OT but wanted to share my photo of Ecuador Pink Brug.
Blooming here!
and Brug Isabella
Here is a photo of Sinningia Tante; we grow them outside here, my daughter gave a cutting earlier this year, maybe mid summer and it bloomed once, I potted up & now w/ our cooler weather it is getting ready to really bloom. I also have a cutting growing inside, but it is not as vigorous as the outside plant.
Although I can't get the light right to make these look as good as they do in person here is Kathie Denise which has turned out to be a very prolific bloomer.
Also STILL blooming is Velvet Fantasy
I can't get the lighting right but Rambling Midget bloomed and Milky Way Trail is blooming.
These are the leaves of Ness' Candy Pink- foliage is so great and I am afraid this doesn't do it justice.
Very nice April. I didn't have a very successful year for Brugs. This summer I had very limited amount of blooms. Out of the 7 plants that I kept from last year, only 2 plants blossomed. Lots of buds, but they just didn't have time to open before the weather turned wet and cold. Last year was a "bumper crop". Sigh... Turns out, I dumped them all but one small seedling from last spring, Herrenhauser Garten. Of course, since I am moving next week, I couldn't see myself moving the huge pots with me and then overwintering them all again. Here a couple photos of those that did bloom for me this year.
Another close-up. Supposed to have been Isabella, but it stayed a pale yellow and didn't turn pink. :-(
Love your photo of Velvet Fantasy! Can't wait for mine to bloom. Good growing and thanks for sharing.
Don Ü
April -
ALL so very pretty! I have Ness Candy Pink leaves recently put down and now I can't wait for them to hurry up and produce plantlets. Very interested in your sinningia Tante. Would you post a pic when it blooms?
I have never grown brugs but seeing them lately has gotten me fascinated.. Maybe I should try them next year.
Don -
Your brugs are lovely! What about winter?
What about winter? Do you mean, what do I do with a Brug during the winter? They aren't very hardy, I believe Zone 9 or 10, but those of us in Lower Zones can successfully overwinter them inside, which I have done over the past couple years. One big drawback (for me, anyway) is that they are Bug Magnets.
Don Ü
Yes, Don, that is what I meant....how to overwinter. Can they grow and bloom in one season? I have seen them growing huge and beautiful in Florida and have always liked them. The bug magnet thing would be a problem though as I don't use pesticides.
April love all your bloomers ! My favoirte is Ecuador Pink Brug.love the pink :))
Do you gorw them in pots ?
I'm afraid to have them my dog grabs things and with them poison but lots of neighbors have pretty plants/trees of them !
Don you sure have a lot of beautiful pots full of Brugs !
Great growing !
Thanks Allison. Ü
Snowrose, they can if you are growing them from a cutting above the Y, they could grow and bloom in one season. If from seeds, I think it would take a couple of seasons.
If you are seriously thinking of trying them, I urge you to check out the Brugmansia forum here on DG. There are plenty of experts over there that can help.
Don Ü
These brugs were all from a trade w/ a DGer and I got them earlier this year- we have a longer growing season than most.
I knew very little about them when I rec'd the cuttings, just stuck them in pots and potted up when it seemed appropriate- actually the plants were top heavy. Had a problem w/ spider mites and lost all of the initial buds ; ( then I got rid of the spider mites and had some blooms. Then quite by accident at the end of when it's ok to fertilize in our area, about the end to the middle of Aug. I was trying to use up a bunch of fertilizer. So everybody, not just the brugs, but everybody outside got lots of fertilizer over a period of 3 or so weeks.
I think several things factored into this bumper crop: our weather got cooler ( that's relative), the sun was less severe, the spider mites were irradicated and they got lots of fertilizer. I have since read that they are heavy feeders so I probably should have fertilized more during the growing season.
All of them are in pots, for one thing we do occassionally get a really hard freeze and if that happens I need to move them into the garage. They would have been happier in the ground I think. Also due to my space these guys didn't really get any protection from the afternoon summer sun and they didn't seem to like that. Hopefully next year I can give them afternoon shade.
Ness' Candy Pink was one that I bought at a recent AV club sale. I bought it strictly for the pink foliage- I love it. I think when it blooms it will be stunning.
Regarding Sinningia Tante- I have seen them in 2 different colors; one is white and this one is orangie/salmonie (like my description! LOL). My daughter has had hers for many years and it gets pretty big. Her's is planted in the ground, outside and has survived several winters- one very mild and the other we actually had snow that stayed for a few hours anyway. Since she has had it we haven't had any really severe, hard freezes so I am not sure how it would do in that situation. This cutting has really taken off. I treat it like my outside plants- regular potting soil, regular fertilizer, etc. I have given it some morning sun but always afternoon shade. When I was moving it around I broke a piece off and rooted it inside- the inside one gets treated like all my gesnariads and I have to tell you it's scrawny and scraggly looking in comparison. Will post photos when it blooms.
Here's a link in plant files- Robin posted her photo and her plant is pretty good sized, mine is much smaller.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/91193/index.html
Thanks for all the good information and the link you guys. I think a brug is in my future next year. I have heard that washing your plants down with soapy water helps with spider mites.
Well that may be but I have several friends from DG who are Master Gardeners and one of them taught me a very valuable lesson w/ regard to my spider mites!
I was complaining that they were not fazed by any of the poisons etc, and I was at my wits end. Some nice DGer sent me a link suggesting that the most effective treatment was daily spraying w/ seaweed solution. I tried that and at the same time read a post from my good friend CeeJay and she said hose them off every 3 or so days from the back side of the life. I told her I didn't want to do that as it blew my leaves off since I was told to do it w/ high pressure - she told me just hose them off, no need to use the high pressure nozzle. Well I did it about every other night for a week or so and voila! They were gone!!! She said spider mites don't like wet they like hot and dry. Anyway it worked for me.
Good april...hosing them off and getting the undersides of the leaves sounds like something I would be willing to do no problem. Interesting about the seaweed. I like that too because it is natural. A hose end sprayer might be good to use also with a little dish soap added to hose them down good front and back of the leaves.
Thanks for the tips, april.
April, that's a good tip and it might explain why the spider mites were such a big problem when I tried to overwinter brugs... It's so dry in the house, and I was also cutting back on their water so they'd be semi-dormant. I had 2 that struggled for the last couple of years and never did bloom for me, so this fall they were pulled up and given to a friend.
Jill I'd like to take credit for it but can't. I only know that it sure worked for me.