Nicotiana Baby Bella

It's a brand new day for Flowering Tobacco, and Baby Bella has come to show us just what beauty this old-fashioned favorite can bring to the sunny annual garden! This super-flowering, vigorous plant sets hundreds of 2½inch blooms from early summer through early fall, each as sweetly fragrant as a full bouquet, and so richly colored that not even August's punishing sun can dim their radiance. Many Nicotianas are heavy budders, but Baby Bella goes well beyond the call of duty to keep the garden bursting with wine-red beauty for months and months!

The secret is vigor. Baby Bella is better-branched and simply has more get-up-and-GROW than any other Nicotiana we've grown (and believe me, we've grown them all!). Even if the color weren't so unique and the bloom power so intense, we'd be recommending Baby Bella on sheer strength alone. Reaching 24 to 28 inches high, this little powerhouse spreads about 12 to 18 inches wide, every inch packed with glowing green or smoky maroon. And the foliage resists disease, so it looks as good in October as it did in May.

Nicotiana is a sun-lover, and looks great in containers, even when they're crowded -- it's got that agreeable point-and-dive sort of habit that wends it way in and out of neighboring plants, setting flowers all along the way! In the garden, space plants 12 to 15 inches apart, in groups of at least 3 for maximum "gasp factor." Oh, and they're great beneath an open window or near the patio, because that heavenly scent is just irresistible on a warm summer evening. Butterflies and hummingbirds visit it frequently (as you might guess from those hummingbird-beak-shaped blooms!), adding to the color show!

Baby Bella is an easy plant to sow and grow. The seeds need light for germination, so place them on top of the growing medium in your seed flat, or on the top of each Bio-Sponge in your Bio-Dome (if they fall into the hole, no worries -- they'll get enough light there to germinate, too!). The only hard part is working with the tiny seeds. We recommend the Pro Hand Seeder, not just for Flowering Tobacco but for all those dust-like seeds that drive us all crazy at sowing time!

But either way, germ the seeds at 68 to 86 degrees F -- room temperature, in other words! It will take them about 10 to 20 days to sprout. Once they have two sets of leaves, keep them a bit cooler if you can (65 to 70 degrees F would be perfect, but they're adaptable). Plant them out into the garden or container after all danger of frost has passed, and the nights are closer to 50 degrees than 40. The seeds can also be started in the garden after the soil has warmed up in spring.

Baby Bella is going to be a favorite of yours, so plan your garden designs now! In addition to complementing the other annuals, you might consider it as a foreground planting for biennial Foxglove Pantaloons, which will complement the maroon color unbelievably. Enjoy this hard-working sun-lover all season long! Pkt is 50 seeds.