When spelled like that, the whole thing looks like someone’s long name. ‘Charles Grimaldi’ really is someone’s name, and the particular cultivar of brugmansia happens to be named after him. Because no one knows who the parents of this hybrid cultivar are, the species name is omitted. It is therefore described by just the genus name followed by the cultivar name, as Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’; or simply ‘Charles Grimaldi brugmansia’.
After all that, some of us know it, as well as all other cultivars, even more simply as ‘angel’s trumpet’. They are more likely to be distinguished by floral color and form than by cultivar name. For example, Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ might be described as a single yellow angel’s trumpet. There is also a single white, a double white, a single pink, a single pink with variegated foliage, and so on. Most are fragrant at least to some degree.
This particular specimen was not planned. As I mentioned in my ‘Six on Saturday’ posts earlier today, my colleague, Brent Green, planted it out in the back garden as a wimpy #1 (1 gallon) specimen many years ago. It grew like a weed and displaced a few other perennials that were too close to it. Brent coppiced it to the ground annually for a few years. It grew back and bloomed spectacularly and very fragrantly through each summer.
A few years ago, rather than coppice it back to the ground, Brent had me pollard it on a few tall trunks. Rather than regenerate as a big fluffy and obtrusive shrub that occupied too much of the limited space, it was able to spread out up and above the garden, while the tall and lanky trunks were pruned bare. The abundant and very fragrant flowers naturally hang downward from the upper growth.
Tony Tomeo 
It is really fantastic. I was happy for 6 blooms on mine.
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Heck, I did not even get six from the several small plants of various cultivars that I grow. They are still canned, so can not get very big. They get frosted back each winter. ‘Someday’, I will plant them where they can grow and bloom, although not like they do in Brent’s garden. I have copies of Brent’s, as well as single white, single pink, and single orange.
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Mine do get frosted too and now the squirrels are pruning it.
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Ick! That can’t taste good! and it is toxic! and a hallucinogen!
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I don’t know what is wrong with those squirrels and they are still alive.
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Squirrels are nutty!
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This thing is gorgeous. What a great idea to trim it in that way.
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I didn’t really prune it that way. I jut pollarded it, so that the stems that would normally grow up from ground level grew out of the knuckles up on top of taller trunks. That way, when they flared out,they were up and above, rather than in the way; and their flowers could hang downward like they naturally do anyway.
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Gorgeous!
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Thank you. I would like to take credit for it; but all I did was pollard it a few years ago.
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
Everyone seems to like this huge perennial in Brent’s garden.
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