From Field to Garden

There’s a sign by the side of Rt. 15 going into Mecklenburg County from Charlotte that reads, “Mecklenburg Supports Tobacco.”  I’m surprised that sign has been allowed to remain, understanding the attitude toward smoking these days, that and the fact that farmers have been paid not to grow tobacco any more.  While there certainly aren’t as many acres planted in tobacco as there used to be, one can still see row after row of the crop in certain areas of the south.

Riding with a friend recently, my attention was drawn more closely to the appearance of the tobacco plant when she remarked that folks should plant it in their yards since it is such an attractive plant, and it is when you look at it from that standpoint.

I thought then of the book I’m currently reading, wherein an Englishman recently arrived in Jamestown learns from the Powhatan Indians how to raise tobacco.  The Indians believed that the gods were never to be denied tobacco smoke.  They gave their medicine men the responsibility of blowing smoke up to the gods.  Indians also learned to use tobacco smoke as a hallucinogenic drug and when smoked in the correct quantities, it would produce a trance or even unconsciousness.  The Powhatan, during their morning bathing ritual, would spread crushed tobacco leaves in the river water around them as an offering to the gods, thanking them for prosperity and safety.

Tobacco was more to the Indians than just a religious item.  It was smoked for pleasure, and the medicine men used it as a cure for a range of illnesses.  When introduced in Europe, people added it to their list of curative herbs already in use. Tobacco soon became a vitally important addition to the development of medical science.

Additionally, in the 1600s, tobacco in the form of fine powder was used as snuff in high society in Europe.  In fact, as early as the 1500’s, seamen could already be seen puffing on pipes filled with tobacco all over Europe.

The tobacco fashion came into full being when English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh sailed on a voyage of discovery to North America and founded the colony of Virginia.  Sir Walter was probably the first dedicated non-Indian pipe smoker in history.  However, in the 1620s England’s King James I remarked, “A custom lothsome to the eye, hateful to the Nose, harmful to the braine, daungerous to the Lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

French ambassador Jean Nicot – from whose name ‘nicotine’ was derived – introduced tobacco to the Spanish Court, where doctors were trying to cure Catherine de Medici’s migraine headaches.  She soon became a keen tobacco user and the fashion of smoking tobacco for pleasure gained rapidly in popularity.

All right, out of the fields and into the garden.  It should come as no surprise that the attractive nicotiana plant is also called flowering tobacco or the tobacco flower.  The flowers begin to appear in early summer and will continue through the season.  The blooms, five-pointed florets, are trumpet shaped with red, white, rose, pink, purple, yellow and lavender colors.  Different varieties grow one to three feet tall and produce flowers on slender stems.  They should be planted in clumps in order to take advantage of their pleasing sweet fragrance and to attract hummingbirds to your yard.

Nicotiana is easy to grow, preferring partial shade to full sun. Water and fertilize as with most all flowering annuals, deadheading as the blooms fade.  They are excellent reseeders, with falling seeds providing plants for the next season.  Thinning will likely be necessary the next spring.  Remember, however, that these plants are poisonous if swallowed.  Keep an eye on pets and children.