes it hot; if you've been successful growing peppers or eggplants, you know how to grow this plant. Annuals, they get from three to five feet tall. It likes rich soil (thus pastureland). To help with seed germination, which can be difficult, scarify the seeds by filing through a small bit of the seed coat with a nail file or a piece of fine grit sandpaper. Don't file the seed itself and don't file on the eye end, or it will be damaged and not grow. Fill a thermos with hot water (from the tap is fine).  Put the seeds in to soak for 24 hours. Change the water for clean hot water every 6 hours.  Then plant.  Alternatively, some people scarify, soak, and then sow in paper towels that have been wet and wrung out, and store in open plastic bags, checking daily for germination. With D. stramonium, pretty much nothing will prevent them from growing. D. metel and other daturas often require warmth to germinate. Seeds can take one to eight weeks to germinate and like warmth. You can try using bottom heat, as if they were tomatoes or eggplants; on top of the refrigerator or the hot water heater is also a good place for them.  Some people cover them with plastic if they are in an especially dry place. You can give them liquid kelp solution from day one, or once they get the second set of leaves (true leaves), you can give them half-strength fertilizer. Transplant to full sun and rich soil with no standing water. They are great for growing in tubs. They can also be grown in containers indoors as long as they get plenty of sun. Make sure the soil is rich. Flowers are fragrant and last one to several days; they are pollinated at night by moths, although these plants are self-fertile (don't need a pollinator to make seeds). If you snap off the pods, you will get more flowers, but if you want seeds to make more daturas, let the pods remain. When the pods open, the seeds are ripe. General growing info Top.