Hahahaha! CATS, we gotta love 'em, don't we?
Ours climb the little greenhouse and both hoophouses, they can stick their claws in the plastic for really good traction. We don't much like it, but hey, what can we do? They attacked the Bamboo Muhly I planted out 2 weeks ago and nearly destroyed it, but totally left the Catnip alone till today. I will dig up the rest of the Catnip seedlings and grow them on in the hoophouse until they are big enough to give all the cats a real thrill.
On the subject of other cats (caterpillars), I sprayed Bt with the hose end sprayer last week and have found several in their death throes today. Nasty things, I rejoice in their dying! That's wrong, isn't it? LOL!
Brug seeds ...
Noooo Maggi...I have the same vicious thoughts when it comes to Japanese Beetles!!
okay, I have a dumb newbie question.... (sorry!)
I have someone sending me seeds and cuttings for brugs, but I also have 'datura inoxia' seeds are these the same thing? or of the same family? cause all the pictures I see look like they are the same, or similar?
Thanks!
AnjL
Brugmansias and Daturas are different, two separate genera. They are related and similar in appearance, but, according to Ulrik and Hans-Georg Preissel, are "very dissimilar."
They list 9 'distinguishing' characteristics:
Brugmansias:
1) Shoot - Have woody stems,
2) Size - Trees or shrubs up to 26' tall.
3) Lifetime - Long lived, up to several decades,
4) Length of Juv. period - Long period before blooming. Preissel lists 2-1/2', but many can grow up to 7' before blooming,
5) Formation & development of flowers - Individual varieties are affected by temperature,
6) Flower position - Nodding to totally pendulous,
7) Fruit - Berry fruit with no spines. Pericarp is fleshy and seed pods don't open during ripening,
8) Calyx - Base of stem connecting the pod to the plant does not widen,
9) Seed - Corky seed coat. Not easily seen in B. sanguinea and B. vulcanicola.
Daturas:
1) Shoot - Have herbaceous stems,
2) Size - Stays 5' or below,
3) Lifetime - Are annuals or short lived perennials,
4) Length o f juv. period - Very Short, are capable of forming flowers right after the cotyledons,
5) Formation and development of flower - Affect by amount and strength of light,
6) Flower position - Flowers are upright,
7) Fruit - Capsule fruit, mostly with spines. The chambers of the fruit open during ripening,
8) Calyx - The base grows while the fruit is ripening,
9) Seed - Without a corky coat
Thank You! That is awesome... and answered all my questions! lol! Guess the devil trumpets will go in an Annual bed :o)
AnjL
My children population went from 4 3 years ago to 6 2 years ago to 11 last year and this year so far I have 83. Wow what a population explosion. (only 4 look similar to me) hehe.
roflmao! uh oh... I see a new addiction coming on :o)
Now isn't this what we all LIVE for???? :-)
This is Pink Beauty displaying her royal flush for me. This plant was from a cutting in June 2007 that I rooted in water and then kept in a pot until about a month ago. She seems very happy to be in the ground now!
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 12:11 AM
She's not even that big yet, but I counted 14 current blooms and another 9 still growing out to produce even more blooms! Many thanks to DonnaB for the cutting! It's just beautiful! This is also the MOTHER plant to the seeds I shared with everyone! Good luck and I can't wait to see what the seeds produce!
This message was edited Apr 11, 2008 9:49 PM
Beautiful! I can't wait to see one of the seeds sprout.. planting them tomorrow. Crossing fingers and toes.
Tammie
wow beckie! she is beautiful...!!!!
I cant wait to start my seeds!
AnjL
I just did some more cross pollinating by hand between Whiskers, Miss Emily McKenzie, and Pink Beauty. So we shall see which blooms were fertilized. :-)
Here is my first bloom of Whiskers. She turned more pale yellow as the night went on.
Lovely! I have just read somewhere that if you cross pinks with pinks that you will get ...*pinks* from named pinks I think.
Is that right? ...what about noid pinks anyone know? Hope you don't mind me asking the experts in your thread bg ...it is pretty exciting news to me I hope it's correct ...her is my first look at an angel with some pink in it ...about to open ...good old frosty pink ...heard so much about it ...so taken for granted in America but here where we have so few colours ...it is so exciting to see something other than white and pale apricot. But I have two named pink australian hybrids and want to cross them when they flower ...so will the seedlings really be pink from two named pinks?
And here is my first bloom of Miss Emily McKenzie (MEM) who turned more pink as the night went on. I crossed Pink Beauty blooms with pollen from MEM and Whiskers. And I crossed Whiskers with MEM pollen. I didn't hand pollinate MEM because this plant is so young and small. I didn't want to stress her out with seed production. I will wait until she gets bigger. But I used her pollen to try to fertilize blooms on Whiskers and Pink Beauty. :-)
This message was edited Apr 11, 2008 11:42 PM
Becky, did you use 3 clean brushes, one for each different pollen when you pollinated the Pink Beauty blooms and one when you pollinated Whiskers? Otherwise, you stand the chance of cross contamination and the only parent you could really be sure of would be the pod parent.
chrissy, about pinks begetting pinks. I've read that most of the seeds will produce white flowers. I would think that the more pink alleles present in the crosses' ancestry, the better the chance of getting pink flowering seedlings. Looking through the Register of Brugmansia Cultivars, many new whites come from pink parents. Before I accidentally hit the wrong key and was forced to start this post all over again, I was reading part of an abstract on flower color in plants. Color in flowers is due to one of two reasons: the presence of something on the surface that causes refraction of light resulting in white flowers and absorption of a part of the light spectrum by pigments. White is also the result of a lack of pigment that allows the refraction of light. Anyway, the abstract didn't address Brugmansias specifically, but it seems that the majority of Brug flowers are without pigments. To make matters more complicated, since Brug flower color is influenced by weather, flower color can be vastly different in different parts of the country, different parts of the year. For example, my Creamsickle has always bloomed creamy white for me so you would never know from just this one plant here in central Texas that the flower color is supposed to be apricot. My Audry Hepburn is supposed to be white, but it's first flush in mid-winter is almost always a very light peach. Obviously some Brugs are capable of producing some pigment at certain parts of the year while others will lose pigment. That is one of the reasons for the recommendation to trial the plant in different parts of the country under different circumstances. My head is spinning. Maybe it's a little too late to think straight. I just hope I didn't make matters more confusing. 'nigh all. :-)
Oh you are such a ****darling**** to go to all that trouble bettydee ...here is a big HUG (cyber style for that info) ...I completely understand what you just explained. That is why I queried it ...I trust what the person said ...he knows his business he is a breeder here and I have two pinks from him ...he explained about the gene thing and named my intended crosses ...he said he would expect pink babies from that particular cross so I got a bit excited ...forgive me please *blushing*
I am sure after I have grown out a few hundred white Angels ...that will quell some of my eagerness ...well maybe just a little :)
Thanks again ...what would we do without you!
chrissy
Interesting information Betty! I had no idea that different brugs could bloom different colors depending on their growing conditions! That is fascinating!!!! Thanks for explaining all of that!
Yes, I did use 3 different brushes last night when I did some of the cross pollinating by hand. I also hand-pollinate Morning Glories (much smaller) with some pretty good success, so I try to be careful. The brug blooms have a large amount of pollen and my brugs are not right next to each other in the off chance that some night insect should pollinate them first. I try to get the blooms right after they open for the very first time! :-)
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 8:01 AM
I bought a Miss Emily MacKenzie a few weeks ago, potted it up and placed her on the porch where she gets morning sunlight. She lost all her leaves and a bud, but kept the larger of the two buds. My other Brugs are still in the greenhouse behind the house. My Dr. Seuss and Mountain Magic had one bloom each and Audrey Hepburn had about 10 when MEM's bud opened. She's going to be a mommy! There was one determined moth around here. Unfortunately, I don't know who the pollen parent is.
Here's a photo of the upper 1/3 of MEM naked except for her one bloom. She looks like something out of Dr. Seuss' books. She now has a bunch of small leaves and a few shoots.
Becky
Here are five seedlings from the ten seeds you sent me! 'Pink Beauty x Ecuador Pink' - seem to be doing nicely! :)
Mike
*pic one
Becky
And I've got to say thanks again! :)
Mike
*pic two
Mike - WOW! They look great! Thanks for sharing those photos! I hope they all make it and produce some pretty pink blooms! :-)
Becky
Pink!! lol! I'm going for the gusto - bright RED! lol! Seriously though - they're doing great! :)
Mike
mike, did you soak the seeds before planting?
AnjL
Yes - I did soak the seeds overnight! :)
Mike
thanks! I cant wait for blooms! went looking for brugs today and was told 'its too early for them'!! It was 83* today... I think we skipped spring and went right to summer! ugh!
I am so impatient! lol... I want blooms NOW! :oD
I just found 6 tiny buds on my Snow White.. guess I am not giving that one away.. I promised my Dr. one of my cuttings last fall.. told him I would grow it a while.. was going to give him the Snow White instead until I saw the buds.. no way.. he is going to have to grow his own blooms from whatever I end up giving him.. it is just all my cuttings are still so small and I feel silly giving him someting that small.
Congrats on your SW buds Tammy!!!
LhasaLover, a cutting is a very nice gift even if it is small. This way, when it grows
huge, he/she will be so proud of their green thumb!
becky, I have sprouts. I planted a dozen seeds and have eight sprouts so far! I would have had nine but looks like one broke it's little head off coming out. I am sure they are not finished yet though. I will probably have more...
Well, my poor Snow White buds.... 4 got blown off in a wind storm, one bloomed and another I knocked off moving the plant to protect it from another wind storm and the last one is finally about to bloom... out of 7 buds.. I may get to see a total of 2 blooms if I don't do something stupid and knock the last one off. How long does it generally take for the plant to start blooming again?
Mine seems to bloom all the time! I wonder if it is because I fertilize it with Bloom Booster every 3 weeks when I water them.
Here is my Brug that is one of Becky's it is equador pink x equador.pink I hope that it will bloom this year but who knows,,,
It looks absolutely awesome! When did you sprout the seed?
Becky, I too have 5 sprouts from 5 seeds! whoo hoo!
saying the gardening prayer every day (Grow! D@#&%$$!!!) and singing and talking and...and... and.. Lol!
Y'all certainly have some green thumbs! So glad to hear that the seeds I sent out are germinating for each of you! I hope they continue to thrive and you get some beautiful blooms and a nice big healthy plant!!! Keep those photos coming!!!
Oh yes Becky I have had good luck with them they are all growing fine they are in 8" pots and wow they sure are growing I am so happy. and I sprouted them like around the end of april or the middle of april I forget which whenever Becky mailed them to me I planted them the next day.I really need to keep a journal. as now I have so many seeds that I have planted or have to plant yet my goodness.
James