As not everyone has their books yet I thought I'd pass along a few bits that I found interesting.
~When a shoot is changing to flower formation, then it forms a subequal leaf basis (where the leaf meets the stem, one side of the leaf is higher up the stem)
~Extreme pruning of the plants while they are overwintering hinders the start of flowering in the next vegetative period (spring)
~Cuttings taken from the vegetative region (the main stem) flower later than tip cuttings taken from the flowering region (branches)
~Arborea flowers evenly and constantly
~Aurea fruit reach a size of 4inches long and 2inches wide
~Aurea has the largest leaves of all the species - 28in x 14inches
~Insignis flowers in bursts and needs more heat than the other species
~ No white flowered sanguineas have been found
~Sanguinea will have no blooms in very warm temperatures..in this species, temperatures above 71F inhibit flower development
~Versicolor flowers in bursts. In no other species do so many flowers bloom at the same time. Once each bud has reached a certain size it stops growing and waits until sufficient buds have formed for the next flowering phase. All the buds then enter the final development stage together and open at the same time.
~~~~~ Neat, this is only to page 43
Interesting bits from Preissel
I can't wait to get my book. Lots to learn in this book, it sounds like.
I called to order mine but they are closed till the 4th. :(
Liz, does it tell the parents of any common crosses?
Not really, Arlene. Not by name anyway. What it does is take each species and identify the characteristics. Then it takes the common crosses and identifies their characteristics. There is a chart of which species have been successfully crossbred that produced viable seeds. There is also a terrific chart showing the shapes and sizes of leaves, blooms and fruit/seed. I guess theoretically you could take, say Ecuador Pink, and backtrack your way through the charts. But even the book warns of multi crossings that aren't completely identifiable because records weren't kept.
Where did you get this book? What is it called? Sounds like one I would like to have. Me being new to the brug scene, I have a lot of questions and a lot to learn. :-)
Green_Leaf here's a thread about the book http://davesgarden.com/showthread/149459.html I understand it can also be ordered through Amazon - but won't ship until March.
Liz I thought the bit about the sanguinea & vulcanicola seed pods was real interesting. You can not tell if the seeds are ripe as the fruit casing remains green & does not dry out like other species. If the fruit is left on the plants too long they'll begin to germinate inside the pods and die if left in the closed fruit. He says to harvest the pods exactly 8 months from pollination. You have some pods on your snaguinea don't you?
Thanks!
Yes I do. Unfortunately I didn't have the book at the time and someone told me I'd have to wait about 10 months for the seed to ripen. I assumed that you'd be able to tell when the seed was ripe like the others - softness and peduncle. When I read that in the book I went scrambling back to try and figure out when I pollinated them. The best I can come up with is mid July. So that means mid March. I will never try pollinating again without adding date labels.
Liz, maybe you could get brugcrazy's husband to do laparoscopy once in a while to check the pod for sprouts.....lol
One or two of the things I found interesting-In a section where it says certian names have been used for certian varieties and they are really somethings else example: "Datura Knightii SIEBERT & VOSS, 1895 ,Invalid name for Brugmansia arborea,does that mean that the knightii that everyone wants is a arborea? or that a brug was eventually named Knightii?.....Also where the heck do I get "Oro Verde" ...B.sanguinea f. variegata ,an natural form found by H. Groschel(Ingelheum,Germany) in Ecuador,it has golden -yellow flowers.Its leaves are variegated green and yellow,and are distinctly furry.
Arlene - where I live (and except Brugcrazy's house) - MD's don't make house calls.
CC - Hodnik carries Oroverde. All kinds of goodies out there to drool over.
Will we in the US be able to order from Hodniks after Jan. or will we limited now as to where we can buy?
I got a certificate from them when I received my order so it probably just effects the growers that did not have the certificates
Great. Gives me hope for spring. :) Does anyone have a list they can send me for Hodnik.I e-mailed them a while back and they sent it to me but my puter says Windows does'nt have program to open it.I'd sure like to look through it this winter.