Brugmansia Question?

I have two lovely very healthy young Brugs grown from seed this year (kindly donated by Peters ), the question is do I just leave them to carry on growing up or can/should I pinch out the growing tip to produce side shoots at any point or is this something the plant will eventually do naturally?

Thanks in advance

 

You need to leave them to grow unstopped . At some point (and it could be at good hieght) they will make a natural fork .From this point onwards they will start flowering .
Just concentrate on growing a good healthy plant in the mean time

Dave

 

Thanks for that Dave, my plants are now about 12" & 18" tall and will be potted on to larger pots again today....

 

I would be inclined to. They won't flower any sooner (actually I think that pinching them out will put them back a couple of weeks), and will just carry on until they branch naturally and then start flowering ... but ... in my experience you tend to get a "walking-stick" which then branches once its ready to flower, and if you pinched out when small I think you'd get more of a bush.

(I strapped a cane to my single-stem once it branched 'coz in the first year it was not up to supporting its own head as that then developed and probably would have snapped otherwise)

Dunno about your variety, but mine [grown from seed last Spring] were kept in Conservatory, potted on to prevent them becoming pot bound, and reached about 6' - 7' before flowering which was around August I think.

Not all of them flowered first season.

Worth taking cuttings off the flowering stem in the late Autumn (above the "fork") as they will flower immediately as smaller plants (i.e. they are already "adult wood") whereas cutting back a seed-grown plant in the second year takes you back to immature wood AFAIK and you'd have to wait for the regrowth before flowering.

You can take long cuttings - plenty of info on the Net I'm sure

My plants, from seed last year, are flowering in the conservatory already this year (and its been the most rubbish-est spring ever, of course) . The cuttings are still small plants, so not flowering yet, but I am expecting them to start at a reasonable height! ... although ... the flowers hang down, so flowering higher up is not a disadvantage, but overwintering vast plants is a bit of a PITA :(

 

I took long cuttings last autumn which in the main rooted well .. I did various lengths from 12in's to 24 in's .. They have just been repotted into 6in pots and have this wonderful fork with good growth above .I did find the variagated one didn't root as well so have retained the old plants . Will be seeing how they look over the summer .
You may well be right about that early stop Kristen, have never tried as I have only propagated by cuttings..So John if you have several seedlings ,it may be worth a try on a couple...
Dave

 

Here's the slightly taller of my two "seedlings", now approx 2ft tall and in an 8" pot; they're now too big for the bedroom windowsill and have been moved to the kitchen until tomorrow when they can be moved to the greenhouse now that the weather has warmed up considerably....



One more question if I may :WINK1:, are they sun worshippers or do they prefer some shade???, Thanks