Some Brugmansia blooms in the Sunshine

Hi Averil - and a very warm welcome to the forum.

I am still learning about Brugs myself, even though I have a number.

I think that the starting point with any plant is to look at where it came from and then try to reproduce those circumstances. They come from South America, typically from damp areas in the Andes at heights of 6000 feet or more. This means that that they grow quite well in cool weather, and can even take a bit of frost.

From what I read they like lots of sunshine, but not direct sun in the hottest part of the day. The reason is that they have huge leaves (which implies they like some shade) and they can lose an enormous amount of water from them if they get too hot. Having said that in Yorkshire full sun is probably equivalent to part shade in the Andes - so I don't worry too much. But if the leaves droop in the hottest part of the day they would prefer some shade.

When they are growing strongly they like lots of water and lots of feed. I have read that if you feed them every day they will give ten times as many flowers as if you rarely or never feed. I feed with every watering - but haven't started yet. Like any other plant before it flowers I feed with a balanced feed - Miraclegrow, but once they start flowering I use a high Potassium feed such as Phostrogen which is the same as tomato feed. I usually just add Potassium salts, which you can buy separately, to the Miracle grow powder. Its much cheaper that buying liquid Tomato feed.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Averil

Take your time & have a look around, we don't bite & theres usually someone around to help if you get lost

 

He's greedy, so you'll struggle to OVER feed him

 

Thanks folks, Nice site here i have to say. Kristen thanks for that. I had heard they like to be fed a lot. Ive been feeding him twice a week. Could he maybe needing to be fed more than that then?

 

Excellent advice Pete, and welcome Averil. Brugmansia's are a terrible obsession, I know!! So many hybrids, sub species, colours and scents.
Enjoy yourself and when your plant develops it's first bud, feed, feed, feed!

Wayne

 

Oh heck i thought i had put a reply in earlier but obviously didnt post it

Peter, thank you so much for your excellent advice, I have googled around and there is so much conflicting information, I didnt know what to do for the best. I shall follow what you have said, and Im sure Bertie will go from strength to strength
Wayne, I bought my brug as a cutting on ebay and i have also bought some sanguinea seeds which i have in a propagator, so if i am sucssessful in overwintering Bert and my seeds come along okay, i am sure they will become an obsession. I think they are the most gorgeous plants
Thanks everyone, you are very kind

 

I think whichever suits you best. If you are going to feed "every watering" then you should use a half-strength mix. For me its too much faff to do it every watering, so I use slow-release fertilizer (the things that look like hundreds-and-thousands) and also feed when I remember, which is about once a week. They have Rotted Manure in the bottom of the (ginormous!) pots too

 

SLUGS! SLUGS! and more SLUGS eating my poor little Brug. Has anyone any tips. Ive put vaseline round the pot and even on the plant stalk but the blighters are still out there having a feast

 

The sun was shining and this bllomed a few days ago, so I though I'd share with you all. It's called Angel's Swingtime. Slight lemon scented, and has a marbled orange on the edges. Nice Brug!
Wayne

 

Oh .....loving/drolling your brug blooms.
Thank you for sharing.

cb

 

Most of my Brugs are still a long way from blooming but this is one that caught my eye. It was a cutting taken last autumn from a plant grown from seed earlier that year.

The strange thing is that all the flowers started out yellow and later turned pink.

 

Applying my spock-like logic, I think that this very nice Brug has more Versicolor genes in it. I know I must sound awfully clever, but Versicolor just means " of several colours??". Versicolour always hang down straight and are the largest of the Brug family. Personally, it's great that it turns different colours, make's it an interesting bloom, doesn't it?

Wayne

 

Thanks Wayne - I had read that versicolor changed colour, but then I also read that others did so a bit as well. But I didn't know that "they always hang down straight and are the largest of the Brug family". Very helpful.

Part of the fun of growing from seed is that you don't know what you will get. But there again only 1 in 100 (or more) seed grown plants is a real winner.

 

Tis true..most Brugmansia hybrids these days stem from the Candida species, which is a combination of a Aurea and a Versicolor. Personally I'm a fan of the Aurea types that bloom almost horizontally, as well as having a most waxy long lasting appearance. Trouble is finding a pure Aurea is difficult, myself I've only seen some at Botanical gardens, not for sale anywhere, except one at Jungle plants.
I can't tell you where I got mine!!!

Actually here's a picture of mine with an Aurea in the forefront, and some Candida's in the background. That was a lucky time when three plants bloomed at the same time, that's another difference with Aurea's, they don't flush, but always have another bud coming. Yep, I'm a Aurea fanboy!

Wayne

 

Looking great Wayne