Brugmansia

Principal differences between brugmansias and daturae

Brugmansia : Flowers directed to the bottom (it does not matter the angle), nonself-fertilizing (except arborea or exceptions), fruits without prickles, shrubs or trees woody being able to reach 70 years.
Datura S: Self-fertilizing flowers directed upwards, , fruits in general with prickles, considered as annual flowers.

Species of origin

Brugmansia suaveolens
Brugmansia versicolor
Brugmansia arborea
Brugmansia aurea
Brugmansia sanguinea

Hybrids

The majority of the species of origin above are fertile enters, with the result that in nature one finds spontaneous hybrids, so much so that it seems currently difficult to find species of “pure” origins truly. The hybrids of which are illustrated this article are artificial hybrids, resulting from pollinations forced by gardeners amateurs or professionals (see the technique below).

culture of brugmansias

How to fertilize the brugmansias

The annual development of Brugmansia is enormous. There to be able to arrive under best the conditions, one needs “high amounts of food”. Manure recommended: 16-8-22 and 3% Magnesium (or another similar proportioning, the Nitrogen, cad the first figure, should not be lower than 14). Proportioning recommended: fertilizing mineral 80g for 1O liters of water (weekly application) or 10g for 10 liters per day and every 3 30g days for 10 liters. One never applies manure to dry substrate, risks burn of the roots. Manures with prolonged release are unsuited because of their too low flow. The manure the commercial which is appropriate particularly well is special manure for Rosier S, but any other manure is appropriate as well: special géraniums, fruit trees, agricultural manure,…

The Councils of culture: Technique of the permanent pot

At the time of the growth of a young person brugmansia, that it is resulting from sowing or cutting, one starts by repotting it several times in pots of increasing size until it holds well in a pot of 20 liters that the plant will not leave any more throughout the year. A plastic pot will be appropriate very well for the application of this method, it will be prepared while perforating on its with dimensions two lines of holes placed in Quinconce of a diameter of approximately 5 cm. For the wintering the small size of the pot (20 liters) will make it possible to handle it rather easily and for the summer one will plant the brugmansia with his pot permanent.

There are two possibilities to prepare the estival installation:

one can use a flower stand of (very) big size, in planks of wood, plastic, concrete… One can allow a dimension of 1 m by 1 m, but it is necessary to take care to keep a good system of drainage;
is directly to plant in open ground, which will make it possible to decrease the frequency of waterings and to have a cost price almost no one.

For spring it is necessary to set up at the place chosen, in the flower stand or in open ground, of the Terreau fertilized (ground, horticultural compost, manure, sand…) and to firmly fix one or more tutors in this substrate. It is then necessary to dig a hole for the permanent pot which one installs as soon as any risk of freezing is isolated. The roots of the brugmansia quickly will find the holes of the permanent pot and will develop liberally in the compost. In July and in August the brugmansia is resplendent and flowers with profusion.

For the wintering, as of the first risks of freezing one unearths the plant with his permanent pot by taking care to cut the roots which leave the holes. One folds back the plant according to desire and fascinating care always to preserve the first forks of the trunks then one makes winter the object of its botanical passion in its permanent pot except freezing. It is not to better do holes in the content of the permanent pot to be able to more easily unearth it after having divided the roots on the side with a bèche.

The watering of the brugmansias

Attention, the roots should not be drowned permanently. If they need water to absorb the nutritive elements contained in the substrate of culture, they need also to breathe. The substrate is an alive medium where the aerobic Bactéries have, as their name indicates it, need for air to make their job! It is thus important to ensure a good drainage in the container. Best is to lay out in the content a separate layer of 2/3 cm fine gravels of the substrate by a felt Géotextile, or a small thickness of Glass wool or Rockwool. Repeated waterings pack the surface of the pot. It can be formed a layer of foam on the surface, sign of asphyxiation (as on the grasses). One should not often hesitate with biner this surface to air. A fork makes the deal well.

In addition one sprinkles a brugmansia only when it needs some, i.e. when the compost is almost dry (avoid letting the Terreau desiccate itself completely). In winter, that arrives at the end of several months. In spring, at the end of several days. In full summer, in the shade, at the end of one day, and finally, in full summer, with large the Sun, at the end of a few hours. Not to put a plate or of saucer under the pots everywhere where it is possible (in gallery, outside), that avoids the stagnant water, very harmful. What to add with the compost so that it absorbs more water? Peat, Compost. There are also materials Isolant S sold by the construction material merchants in large bags, at handsome price: Pumice crushed (Pozzolana or pumice, in English), Vermiculite (flakes of expanded Mica) strong retention of water, good drainage and ventilation, Pearlite: good drainage and ventilation, weak retention of water.

Brugmansias and freezing

Possibly, they can support of the -1 or -2 degree c. On the other hand if one straw well the mound of root, in the areas of Rusticité the 8 brugmansias set out again with new growths (without guarantee!). Besides this constitutes the traditional method least constraining to winter the brugmansias.

Dormancy: a vegetative setting at rest

Attention, dormancy relates to neither the hybrids versicolor, nor the coldly marbled cuttings: there is an important risk of rot for these plants. The majority of the brugmensias can enter in Dormance for long periods; in nature, it is the dryness which makes them enter in dormancy. One can benefit from this property for, moreover, to make them support the cold and the black. How does it go?

One takes a quite green brug with its pot (smallest possible, you will further see why) and one puts it at dryness under a shelter (interior or external)
One leaves with the sheets the care to evaporate all water, in particular that of the mound of compost.
One waits until the Terreau is quite dry. That is noticed with the touch, but it is necessary to check the interior of the mound. That is also noticed with the flask sheets and flowers. This drying goes more quickly and is of better quality when the pot is small. When the sheets very evaporated, they become completely flask: this reduces their surface of exposure (with the sun in summer) and blocks the evaporation largely. Smart! This stage one will advise you, and it is a very widespread myth, to strongly fold back it: of made nothing. The less one crosses, the more one will have flowers early the next season. I saw a Brugmansia Charles Grimaldi not folded back during 2 years: a wonder, hundreds of flowers.

When the plant strongly slowed down its metabolism for reason of dryness, it entered in dormancy, it is there that we intervene: we benefit from it to return it in cellar or garage for the cold season. At the end of a few days one removes all the sheets and what remains flowers.

Then, it is necessary to find a happy medium between

absolute dryness of the roots over one long life: the plant is desiccated and died and
the excessive moisture which causes rot of the roots, attacks fungic on the stems and… died of the plant.

The brugs gain with being wintered with dark and cold, without going below from 5 degrees Celsius. The mound very slightly wet should be kept. Watering every 4 weeks by there. More the cellar is cold and wet and black, less it should be sprinkled. More the cellar dry and hot and is lit, and more one approaches spring, more one can sprinkle, while remaining nevertheless always very parsimonious with water. These waterings have nothing to do with the copious waterings indicated during the beautiful season! The quantity of water to be brought does not exceed 50cl water, for a brug in a large pot, all the few weeks. It is necessary to keep the slightly wet roots, it is all.

Reproduction of brugmansias

Propagation by cutting and layering

A first method of reproduction consists in practicing the Bouturage. The cuttings resulting from the vegetative area (below the first point of fork of a branch) flower those more tardily coming from the floral area (c.a.d. above the first point of fork, (Y). Another technique of Propagation by cutting: the air Layering: To choose a branch which one wishes to separate from the plant mother. To notch on a depth of 2/3 of branch. Y to put or not Hormone of propagation by cutting. To surround by a few cm of Peat or another compost of rooting. To pack this substrate in fabric. To humidify the whole well. To cover with plastic film. Rooting at the end of 2-6 weeks (according to temperature and other parameters). Then one crosses below the roots. How to make cuttings flat? , It goes better with woody cuttings: one horizontally poses sections of woody branches of brugmansias (5 with 20cm length by ex) in drains arranged on the surface of the compost of rooting, inserted half. To keep the wet compost. The longest cuttings can produce several growths. As soon as the new growths have ten centimetres in height, one takes them while cutting the stem buried before and after it., (found in brugmansias.org) A small simple and powerful trick:

to take a water bottle (plastic) 1.5 L, to cut it to the higher third, to put a third of good compost of propagation by cutting, slightly humidified,
to cut a cutting 10 to 15 cm, crosses frank, to eliminate the low sheets, to reduce the leaf aera of the higher sheets,
to soak the cutting of hormones of propagation by cutting,
prick it in the compost,
a good water spraying added with benlate or a fungicide,
to cover the bottle with a transparent plastic bag.

Rooting guaranteed in 2 weeks, if the unit is placed in a hot medium, without direct sunning. When the roots appear, to sprinkle and discover, later repotting.

Reproduction by germination

How to make to sow of Brugmansias? To soak the Seed S (possibly peeled for largest, i.e. removed from their gangue) 24 hours in tepid water (20 to 36 °C), to press them in the special compost sowing , to humidify, cover with transparent film and to pose on a radiator (possibly that of a refrigerator), temperature from 20 to 36 °C, patience. In general they start to raise at the end of 2-3 weeks, probably not all at the same time. To a batch of seeds given, the last with raising can spend several months, the first 12 days. As they raise, one can take them delicately (using a tweezers for example), to repot them in individual cups and to expose them to the light (window, even ordinary lamp or with energy saving), heat is not then also any more important.

The artificial pollination of flowers of brugmansia

Interest of artificial pollination: it makes it possible to cross two different varieties and thus to obtain new a Hybride which one knows with certainty the parents. To cross a brugmansia with white double flowers with a brugmansia with pink simple flowers makes it possible to consider, for example obtaining a brugmansia with pink double flowers. The Pollinisation consists in transporting the Pollen since the cheesecloth S of a Fleur on the Stygmate at the end of the Pistil of another flower. For polléniser a flower of brugmansia, is one lets make the Insectes and the Collibri S. It is natural pollination. But there are not all of the hummingbirds in the garden, then one can have recourse to the artificial Pollinisation. One takes pollen (white powder a little sticking) of a flower of brugmansia (since 5 cheesecloths in the middle of the flower) with a brush or a knitting machine-stem, and one rubs with the end of the style (the longest point in the center of the flower) of a flower of another brugmansia (that does not go between 2 cuttings of the same plant mother, for example). Meanwhile one can store pollen with the freezer or send it by the post office to someone else. If the flower is pollinated, its base (Pédoncule more ovary) will remain hung to the stem, the stalk will be hardened, the ovary will inflate and at the end of 4 months (8 for the sanguineas) one will be able to collect a few hundreds of seeds per flower, when the fruit of color maron and is desiccated. If it is not pollinated, the stalk yellows and ends up falling.

Geographical distribution

Random links: