Iochroma cyaneum

'Wine Red' - this is from Kartuz. The color looks darker now that it's outside - it looked pink in the house. This plant is woody compared to the acnistis I started from seeds. Sorta looks like a mini-sang ;)

that is so pretty!!!! next spring I will order these!

Oh Poppy, that's another gotta-have. It's beauty-ful.

I'll try to root cuttings for ya. I'm not sure how easy they are to root but I'll try.

Are you sure it's I. cyaneum? I thought the pink to red ones were I. fuchsioides. I may have mine mislabeled, however.

Judith, it is Cyaneum. Poppysue, I've tried to root the Royal Blue and Indigo and have got one to root so far. I just took three cuttings of each again last night and have them started in sand. I'm sure the first one to root took at least three weeks and maybe longer and then when I transplanted it, I had a problem with it wanting to wilt for a couple of weeks. Finally it is ready to go to it's new owner. Now if I could just get the other one to root so I can send them both at the same time. I love the Wine Red. Wish I had ordered that one, but sometimes the brain just doesn't function properly. :-)

Sorry, spelling error AGAIN!!

This message was edited Wednesday, Jun 5th 10:41 PM

I think this calls for some "experimenting". I'll practice on the A. australe.

I am trying to root the 'Wine Red' as well. Started it before I left, will see how it has been doing. If not, the guy in Kartuz showed me what to do with it, must admit I wouldn't have thought it would work that way. Hmmm, anyway I got another color from him, it is like a bright orange color, he called it something can't remember, will have to look when I get home. Hope the "luggage" does ok. Boy you should have seen the speciman plants of the Iochroma around here. The trunks on them have to be about 4" in diameter and about an average of 4 ft tall. Just beautiful and they are all blooming here. Just like miniture brugs. Hope they do that well in FL. I got a good size plant and it is blooming so will take pictures when I get home.

Dee - you'll have to fill us in on the rooting tricks. Sounds like you've had a good time.

Well pooh, the cutting bit the dust, back to the drawing board, I think maybe the cutting was to thin in the stem though, this plant seems to have doubled in size since I left. Maybe the cuttings will do better. OK, this is what he showed me. I know some of you already use perlite to root things, I have tried and they don't do well in the stuff. He takes metal pans, like the old baking pans, I know some of us know what they look like and even still have, lol, back to the subject, take the old baking pans and fill them with the perlite and just enough water to wet the stuff and poke the cuttings in it. There were no drainage holes in the pans (could have been my problem) and he didn't make little greenhouses out of them, just kept them in the greenhouse itself. He said you have to keep them in the bright light and keep them warm, but they should take long that way. Wonder what the old baking pans have to do with it. Sure wish you could have seen the place. Not quite what I expected but not like Earl's for those that have been there. Such a nice guy. Well I hope this works, the only thing I could think of different was the metal pans that hadn't been tried, and one of you may have even tried that. Maybe they don't like the humidity, it really was dry there. Gonna start some tomorrow that way. Will keep updated on the progress.

Dee,
Iochroma is a little harder to root then Brugs even though they are in the same family. The ones I rooted last year took a month or so to root and I had at least 75% success rate. I had better luck with the harder wood cuttings then I did with the soft cuttings. I'm sorry we wasn't able to go to Kartuz while I was there but glad you got to go.

Poppysue, that is a gorgeous red.

Sue that is gorgeous! How big is it?Do you treat it just like a brug?