I like to include nicotianas in my flowerbeds each year because they tolerate shade better than many other annuals. And until recently, shade was really starting to take over my yard. I use the smaller nicotiana cultivars like Saratoga for the front of the border. For the middle of the border I rely on the Perfume series. ‘Perfume Deep Purple’ won a 2006 AAS award. The dark purple blooms add some nice contrast to all the yellow, orange and pink flowers I grow.
You can also get Perfume nicotianas in white, red, lime and a mix. I don’t use a lot of white in my beds. When I grow mixes I usually draw the short straw and end up with white anyway, so I skip them. I do, however, grow ‘Perfume Red’. This past summer one clump really went out of its way to impress me.
Nicotianas bloom in flushes rather than blooming all summer long. If you trim them back after the first flush you’ll see flowers again in several weeks. Admittedly, that second display is usually not as impressive as the first. Because our weather was so lovely last summer, that first flush of flowers lasted many weeks longer than usual. I don’t think I had to trim back the plants until early August. I did get a second show of blooms in September.
Perfume Nicotianas grow 20 inches tall in full sun to partial-shade. Some seed catalogs indicate that the flowers are fragrant, but I’ve been growing Perfume for years and have never noticed any sort of scent.
The plants are disease-resistant, but the flower stalks do occasionally attract aphids. They never do any real damage and you can quickly dispatch them with a stiff spray of water from the garden hose.
I like to grow ‘Perfume Red’ because that bright red color attracts hummingbirds in late summer.