Brugmansia grown in a pot

First flush - after a few sporadic flowers earlier.

 

Fantastic Peter, see, you can do it, even in chilly old N. Yorkshire.

looks great.

 

Fantastic plant, Peter. If only i could do the same.

I bought a cutting from ebay about a month ago. Lovely cutting and grew away fast to about 16" high. However, it's stalled a bit. It seems to be producing only rather small leaves and they are curled inwards slightly from their edges. I think it should be producing much bigger, smoother leaves. Thy also seem to be coming directly out of the main stem without much stalk, which somehow doesn't look quite right. It's been like this for about a fortnight with little growth or change.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks Pete and Madahhlia.

Pete - I am amazed at how well some Brugmansias do at low temperatures. I still can't get over B. sanguinea flowering all winter when the temperature in my hall was never above about 10C.

Madahhalia - I am afraid I know very little about Brugmansias, other than that they need lots of water and lots of feed. But just as they flower in flushes - could they also grow in flushes? ie a bit of stop go. I really don't know.

However why not try them from seed. Its very cheap that way. The germination rate was pretty good, and this year's seedlings are already 3 to 4 feet high. I gather that they usually flower in the first year, but I do appreciate that a seedling is not as conveniant as a cutting. I have about 20 seedlings on the go, and will be taking cuttings from them after they have flowered. If nothing else, there will be less to keep over the winter that way. And as seeds don't come true, I will hopefully have a wide range of colours and there could be a real cracker in there. :D

 

Thats beautiful.....mine is in a pot, and still hasnt flowered, and its been 2 years....any suggestions??

 

Bit late for seeds this year as I'm away for most of the next 5 weeks!

 

If I could just butt in Madahhlia.

Can we have a picture?

 

Like that one Peter ,well done

Dave

 

Butt away. I'll do my best.

Having tried, I just can't figure out how to upload a jPEG file.

 

Penny - I don't really know why yours hasn't flowered yet. In the UK, I think most, but not all, will flower right at the end of the first year. I assume that yours is in its second year now. If it didn't flower last year I would expect it to this year. But it may be later in the year.

 

Hi Penny . I agree with Peter ,should be flowering by now ?? Is it in a good sized pot and compost ,they are gready plants. I have some rooted cuttings from Sept 2010 and they are starting to flower.
However I have one plant I bought 3yrs ago and as yet never flowered .This is it's last chance ..

Dave

 

I'll take a picture later and post it for you's both to see, maybe seeing it will help.

 

Penny - Brugs, like all plants and indeed like all human beings, go through two main phases in their life - juvenile (or vegative) and adult (mature). Juveniles can sometimes look and act differently from adults, but the main distinction is that juveniles are not sexually mature and cannot reproduce. In the case of plants this means that they can't flower, which is part of the reproduction process. Most garden plants go through the juvenile process within a year or less, but trees (and Brugs are trees) such as Beech can spent up to 60 years as a juvenile.





In the case of a Brugmansia, juvenile leaves tend to join the stem symetrically like the top picture, whilst adult leaves are unsymetrical as in the lower picture. However you have to take an average of several leaves as looking at mine they are a bit variable. The main sign of maturity is when the Brug forks. This happens because the first flower grows on the apical tip. ie at the top of the main stem. This forces the stem to fork. The plant then becomes adult above the fork and will start to flower, but it is still juvenile (or vegative) below the fork and won't flower in that region.

Consequences of this fork are that cuttings from above the fork are, and will remain, mature. So they will flower early in the next year. But cuttings from below the fork will be juvenile and have to go through the whole process of growing up again. Also if you prune this fork off, for any reason, then again the plant has to grow up again.

The general consensus is that you can't speed up this process. However once the plant has reached adulthood it should flower. You can then help flowering by watering anf feeding, but if you let it dry out and get stressed the young flower buds tend to drop off.

 

I am on my way out for awhile, but will snap a pic when i get back.....i bought it from a garden center last Spring, it was green and very lush, but it didnt flower last summer, it spent the winter at Brad's shop, under light for most of the day...but by the end of winter, it looked pretty sickly, and all but 2 leaves had fallen off, and infact i was almost going to toss it, it looked that sick....but i set it outside so that it gets lots of sun and it looks better now then it ever did, including last summer.....tons of leaves, but no flowers, and i checked to see if there were some buds, and nothing.

So maybe a good fertilizer would help?

I have only used Miracle Grow on it once this year and other then water, i havent used anything since.

I'll post a picture for you today.....and thanks for your respose too.