I was in a local nursery today that I haven't visited in a couple years, and as I came around a corner there was a large Brugmansia in full bloom with pale yellow blossoms--they smelled wonderful! It had a very prominent sign that said "Not For Sale". Having never come across one of these in our local nurseries I complimented them on the nice brug, and they corrected me, telling me it was an "Angel's Trumpet". I smiled and nodded and moved on. Around the next corner was one almost as big, not in bloom, and covered in a serious spider mite infestation. A tag in the pot read $29.99.
Now the wheels started turning in my head. I could cure a spider mite infestation for a six foot brug, right? Lots of water, bit of soap, daily rinses for a month or two... About this time I ran into two more for sale. Both healthy, no sign of bugs (I always look--it's a habit). One is six feet tall with 3-4 feet of clear trunk and a well-branched crown. The other is much shorter with no strong standard but many, many more branches, and lots of new flower buds. $40 for the tall one, $30 for the short one.
They were about to close and my car was much too small to haul one of these in, so I talked to the owners about the plants and will go back when they open tomorrow morning, with my van. They told me that all of the plants should be the same variety, they have no idea what that variety is, and those are the last ones they have.
So, which plant should I buy?
Found brugs in a local nursery
wow, those are the only ones they had? my nursery here hasnt even gotten them in yet... not for a few more weeks!
buy the biggest healthiest? just guessing.. but I would have probably bought them all !
I have been stalking Regans everyweekend waiting for their shipment to arrive!
We dont' get brugs here at all.. never seen one before I started growing mine. sounds like you found a great deal.. wonder how much they would come down on the price of the "seriously infested"... "destined to die" brug?! I would definitely use those terms when asking as I discussed all the work it would take to save it. I am not shy at all! LOL
Yeah me to oneanjl I would of bought them all also but if not possible I would but the short one for 30 as it has so many branches and it is about to bloom you can take cuttings from it after it blooms is you wanted to...
James
It's the same up here where I live. No one even knows what they are ...until they come to my GH & see the many plants stuffed in there. There is a nursery in Redding about an hour from me that would like to buy some from me, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that. I did spot a couple at Wallmart, also in Redding, last fall & was shocked they were there. When I first was smitten I was just like that! Buy everyone you could get near! Seeds. plant, starts didn't matter. I had to go to San Francisco to find plants tho. Also mail order. It's been 4 years & I'm still smitten!
I donate one to our local garden club for their spring event & folks usually end up "fighting" for it.
I'd go for the one in the standard shape, they are easier to grow & you will still get cutting in the fall. Unless you like the bushy look. Then go for the busy one. Oh! you have probably already bought one, which did you get?
Bj
well, I would want one standard and one bushy one! LOL!
Sorry for the trick question. The answer, of course, was "All of them". However, sometimes non-gardening spouses are slow to understand the correct gardening answers, so a compromise is in order.
With more time to look them over well, I discovered that all of them had white spider mites, and additionally, whitefly. However, I purchased the shorter, wider one pictured below. It measures over 6 feet wide by four feet tall and was the healthiest of the three.
It had a good shower immediately after I unloaded it, laying it on each side to spray the undersides of the leaves heavily. All of the most heavily affected leaves were removed, and the soap is next. It will be a couple months of constant treatment before it is trusted near the other plants, but the front yard is a good spot for treatment. (I'd tell you just what I think of grass in the front yard, but I'd either be preaching to the choir or offending the traditional landscapers.)
I lost many of my hibiscus in the battle with tiny munchers last winter, so I'm a bit aggressive in my treatment strategies. The thin, pubescent foliage has me a bit cautious in what I use to treat it, though.
Way to go that is the one that I though that you shoud buy not the other ones I am very happy........lol
James
P.S. Keep up posted on it's treatment and deffinately when it blooms I bet it will give you a flush that will knock you out with it's fragrance..
Well, isn't that something? My answer instantly was "All of them, we don't need to eat this week!"
The one in the photo looks like a rooted stem, that had the three limbs cut back to ?six or eight inches, and the below-the-axis was inserted for rooting, giving an instant bush.
Lucky you! I found my one-and-only in the back of a nursery, there were a row of them all drooped thirty, nameless, and fifty bucks! It was a single stem and about four feet tall, no buds.
I think they take too much attention for nurseries to keep them for very long. Not like a bunch of Aloes. ...Mm
well, I just got back from the nursery here... DH was going to buy me a Brug for Mothers Day... and they dont have any yet! :o( they said another week or too... so I received a 5' tall climbing rose instead :o) but I will still get my Brug.... as soon as the nursery gets them in :o)
Nice buy there! The nursery here does have one brug that has become a resident plant there... $200 price tag! I'm hoping the shipment that they do get in is ALOT cheaper ;o)
AnjL
It looks great for the wear and tear it has survived from the critters. It will thank you in no time with nice blooms. I agree with the 'traditional' statement.. my yard was mostly grass.. still is but now when an area is not doing well, I don't think twice about tearing it out and making another flowerbed. I do work at keeping my grass looking good but don't struggle with it... if it really wants to die, who am I to stop it. mmmmm, when that area dies I think I can put two brugs there! LOL
Tammie
Congratulations on you new cool brug. Aren't nurseries funny?
When I bought my first brug from a local nursery, the tag said "Datura".
Nice brug and it does not look sick. There is only one nursery near me that carries them in the summer and the price tag is $50 for one about two feet tall. You did great on your buy! Clemen
I've seen a couple of them at Lowes and HD here. But they've no idea of what they have. Like their hibiscus (simply labeled "colorful assortment") they just put them out there without naming them.
AA
AuntAnne I think it is better than some of the stores do not know what they have, then we can have some savings of those great buys!!!!!!!!!!If they onky knew, then forget it, they will cost three arms and 60 legs lol, Clem
I bought one that was small, but blooming already for $4.99 at Walmart while in Houston.
It was not named, but was labeled datura. It was a nice peachy orange color and has bloomed again for me since I brought it home.
I bought a bunch of cuttings last fall here on DG for $1 each. They are all thriving. They may not bloom this year, but wow, what a deal. I haven't lost a single one. They were all named Brugs.
If you are not in a hurry, you can get some good deals on cuttings. If you are lucky enough to get a cutting above the "y" you will get blooms this year.
Charlene
P.S. check out the "recipe" somewhere here on DG for treating the brugs. It is great stuff! It fertilizes and treats infestations at the same time.
I did see The Recipe here, and may try some permutation of it in the future. Currently I'm spraying my cherry tree every week (it's the only way to get cherries you can eat here), so the brug is getting sprayed at the same time. I hate poisons, though...
Here's one of the new blooms today in the dappled shade of our 100F.
12" long, 6" wide at the opening. Wonderful, complex scent.
okay I have another dumb newbie question :o)
I'm planning my yard and wondering how much space I should allow for each Brug when its full grown.
do they all grow to about the same height and circumfrence? I plan to keep them in pots for now, and line a walkway with them all, but I dont know how many I should plan on fitting on the walkway :o)
I'd go 3 - 4 ft apart. But that's me.
Anne
Thanks Anne,
so they dont spread very wide?
My walkway is 16 feet long, should I allow for a total radius of 4 feet around each plant? then I would have 4 Brugs on each side of the walkway...
I'm in an 8b/9a border and mine didn't get that big. But then I didn't put them in until around June. Your area will likely be different. You might go to the plant files and pull up some pictures and look where the picture was taken to get an idea. I have seen them, on here, very large. So I'm only speaking from my experience in my zone. Mine die back in winter. I don't know if yours will, if not then they should get far bigger than I'm used to. So you may wish to contact someone in your zone.
You could spread them out further just to be on the safe side. Better to leave too much room than too little, then you could do some underplanting with something pretty.
Anne
In 9b, you will get a pretty good sized plant after it has a few years growth on it. I have a friend in 9b that I got my first cutting from and her brug was huge. It was growing against the side of her house and it sprawled out a good six to eight feet and was like a tree with many branches. It is about five years old.
I have my first brug that is four years old and it is about 8 feet tall and if the wind hadn't ripped off a few spread out limbs it would have been about six feet wide or more. It is about four feet wide now.
I am new to brugs, but these are the ones I have seen personally.
Charlene
can I trim the side branches to keep them at 4 feet? or will this effect the blooms?
I plan to keep them in big pots for the time being...in a few years we will be moving out of state and I want to bring my Brug Babies with me when I go! LOL!
Here's a picture without about half the buds open. You can see the damage on the leaves which seems to have occured when I used soap on it the first day. Since then it is receiving heavy washdowns every other day and fruit tree spray (malathion+sevin+antifungal) every week when I spray the cherries. Top that off with an imidacloprid systemic and a bit of fertilizer and the plant is looking happier all the time. I don't like the chemicals, but the blooms are nice here by the front steps. The insecticides will stop in a month or so when I'm sure that all of the late hatchlings are dead, but I'll probably continue the foliage drenchings at watering time; it seems to really like them.
The big pot provides extra stability against our wind storms. The brug is actually planted in a smaller pot inside. When it's done blooming I'll repot and do some drastic pruning to start fixing the shape.
Any place I have ever seen brugs locally were small, about gallon sized, and was usually what I term the "crappy variegated with white flowers." I think it was called Snowbank. I just don't like it, but that's what was always offered, if they were offered. Brugmansias locally are a very uncommon thing. This year, Alwert's Gardens (one of the local hotspots) has unnamed plants in a few colors. They are small plants, probably quart sized. But for 10 bucks I think a quart is too small. The plants were about 6 inches tall and I could clearly see spider mite presence.
I was so lucky though to find a smaller scale greenhouse in the area after finding out about it from a friend. I visited the place expecting to see the typical stuff, but I nearly wet myself from excitement when I walked right into a very beautiful Cypress Gardens growing in a two or three gallon container. Not blooming yet, but will be this summer for sure. It was the only one they had and the gentleman said he never had much luck selling them.
Locally, Brugmansias just are not a popular thing. I don't know why. People can be a little picky if things are not blooming when they want to buy something. And I think a lot of people don't buy them because of the "Jimsonweed" issue. I know one greenhouse grower who refuses to seel brugmansias because of their weedy cousins. Such a shame.
Tropicalaria, she is bloomig beautiful! Keep up the good work and the spraying. You have saved her! Clemen