Tree Tobacco – seed packet – $3.99

(Nicotiana glauca) Perennial from Argentina. This is a bona-fide tree – can grow to 30 feet high. Unlike other Nicotianas, leaves are smooth, not sticky. Unusual flowers are bright banana-yellow tubes with crimped openings – like a plastic component you’d pick up at Radio Shack.

Planting suggestions: Press tiny seeds onto surface of already-moistened soil. Keep pots in a water-filled tray in a sunny, warm location. Avoid surface watering until germination, except with a mister. After first set of true leaves have sized up, thin to one plant per pot and transplant out. Give plants rich soil, water, and full sun. Not frost-tolerant, though a 14-ft specimen we grew in Portland that got frost-killed returned from the root the next year. It was never the same, though.

Contains at least 200 seeds. Packed for 2013.