How to Care For Angel Trumpet

Angel Trumpets, or Daytura are beautiful hardy trees which produce incredible flowers. The trumpet shaped flowers and heady aroma are sure to make a welcome addition to any garden. Do be wary however as the name Angel's Trumpet comes from the ability for Daytura to poison. The Angel Trumpet can be a wonderful addition to your yard. This tree is magnificent and glorious in the flowers that it produces and the wonderful fragrance. Use this handy guide to learn how o care for Angel Trumpet.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Liquid fertilizer
• Pruning shears

1. Angel's Trumpets hail from South America, and as such are tropical desert plants. They like full sun and hot days, with quite a lot of water. As with most desert plants, they prefer not to have their feet sitting in water, so a good, free draining soil is paramount.

2. Be sure to prune your Daytura regularly, as the limbs are quite brittle and prone to breaking. You can limit the damage by pruning the branches back, particularly before storm season in your area, or after it has developed a Y. You would prune each side of the Y, thus encouraging more branch growth, and limiting the amount of breakage by keeping the branches short.

3. Every two or three weeks, Angel's Trumpets like a feed. Liquid fertilizer is best, and if they are in the ground you can use a 15-5-10 ratio fertilizer. Otherwise in pots, any reputable fertilizer will do just fine.

4. You can propagate your pruned branches as you would any other woody stemmed herb such as rosemary, by cutting cleanly on an angle, dipping in rooting hormone and striking in sharp sandy soil.

Tips & Warnings

• It is not difficult to care for, although if you live in anything less than a Zone 9 growing area, you will need to plant them in great big pots, so that they can be wintered somewhere warm. Freezing will destroy the roots.
• Remember Angel's Trumpets are highly toxic, take great care when handling and always wash your hands well. Monitor any small children who are likely to try and eat vegetation or flowers.
• It is highly toxic and is not a sensible addition to a garden with children. If it is unavoidable, make sure to clean any and all debris from the ground so that curious fingers can't get into trouble.