New to the World of Brugmansia and Totally Addicted!

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum and also to the world of Brugmansia. I'd like to write a bit about my addiction and then ask for assistance with a problem.

On 9 Nov. 2002, I attended a huge sale at Fairchild Tropical Garden, here in Miami, FL. I had a list of things to buy; Brugmansias were not on the list. I saw person after person walk by me with these beautiful trees so I went in search of them. When I found them, only a few were left, and I selected a 5' tall 'Ecuador Pink' that had one flower and one bud on it. I paid my $15 and went happily home to research Brugmansia and to find a nursery in my neck of the woods that sold them. Later that evening I went outside to smell the flower and my addiction began.

I discovered from my research that it is quite easy to start new plants from cuttings so I went to Ebay in search of cuttings. Nine days later, I had the following cuttings: Isabella, Peach Salmon, Sunray, Candida Double White, My Pink, Cypress Gardens, Insignis 'Frosty Pink', Charles Grimaldi, Jean Pasco, and Wildform. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, cutting my cuttings into smaller lengths and putting some of them into water, some of them into soil.

Well, I'm happy to report that most of the cuttings are doing quite well! Most of them have leaves and they appear to be growing more each day. However, I had three Candida Double White (CDW) cuttings in soil and I've lost all three. I knew that all of the cuttings wouldn't make it but I was crushed by the loss of all of one type. Is the CDW particularly hard to root? Should I have done something different with the CDW cuttings? I also lost one 'Isabella', 'Charles Grimaldi', and 2 'My Pink', but the other cuttings of these types are doing well. I even took a cutting from the Ecuador Pink, and started several new cuttings and they all seem to be doing well. I'm also pleased to report that when I checked on the 'Ecuador Pink' today, she is full of small buds! I think she likes the area where she is planted and she must love the Osmocote that I've been giving her for the past few weeks.

Well, I know this is an extremely long post so please forgive me and just chalk it up to the over exuberance of a new Brugmansia addict! I would love any advice about the care of Brugmansias, particularly advice about my problem with the Candida Double White. I've also posted a picture of one of my new cuttings that I can't believe was just a bare stick, less than a month ago. :-)

Delecie

Hello and welcome to Daves. Wish I could help you with the CDW, but I also had problems with mine. I was given a plant this year and still I had problems. It seems that the spider mites like this one really well. I have given up and am going back to Species. It has always done well for me in the past. Hope you get some good answers to your questions. I'll be checking back in hopes that your help from others will benefit me as well. Again, welcome and hope to see you often.

Shirley

HAHA!! It is very easy to get addicted I found this out myself. I had seen brugmansia all my life and it didn't hit me what they were until I saw a friends insignis pink one. See ,my grandmother has had a plant all my life, a white old fashioned plain single! I started cuttings off this and have added off an on the last 2 years. I now have a small brug forest, but lost tags when I moved last year!!! I am a newbee here myself, its wonderful here!

Katrina

For a newbie to brugs, I think you are doing great. I believe most all of here have lost cuttings from time to time. You have joined the best place to learn about brugs and the people here are generous when they have cuttings. I will take a look tomorrow and see what cuttings that I have rooting now and I would be glad to send you some for postage. Email me if you are interested. It is so nice having you join our group . . . you will love it here.

welcome welcome!!!! I too found that CDW is harder to root than most. I lost all the cuttings I tried to start in water. I have more in soil, barely watered and they are doing better.
If you don't get totally addicted, you aren't a true brugie!! LOL! we love partially addicted, mildly addicted, but I think most of us understand the total brug addict the best:)
Here's another place you can look around, after you explore all of DG (which has the biggest brug database on line)

http://www.brugmansia.us

Delecie --run to hills while you still have a chance! It's too late for some of us.... of course if I could buy a brug that is 5' feet tall for $15 I'd be nekkidd!
tiG--You make us newbies feel better with that story--I'm tired of staring at the cuttings and waiting for them to talk back. I kept thinking my singing was making them shriel up and die....but my DH is still here so I guess not.

Welcome delecie. You're sure in the right place if you want to grow and learn about Brugs. This forum is made up of a great group of knowledgable Brug growers and hybridizers that can usually answer any question that's asked and they are always happy to help.

What a great story!
delicie - you sound like one of us already! Don't take it too hard losing the odd cutting. Maybe the CDW was too green, maybe the mother plant had mites and it wouldn't root. We've all lost cuttings. I must have 150 rooting right now, if not more - but I have one that I will lose 4 for every one I root. It happens.
Glad you could join us ~~

Liz-- stop rubbing salt in the wounds of those that have bad luck with rooting brugs...grin I'm just jealous!

dr - I have lost hundreds - that's why I always start them in 2inch pots - lol - I don't feel so bad when I'm only tossing a bit of soil.There are all kinds of reasons that you can lose cuttings - a lot of them have to do with their life before you get them.

Hi Delicie I think that the cuttings were not fresh and they were sent dry in a box right. I got cutting from e-Bay from the same person it sounds like according to your list and lost most of mine to from this person. Don't feel so bad. Your at the right place now and we will get you hooked up come spring or fall.

Hi Delecie,
Welcome to Daves and the world of Brugs.

As you already know the doubles are a little harder to root then the rest but they are worth the trouble once you do get one to root. Ckeck with Frannie(BrugNanny) and if she can't help you out maybe I can.

Wow! I feel like everyone has welcomed me with open arms and that I've found a new family, a Brugmansia family. :-) I have a feeling that with great Brugmansia family members and all of the prayers and singing that my cuttings receive each day, that my cuttings will do just fine!

Liz, I am astounded that you have 150 cuttings. That number makes my 40+ cuttings pale in comparison! Where do you keep them all? Also, when should cuttings be given fertilizer?

Desert_rose, it's too late for me to run to the hills. LOL I have told everyone at work about my cuttings and I have pictures of: the cuttings when they first arrived, the beginning of the rooting process, and their current growth. I plan to e-mail these pictures of my new children to my boss and my co-workers. LOL I even have a Brugmansia list that contains the names of my co-workers that want some of my plants after they're larger. All of my cuttings had new homes, before I even received them! :-) And, I'm currently researching plants that I can plant in a bed with the Brugs. :-)

tiG, the site is great! I have already bookmarked it. Thank-you for the hyperlink.

DonnaB, thanks for the comforting words. When I received the box of cuttings, the cuttings were nicely labeled and neatly banded together, but there was no moisture inside, just a piece of dry newspaper. The CDW cutting was green and smaller than the other cuttings. It seems like the thicker cuttings that were also a bit browner, are the ones that are doing great.

BrugNanny, thank-you for offering me some of your cuttings. I would be happy to receive cuttings in the future, especially of CDW. However, since I am a novice, I think I'll concentrate on my surviving cuttings, before I try my hand at additional cuttings. :-)

A huge thank-you to everyone who has responded and will respond. I am so happy to be a part of my new 'family'. I have to get ready for Mass now so I wish everyone a pleasant day and lots of sunshine and warmth from sunny South Florida! :-)

Welcome Delecie and Katrina. if you guys want total addiction, go back on this forum and look at monika, tonny and ludger's pics....
the rooting is the same and apparently different. i have no luck with tip cuttings in water, and you probably won't either being relatively close to me, maybe it's the humidity. tip cuttings root for me in the summer, but my own conditions for rooting change between seasons. when i cut back some moms i didn't even bother sticking the tip cuttings, where in summer they would mostly root in a heart beat in soil.
Katrina, nice to see you here, hope to see you in person saturday. there is a good bunch of traders around here, funny enough i met them on the web. really funny, i worked with robin's dad in the 70s. norma is a sweetie too. the 3 of us are all less than 5 miles from each other. and regina... she was just in the paper again with her plants!

Delecie...theres a nursery in Vero Beach that has close to 100 cultivars of these plants..some for sale others not yet..but if you can go to the nursery and pick out things or see the stock trees to decide even better.Its Called Native Habitat Ethnobotanicals....www.nativehabitat.com

Welcome delecie!! And Katrina.... and any other newbies I may have missed. Gosh - I've been a scatterbrain lately.

We love family photos Delecie so please post their growth for us often!