Colors of flowers of one species can differ. CG for instance has a even more rich orange colored flower, when its warm with much air humidity. CG is the mother of Luminosa, Pollinator was a golden colored aurea.
CG, one parent of Luminosa
CG - meaning Charles Grimaldi?
I'll never swear at all my Grimaldis again. Ok -half are now Dr Seuss. What a gorgeous colour - must have been a really gold coloured aurea. Is my monitor colour off?? It looks orange - like sherbet.
Monika... can soil and fertilizer determine the color density???
Pete
Yes, it does. Since I have no water available that has calcium, I am using a calcium fertilizer to keep the ph - value of the soil at about 6,5 - 7. The soil, I use, is s special soil for gardeners (Fruhstorfer). A Professor by that name developed this soil. It contains fine lava, three layering volcanic clay, tree bark (in mulch form), peat and some more ingredients. Its an artificial soil made out of natural things (did you all understand what I meant)?
The ph is brought up to the neutral of 7 by adding calcium to the soil.
Most fertilizer have more ammonium N than nitrate. Ammonium reacts acid and by the high amount of fertilzer, needed to feed Brugmansia, the pot soil will get acid, and often very fast. To prevent this, I use Calcium salpetre and a fertilizer without N. People having much calcium in their water, dont have to worry about this at all, as the needed calcium is brought to the plant with every watering.
Calcium gets washed out through watering just as N + K does.
KYLE,I NEED YOUR HELP IN TRANSLATING THIS CORRECTLY
Monika, this makes sense to me. The fertilzers i have been using are lower in nitrogen. we have "hard" water. can't find my pH meter. Is the bottom line the pH that affects color, or that with sunlight etc? it seems to me that time of year here really affects the colors, the same flowers look different in spring than in our hot humid summers.
I just tried another answer, by my Computer got hanged up.
Brugmansia flowers can be described correctly only during the summer month Mid July to Mid August. The time of the year has a strong influence on Flower size and color take the daylight lenghts for instance). But the rest, ph value of the soil, fertilizer etc. must be correct also. Brugmansia really color up on warm summer days with much air humidity, about 70 - 80%. The color is hold genetic, but acid soil will make colors pale and the plant sick, to much alkali kills the plant.
Liz, this is a real color of CG, like sherbet. The picture was taken on one of those, for Brugmansias optimal summer days. CG is topped only by its offspring, Luminosa, the names explains it: luminous.
This message was edited Sunday, Apr 14th 9:18 AM
Monika..our water in central Iowa is about 9 on PH so we have very hard water..it makes it hard to get fertilizer to work properly when the water is so hard. It dissolves slowly and doesn't seem to absorb well.
Kyle, now I have to look into my University translation book to explain. What do you call hard water? We use this for water rich on Calcium, permament hardiness and Carbonat hardiness. Carbonat can be boiled out, if I remember correct. This is GH (complete hardiness) or KH, Carbonat,
both together make the complete Hardiness of the water. But you better let me look up the correct translation before I confuse you and me completely.
The hardiness of the water has nothing to do with the ph. Very hard water still has a neutral ph value with the exception of such out of alkaline regions. Have you checked the ph of your water or only its hardiness!
hard water means lots of minerals to me. will have to check and see what mine is.
Had to bring this one back up. Not sure what my water is here, but I do water mostly with rain water. I also planted my brugs last year with 2 TBS. of ground egg shells under each plant. Would that be enough calcium?
Thanks for bringing these back up Shirley - my new monitor has fabulous color and finally I can appreciate the pictures at their best.
This Charles Grimaldi has the most beautiful color. I hope mine will look like this next year. For all these years this is what I thought I had until I found out last year that they were all Dr. Suess plants. Now, I have a start of Kell's Grimaldi. Can't wait!!