Guardian angels

These pretty floral faces may be cast down, but Toby’s enchanting brugmansia will always make his spirits rise…

- Toby Buckland

JACK’S beanstalk has nothing on my angel’s trumpet plant. During the summer, the brugmansia (as it’s also known) grew and grew, transforming from a potted stick into a giant botanical wonder, with flowers so big that visitors to Buckland Castle have been asking if they’re real.

You may know brugmansia by its old name, datura. Although closely related, these showy shrubs have been hived off into a genus of their own to reflect their downward facing blooms and woody nature – they grow into a shape akin to an over-sized head of broccoli.

Their large hanging blooms are a tell of tropical origins, as the pendent petals shed heavy rain like the canopy of an umbrella. Datura, on the other hand, hark from drier climes so their flowers face up.