Mpabbott1 gave me a cutting of Day Dreams a few years ago. This Brug is a survivor. I nearly lost her once. Then she lingered not doing much when all my Brugs went dormant last summer. She was one of the few that escaped being mauled by grasshoppers this year and has finally produced 2 blooms with a few more buds.
Another view of the same bloom. I don't know what happened to the calx. Both blooms have the same yellowish cast to the calyces.
This white noid has had blooms on her since October with short rests in between.
Jacayna bloom with only 5 pointers instead of the 6 she is supposed to have. All the other blooms have been 6 pointers.
Dorthea bloom and 2 seedpods from of Dorthea x Jacayna cross.
I hope this little seedpod makes it through winter. It's a Rubirosa x Wild & Crazy cross.
Nice pics. Daydreams is a trooper. One of mine did not do well this summer because of the extreme heat and long dry weather.
Grasshoppers!!!! I do not care for them at all.
Janice
Daydreams is gorgeous. I have one, but it didn't bloom t all this past year.
This is the first time she has bloomed for me. Last time I was in the greenhouse, two days ago, she was in her white stage and I couldn't see her name tag. She was such a wonderful surprise today! This is a photo of her other bloom. Not quite as gorgeous, but still beautiful.
Wonderful Veronica your Daydreams has given you a early Xmas present, just goes to show it pays to be patient som e times and not give up.
Veronica all your blooms are great, and to see them at Christmas time is even more spectacular, thanks for posting.
Doris
Beautiful! What a great suprise.
Dee
I have guineas they love grass hoppers if you have plants guineas are worth having just to keep the bugs down and snakes
LOL. A few guinea hens? I would have needed hundreds of them. Even then, I would not have been able to get rid of the grasshoppers because my neighbors' grasshoppers would move in to fill the void. All the neighborhood coyotes would be ever so grateful for dinner. Before we moved to the ranch, I could not have imagined that many grasshoppers except maybe in a movie.
The most effective way to control such large numbers of grasshoppers would be for all the ranchers to till the top 3" of soil in September. No rancher would be willing to till under all his pastures.
In georgia they go in flocks of 100 or more I have a dozen and they don't stay home they go all over were ever the bug is owls get them they sleep high up in trees hawks are there worst enemy here. They would go to town on those bugs won't even have to fed them much
We have had grasshoppers in the past and we had guineas. We had no where near as much destruction as most neighbors. We have not had many grasshoppers in the last few years so we got rid of the guineas. They just had to roost in the redbuds next to our bedroom window and we couldn't take the constant pot-racking. But as far as coyotes, they wouldn't have a chance with the bid guy around.
He's beautiful Ken. Is he as soft and cuddly as he looks?
He is one of the sweetest Pyrenees we have ever had. Here he is with me and Molly (a drop-off dog).
This was when Nadine ( Moodine on Dave's ) came up to get one of his puppies and we are on her hide a bed.
Veronica
what a Georgeous Flower, it's good to see you have Blooms at this time of year, Great job Girl
Elizabeth
She barely survived our long dry summer with water restrictions, but bloomed for me a few weeks ago. I only kept about 10 Brugs, and she's one of them. All of my brugs had a miserable summer, there's only a trunk and one branch still alive on Rothkirch, but now Bad Angel and Dorthea are full of buds. Fascination has already bloomed, and Creamsickle went wild as soon as the cooler nights came. We've only had one light early morning frost, so even with the summer's loss, life is good.
Mary
Very pretty, Veronica.
I like this one, too :)
OMG!!!! All of those brugs are gorgeous! :)
I still have some Brugs blooming. I went out and took a few photos of some blooms.
Day Dreams has 1 bloom. A bit paler than the first blooms earlier in the month, but still as beautiful.
Maya has several blooms on it. It also has several seedpods. I know the seedlings will be albinos, but I hated to cut the pods off.
A few years ago, a winch handle knocked a table full of rooted cuttings in gallon cans over. I managed to save most of the plants, but suddenly I had a table full of noids as most of the named labels fell out of the pots. One of those survived the grasshoppers and is blooming for the first time. The flower is white and re-curved. Not my favorite Brug shape, but she's a survivor.
I had the yard fence line moved and now have some shade. She's one of the ones, I'm putting in the ground this spring.
Angels Moonlight has been producing blooms since it cooled down in October. She's darker than her usual pale yellow. I love it!
I love the blooms on Miss B'Havin. The outer short skirt has retained the green striping along the veins. She's listed as a double, but counting that short skirt, she's been producing blooms with 3 skirts. She's kind of special as I almost lost her several times, but I babied her and she came back to bloom for me.
Aw heck. I thought I had rotated all the photos.
All I can say is BBB........Beautiful Blooms Betty!!!
I am a lurker and yes those blooms are awesome. I have a question or two if your don't mind.
I have 12 brugmansias. I winter them over indoors. The first year I was told to over-winter the in an unheated garage. They froze. So I cut them all down to the soil and placed them (there were 4 at the time) in the basement thinking I would empty them out when it got nice and plant something else in them in spring, Well they grew from the roots and came back bigger and more beautiful than ever! That summer we had a 3-season porch added to the house. For two years we heated that room from Dec till March and kept the brugs out there. They would bloom for me in Feb and March then not again till August and Sept and Part of October outside and would continue to bloom throughout the rest of October inside. heating the sun room got to be pretty expensive on the electricity so DH said NOT THIS YEAR! So he put plastic on the Part of the East side the whole south side and the whole west side. We kept the door to the house open at night for the house heat to filter in there. The room never got below 40º and during the day when the sun came out it would get almost 70 out there. Yesterday Jean Pasco had 6 buds that I'm convinced would have been open by Tuesday.
Here's my problem. Last night it was -5º and the door somehow got shut tight. I got up at 6:30 it was -3º and the leaves on the brugs are all droopy and frozen looking and Jean Pasco has dropped every last one of his buds. They should be okay right?????? Should I cut the leaves out and cut back the wilty new growth? or should I just leave it.
I don't live in a warm climate but I just love these plants and last year and the year before it was so uplifting to go out there first thing in the morning and see the beautiful blooms and the fragrance! We would leave the door open then too and the fragrance greeted me the minute I walked into the living room. Was so nice when it was the dead of winter and snow outside my window.
I don't want to lose these and really need some good advice from people who know Brugs.... Anyone out there with some good advice or what they know and believe to come out of this? 12 is an awful lot to replace and we just made a complete bed that I can put all of my tropicals in the ground for the summer. I know doing that created more fall work for me digging them up and dragging them inside but I really believe they would do better in the ground.
Advice? anyone?
The only advice I can give is make sure the door stays open. I would wait to see how much damage the plants suffered before I cut anything. In zone 5 it is costly to over winter anything tropical. Good luck.
The tips of the stems are softy but I can go down to a firm node and there is still the y's. I'[m hoping they are okay, I will wait a bit before cutting them back. Thank you for getting back to me.
Sometimes it takes a while for all the damage to show up. I would do as kenboy suggests and wait. Some Brugs are more cold sensative than others. It depends on their genetic make-up. Generally, Brugs get damaged starting at 32º-34º, but other factors also come into play. The age of the plant, how big it is, how branched the top was, size of the pot, how long they were exposed to freezing temperatures, how low the temperature got, etc.
I lived near Cincinnati for 4 years and the idea of having just a plastic barrier between me and -3ºF temperatures is chilling to say nothing about the heat loss going out that open door. It seems to me that the best option for overwintering your Brugs would be your basement. Soil is a great insulator so it shouldn't get too cold down there. Perhaps you could make do with a small electric heater and some florescent lights. If carrying pots downstairs is too daunting, take large 3'+ cuttings that include 2 or 3 layers of "Y"s. Place the cuttings in buckets filled with 4" - 6" of water. Some DGers set up a bubbler to keep the water aerated. That extra oxygen helps the cuttings root better and keeps the water cleaner. A bubbler is nothing more than a small aquarium air pump, air hose, a splitter if you have more than 1 bucket and an air stone for each bucket.
Cuttings don't have the strength to bloom and they may lose all their leaves, but the up side is that you don't have to carry the large pots downstairs. By spring they should have nice healthy roots ready to pot up. Since they retain the "Y" plus a few more, they should bloom earlier.
Even if the tops die down to soil level, if the roots and some of the underground trunk are still alive, you'll get new growth. It may take a while for this to occur so be patient.
I'm just sick. Thank you for the good advice. The door will stay open the rest of this season, I made darn sure of that. May take upn your suggestion Bettydee for next fall. Thanxs all,
