Some Brugmansia blooms in the Sunshine

Here's a picture of my measly ones, in the Jungle Garden I planted this Spring I need to prop them up a bit better - that's a job for the weekend.

 

They are flowering well Kristen. Surprisingly they do need propping up with canes, even when their trunk is several times the size of the cane - it looks so daft.

I still haven't cracked the problem of feeding them when they are in the ground. In a pot its easy to feed on a regular basis. But feeding the ground is like using a patio heater to make the summer warmer. Also the ones planted out have been really badly attacked by slugs.

I cheated a bit with mine. The central yellow one is about three years old and was kept indoors over the winter under some low level grow lights - just enough to keep it in leaf. And the small right hand pink one was a cutting taken last October and overwintered indoors. As a result of a warm overwintering they are both now in their second flush. However I am pleased with the left hand one at the back which was overwintered in a frost free greenhouse and has now come into flower for the first time.

 

Indeed. I wanted an "arching" effect over the path, hence the canes, otherwise I think I would have used stakes, and maybe grown a "standard"

I do wonder if I should have pinched them out when small, before the time, to make they fork, so that I got a bush effect. Dunno if the stems would have been any stronger though.

The cuttings I have taken I am growing on outdoors. Much slower than the greenhouse, and will be 2 years to decent size, but perhaps the stems will be more sturdy?

Me neither! Mine are in plunged-pots so I can bring them in this Winter (but more because I wasn't sure on planting position and thought I might want to move them mid-Summer)

Mine stayed in leaf in my unheated conservatory - only just hit 0C on the really cold night 14/15th February. But then were in the middle of a forest of "stuff" in the conservatory in the Spring and didn't get repotted, or routinely watered & fed. I need to put that right for next year.

Same applies to my Cannas really, too much to do in the Spring, and everything crammed in means they have to take their chances. I am thinking this year I will put them to bed, in the Autumn, already potted up in fresh compost, so they can get cracking in the Spring. Same with Colocasias and some other things like that - when they are ready in the spring they can get going and not have any fresh-root disturbance being repotted.

Yours look great now

 

Thanks Kristen.

I am really not sure, but I suspect that pinching them out will make them more branched and shorter, but won't make them bloom any quicker. I understand that its not the fork that makes them bloom, but the bloom that makes them fork - because they bloom on the apical tip. I suspect that it takes a certain number of weeks to achieve maturity and hence to be able to bloom, and I doubt that pinching them out reduces that period.

Last year most of my seed grown ones (from an early sowing) bloomed that year. But a lot didn't because. after reaching a good height, a very windy period snapped a number of them in two - leaving just a stem which never flowered. So I am still waiting for a number of last year's plants to show me their colours.

 

Sorry, wasn't meaning that pinching them out would "hurry" them up, just that if you don't do that you wind up with a walking-stick! - which is fine if you want a standard, but I do wonder if a bush would be nicer (but still flowering high-ish up, unlike a short cutting which will flower lower down).

Maybe "bush trained" would just become a nightmare to support?

 

Kristen - sorry I misunderstood you.

But you have put your finger on another point that still perplexes me. And that is - how to show off Brugs to the best extent. Ideally I would like Brugs that forked at 5 or 6 feet and then had millions of blooms, that could be seen from underneath. But as the blooming portion would only start at 6 feet, the entire plant would be taller still and would be a nightmare to overwinter. My shed and greenhouse have no more than 7 feet headroom at best.

My yellow Brug had loads of blooms last year but it was only 4 feet high and you couldn't see them properly as you were always looking down from above. But then I put the pot on the edge of a 2 foot raised bed - which is its current position, and this made it look infinitely better. My pink Brug is also on the raised bed next to the yellow, but it is still so short that I can't see the blooms properly. Next year hopefully it will be taller and look better.

 

Indeed. I think one way would be to root "long cuttings", but another is (as you have done with your pot-on-raised-bed) to lift the plant.

The Brugs at East Ruston Old Vicarage (my all time favouritist garden) always impress me. I'm pretty sure that all of them are in containers, but there might be a few planted out.









We're due to visit there again in a week or two, I'll have a closer look at that last one to see if its a pot, or if it is "supported" in some way.

 

Nice pictures Kristen.

You are right - I think those are long cuttings. I have heard of someone taking a 4 foot cutting on another forum. Those long stems do improve the look of the plant. And from the size of the stems they are quite old plants. But you can only get a long stem cutting, I presume, from a seed grown plant. And you can't tell what colour a seed grown plant will be.

 

I get a bout of depression whenever I go there ... well ... and inspired too!

Yup, but (unless I'm misunderstanding?) the Fork thing still applies - so a cutting taken including above/below the fork will flower, and one from before the fork occurs will "grow some more" before flowering/forking.

 

What great pictures!! Beautiful! I confess that I over winter some large ones in the greenhouse and do take long cuttings too. Over the years I've built 5 raised beds, purely so I could plunge the pots in and get my nose underneath them, or at least have a good view on them. They also don't blow over, like they do in pots, and get to put longer roots down.

Here's a picture of Mango Crush. It can sky rocket upwards, but I've been fortunate to see it flower at around 3 ft, in the raised bed. Very tropical looking, and has a habit of closing up during the day, opening in the evening, like a Suav.


Hope to post a few more in the coming days
Wayne

 

That's a lovely colour Wayne.

 

This is Morgensonne. it closes during ther day( that's the Suav in her) and flares open in the evening. Nice spicy sweet scent, generally a really cheery flower!!
It should colour up some more, with orange at the tips, but the weather is probaly too cool. Maybe this weekend, on the other buds!
Wayne

 

Lovely Wayne. I have so many exotic things that are just doing nothing because of the cold weather. So its nice to have Brugs that just carry on regardless. Iochroma keeps going too.

 

Hello all, here is Charleston, a double white, very sleek for a double.

 

This is Bernstein. My only whinge is that it does'nt last long, but she is a looker!!