Hi all
I am looking for a bit of advise about wintering the red brugs and the blue brugs(actinus australis) I think that is the name. As neither of these are actually brugs (related though) how does everyone handle them in the winter? Will they go dormant or do they have to be grown indoors for the winter if there is frosty weather? Some of mine are 5 and 6 feet tall already and the stems are getting woody. Most of them are standards but will still take up a lot of room. Any tips?
You guys are great and I know someone else has has done this before:)
Bea
wintering blue brugs and red brugs
I have two plants but was told by the seller they would die if it got too cold so mine are in pots, I am dissapointed in them as they have grown a lot but still no flower after two years.
I brought mine inside and there are OK for now. Kareoke, I guess you are unlucky, mine were started from seeds this spring and gave me some blooms at the end of summer. Give them plenty of sun and fertilizer and they should be fine.
Thanks for the help. We had frost last night and will again tonight. Very unusual for us, wasn't expecting that for another month or so. I did rescue them and have them in the house now.I started them from seed last winter and neither had any flowers this year. I will try and put them in more sun next year.
Maybe karoke and I will have greener thumbs next year:)
Zarcanat are yours in bloom now or was that earlier in the summer? Did you get a picture? Would love to see them if you have one.
Bea
I did not take pictures since it had only a bloom at a time in september.
I must says that today... sigh... I threw them away since I have cyclamen mites all around my house and just cannot get rid of them. I am very sad about that because I had a nice plant collection; I even think that all the plants that are left will end the same way in a month or two. I am just so tired and fed up with pesticide spraying; which is not much efficient against that critter.
Hopefully I will find new nice plants next spring.
Hi everyone-
I have 5 Iochromas/Actinus Australis that I grew from seed this past summer, and I have Googled until blind trying to find out what to do with them this winter. Very little info available online. I did read that you can make them go dormant like brugs, they just take a bit longer to wake up in the spring. Under what conditions, basement v garage, light v total darkness, temps, etc was not provided however. Right now I have them in a cool back room with western ambient light, and they seem to be ok, just a bit of leaf loss. Still trying to get the courage to strip them and put them in the basement or garage- or to set up a light and keep them going that way. They do take up alotta room, and I have other plants crowding my small house, so dormant would be easier. But what if they don't wake up? Argh! Must..get...greenhouse!
I'm also seeing conflicting info about fertilizing- I read somewhere before that they dislike fertilizer (like nasturtiums), but since mine didn't bloom this summer either, next year they're getting fed. One consistent bit of advice I've seen is that they can take & need vigorous pruning to keep them from getting too scraggly. I suspect, but would appreciate confirmation, that they bloom on new wood too.
Any more information about these plants would really be appreciated. Thanks!
Zarcanat I am so sorry to hear about the critters. It takes us all so long to put a lovely collection together I really feel for you. I am going to start some iochromas for you for spring so well keep in touch.
nedweenie .. You have found more info than I could find about wintering them,thanks for the tips. I have some other iochromas as well and have tried to root cuttings but was unsucessful. In my search I found that it was suggested to root them using semi wood cuttings and mine were green so I am going to try again this winter.
If I can get some cuttings going I will try and get them to go dormant too. I am not brave enough if I can't get the cuttings going first. You are right space is at a premium indoors. I could use hubby's garage if they will go dormant. It is too hard to find these things in Canada so I don't want to loose them.
Thanks again
If anyone else has tips for wintering these please chime in!
Bea
I don't live in a hard frost area However, even here Iochroma autrale goes completely dormant in winter - its deciduous. So I would think it would be easy to over-winter in a resting state.
I find it doesn't flower well if over-fed. The best flowers are on starved plants!
Thanks mommum and Alistar for the replies. I also read somewhere (should've saved links!) that the Iochromas are very tough to root, but that added bottom heat increases your odds.
As it is, I think my plants are deciding for me about going dormant- they started dropping even more leaves over the past 2 days. I'll help them along with that, and into the dark they go, with crossed fingers.
Thanks again/Nedweenie
Didn't see the question about whether they flower on new wood:
I haven't been growing Iochromas all that long, but from my obs I. cyaneum, I. coccineum and I grandiflorum all flower both on new extension growth AND on short lateral shoots developed on last year's wood. In short they flower everywhere and hacking them back doesn't stop flowering.
I. australe has behaved differently for me so far: no buds on current extension growth - flowers are only produced on short lateral shoots released from dormant buds on last year's extension growth. I made the mistake of pruning some of my plants and got few flowers and lots of flowerless new growth. The ones I left unpruned were/are smothered in flowers this spring.
I have found them tough to root too! But with grandiflorum and cyaneum I just put semihardwood cuttings in water at the end of last autumn and waited.... and waited....and waited - huge callus formatiion under the bark but no roots. The eventually some roots on one, a few weeks later another and so on. I have quite a lot of new plants now - but it just took a very long time!
This message was edited Nov 5, 2006 10:16 PM
This message was edited Nov 5, 2006 10:16 PM
Thanks Alistair
What zone are you in and do you have them outside growing in the ground or in pots?
I will definately try again in the spring with a semihardwood cuttings. I am patient and can wait for them to root even if it takes forever:) I moved the Iochroma australe Blue, Iochroma australe 'Alba" white into the garage to go to sleep for the winter.They are in bigger pots. The others I have I think I will keep them in the house where I can keep a better eye on them. They are small as they were cuttings from this summer. My experience with small anything doesn't do well going dormant the first year. Perhaps they would be better suited if they were cuttings from spring but they are late summer cuttings and still in 4 inch pots. If they are decidious they may decide to go to sleep inspite of my efforts.
These are the other ones I have
Iochroma cyaneum 'Indigo'
Iochroma cyaneum 'Royal Blue'
Iochroma cyaneum 'Sky King'
Iochroma 'Frosty Plum'
Iochroma fuchsioides
Iochroma grandiflora
Iochroma 'Plum Beauty'
Iochroma 'Sunset'
Iochroma 'Wine Red'
I read somehere that they can all be started from seed but on the few blooms that I had on some of the later there were no seeds. If they all make it through the winter months I guess I will see more blooms and perhaps seed next year.
It was very interesting to find out where the blooms are. I will be careful about prunning:)
Thanks again for all your helpful information.
Bea
Wow Mommmmmmum! What a wonderful collection, I am dying to see some pictures of them! Is the real thing as wonderful as it seems on pictures?
I noticed posts in another forum where people agreed that Iochroma cuttings are much better taken in autumn, so maybe try some now.......
Seed: I think most Iochromas are self-fertile but not self-pollinating - something (you?!) has to get in there and do it. (Having said that I have never seen fuits forming on my cyaneum so maybe that one's not self-fertile???). The fruit is a greenish berry containing seeds that look like tomato seeds but a quarter of the size at most, and in a mess of gloopy muck! Have fun separating them lol.
I've no idea what zone I'm in lol. I did work it out once and it seemed to make no sense regarding what I could actually grow vs what I ought to be able to grow in the zone. Winter here gets down to about 0C - frosts are no more than a bit of frozen dew. Summer temps in mid to high 30's with peaks in 40's and rarely to 50C. I have Iochromas outside now, but started them off in pots. The only one which seems to require nursing friom the heat is grandiflora which I nearly lost last year, but I have replanted it somewhere hopefully more sheltered and its putting on a good show.
Your collection sounds great: Wish we could get some of those here - these are such good shrubs for our conditions here. I have a hybrid called 'Red Red Wine' which I rather suspect is the same thing as 'Wine Red'. I think our generaly available cyaneum is actually 'Indigo'.
This message was edited Nov 6, 2006 8:30 PM
This is 'Red Red Wine' which I can't distinguish from pics of 'Wine Red'
Previous pic is grandiflora (as you doubtless know!). I got it as I warcsewiszii (which I am sure I have spelled wrongly).
Oh Alistair your photos are beautiful!
Our weather is close to yours but just a bit colder in Dec/Jan. We will get as low as -5 or -6 C . Opps that is our winter and your summer isn't it, by then you have temps in the 30 and 40's. I have a couple decks that are very sheltered where I can winter all sorts of things. My geraniums can still bloom on the deck if I place the pot next to the house.
I did see a greenish berry on one once and was watching it but it disappeared don't know if the kids bounced a ball in that direction or if the birds got it. Hmmm will have to on the watch next summer for sure. That was on I. fuchsiodes. It is a very pretty red I really like this one.
I may be way off base here but I read and can't remember where (geesh), that as they are related to tomatoes the seed is difficult to germinate. They apparently have a substance that prevents them from germinating. We never see a tomato with the seeds germinating within the fruit because of the this. I don't know if tomatoes seeds are washed or treated in someway to remove the pulp ( should I even call it that) I grew both the white and the blue actinus australis from seed. They germinated very well I had more than I knew what to do with last spring so I passed some along to friends. Here's crossing my fingers that the other iochromas will put out seed and I can collect some. If I have too I will get out the paint brushes to do some pollinating:)
I haven't seen them all bloom yet however your red red wine sure looks like my wine red. I don't think I took any pictures as there were just a couple blooms which surprised me for such small plants. They are only about 10 to 12 tall at this point. Some have a single branch and others have two branches. I will be sure to do photos next spring.
Thanks for sharing your lovely photos
Zarcanat..... They are one of my favorites! I really like them especially the I. fuchsiodes as it is a very pretty red. They are not a big flower as some photos make them look but they have bunches of them and they all look so delicate. You can sure see that in Alistair's photo.
Bea
Your Iochromas are pretty Alistair. I gave mine away this year. They were just too big for my liking. One I had was plum color and it bloomed like crazy. The red one didn't do much this year. In the past, the red ones had always bloomed the heaviest.