The leaves on two of my brugmansias stink, I checked the soil and there is no smell coming from there. They look healthy, so I don't know what's going on. They're stinking up my house, it's hard to describe the smell. Has anyone experienced this before? Any clue as to what this is and how to fix it? Can it be fixed or is that just how they smell?
Thanks!
Brugmansia Leaves Smelling
That is not how they are supposed to smell. You did smell the leaves and they are the cause of the smell?
The only time I have had an odor problem was this February, when the power went out, the tops froze on most of my Brugs and I had a greenhouse full of soggy and limp leaves and trunks. As the leaves and trunks were drying out, they emitted an odor similar to but not quite like propane with an overtone of decay. Once the leaves dried out, the odor disappeared.
Have you given those two Brugs anything different? Is there a difference in soil pH? What have you tried with the two Brugs? Will you provide more information please. This is something I have never heard of.
I have well over 150 brugs in my house no odor. I do have to add, i can't stand the smell of Datura.
I pruned them at the end of the summer. But when the leaves started growing back, the leaves smelled "old". I'm wondering if there is some kind of wood rot as the smell get's worse towards the ends of the branches and where the branch was pruned itself.
How does it look, any sign of rot??
Did any of the pruned ends die back?
no, the pruned ends look perfectly healthy.
I don't see any signs of rot. I only water when the soil is dry or almost dry, because it's not the season here yet for fast growth.
I think I was wrong about the leaves smelling more at the ends. ALL of the leaves just smell SO bad and they smell far worse than the branches
The plant itself is perfectly happy, it has flower buds on it and the leaves are green.
I'm close to just throwing it out. But I don't want to, it's my favorite out of all my brugmansias. It's just making my whole house smell.
I've attached a picture of the plant
Picture of pruned ends
Picture of an area where some small branches fell off a while ago. This is pretty normal for me in winter, the plants don't get very much light in this window and in winter, and lot's of immature branches fall off and leaves then only grow at the ends of the mature branches. Plenty more branches start to grow in again in spring.
Finally a picture of the soil. I don't see signs of over watering (no mildew or mold).
Looks like a healty happy plant to me, I was sniffing my leaves last night, could not smell anything. This is a puzzler.
I couldn't find any information that would explain why the leaves of just that Brug stink. Did the leaves of this Brug stink last year? If not, did you feed, treat or spray it with something out of the ordinary?
How long till you can safely put it outside, at least for the day. Give it a good rinse and run enough water through the soil to leach any salts and minerals in the soil to see if that helps get rid of the odor. (Reaching at straws here.). If you really like this Brug, the only thing I can suggest is to remove all but the smallest leaves.
If you still have it, when you take it outside, rinse off all the old soil and replace it with new potting mix.
Just out of curiosity, do you have any close-up photos of this Brugs' flowers — a side view? Is it a named cultivar?
In the summer, I did spray it with a neem oil / insecticidal soap combination. But this does not smell like neem oil or the soap, and most (if not all) of these leaves have since fallen off and been replaced. It will be at least a month or two before I can put this plant outside too.
I was wondering though if this neem oil / soap combo is still in the soil (much of the spray went into the soil by dripping off the leaves). But the soil doesn't smell. And I sprayed all the brugmansias last summer, so I don't know why just this one would stink.
This one is not a named cultivar to my knowledge. It is Ludgers Windsong x Tootsie. Unfortunately, I can't find the pictures that I took of the flower. It's the same color as Ludger's Windsong with just a tad more pink to it (I'd say between a gold and peach), Corolla teeth are about 1 1/2 inch, and the flower is 8 inches long. The end of the flower curls back like the Tootsie, but doesn't tend towards weird twisting deformities and the flowers are consistently the same. The flower has a strong fragrance, not really strong, but medium-strong. The fragrance fills up 1 or two large rooms. I've had one that fills up an entire floor, made me gag. Hybridizer of this brugmansia is Brenda Delph. I've seen other Ludgers Windsong x Tootsie (mostly by Brenda), but I think she had several different seedlings of this cross as I've seen another one that was more of a salmon color.
I'll try changing the soil. I have a room in the basement that's just bare concrete, I think I might be able to do it in a large bin without making too much mess. Then I'll be able to have a look at the roots too and see if there are any problems there. If that doesn't work, I'll remove most of the leaves like you said, although I think they'll just grow back stinky again. Oh well, maybe by the time the leaves grow back I'll be able to put it outside.
It didn't smell like this last year. I really wish I knew what was going on.
So do I. Please let us know what you find in the roots. This is nothing I have ever run across.