Recently in Brugmansia Category

Seeing how I have another Angel Trumpet seedling from a cross involving Shooting Star in bloom now, I thought I might as well make this a Shooting Star Trilogy.  Here is a bloom from a Brugmansia Shooting Star x New Orleans Lady seedling.

As the blooms mature the color deepens and the tendrils re-curve as shown in the photo above.  The blooms start out a nice soft pink with long tendrils as you can see below. 

This seedling is a monster, towering close to ten feet tall right now.  It has been a regular bloomer this summer and was one of the first seedlings to start blooming following our winter freeze.  I was able to set a few seed pods on it this spring and I recently harvested the pods and planted the seeds.  I know I have other seedlings from this cross growing out so hopefully by fall I'll be able to showcase some of its siblings. 

Here's another Angel Trumpet cross involving Brugmansia Shooting Star that is currently in bloom.   This is just one of more than a dozen seedlings I have growing from a cross I made between Brugmansia Shooting Star x Masquerade.

The blooms are thicker in texture and as you can see, are holding up quite well in our hot and muggy summer weather.

The blooms are medium in size, in keeping with the size of its parent's blooms.  The plant is very healthy and pest free.  I recall it having a light scent in the early evening hours.

My evening strolls through my field of Angel Trumpets is starting to get more exciting as more and more Brugmansia seedlings are setting buds and blooming for the first time.  During tonight's stroll I captured this picture of a nice double pink bloom I had been watching develop all week.  It is from a cross between Brugmansia Shooting Star and America.

When I was making this cross I was hoping that Shooting Star's golden color would be carried over to America's beautiful form, but pink prevailed.  The pink must be from America's father, Taylor Dawn.  Shooting Star came from a Kleine Aap cross with an unknown pollen donor.  I'll have to do some more research on other crosses I have with Brugmansia Shooting Star because I believe pink is the prevelant color in many of those seedlings.

This Brugmansia seedling will be placed into my watch zone and once fall arrives, you can be assured that a few of the blooms will be dusted with Shooting Star pollen.  I'm hoping a second generation cross will bring out the yellow/orange genes from Shooting Star.

Almost two years ago I posted photos of an Angel Trumpet seedling I was growing that had rather unique pink and green coloration.  The cross was Brugmansia Painted Lady x Sam and I believe the hybridizer was Gary Morales.  Here's a photograph taken back in fall of 2008 that shows the unusual coloration.

As the bloom matured it still kept the green in its coloration.  I thought the blooms were quite striking at that time.  After seeing the green continue even after a couple of bloom cycles, I decided to keep it and watch it for another year.  Below is a daytime view, again taken in fall of 2008.


That winter the plant was nearly killed by freezing weather.  During the course of last summer I was able to nurse this seedling back to life.  By late fall it was just getting ready to bloom again and as luck would have it, it was once again knocked down by freezing weather.

This year it rebounded quickly and has been blooming on and off since earl July.  The green coloration is not as pronounced as it was earlier, but it still has the mixed coloration pattern as you can see in the recent photograph I took below.

This tiny Angel Trumpet impressed me last fall, and now it is impressing me even more this summer. The cross is between Brugmansia Naughty Nick and Cleopatra.

The blooms are petite, averaging 2-3 inches across, and are always perfectly formed.  They also hold up extremely well in the heat.  The summer blooms have stayed a creamy white.  In the cooler fall weather they aged with a light apricot color.

Here's a link to my blog post last fall when I first introduced this seedling - Teeny Weeny Angel Trumpet.

 
The plant is a vigorous grower, like it's mother Naughty Nick, and branches out freely. So far it has stayed at six feet tall.  That is a good sign because Naughty Nick has a "Jack in the Beanstalk" growth approach and can easily reach 10 feet tall in one season.

I was able to make several crosses with seedling as both a mother and father, but ended up losing them all to the freeze.  I'll be back trying again when the weather cools off.  I would love to inspire a miniature plant to match these miniature blooms.

This weekend I plan to pot up several trays of cuttings from this seedling.  If they grow well and remain true to form, watch for this one to be registered and named next year.

While out for my evening stroll through my Angel Trumpet forest, I was able to capture this beautiful moth paying a visit to Brugmansia Lady Liberty.

I was hoping to get some close-up shots but this fellow skirted off in search of other blooms.
 

Florida has some of the most beautiful sunsets you'll ever encounter.  Here's some recent shots I took while strolling through my Brugmansia forest at sundown.

It is almost as if the sky is on fire..

Of course if I was living in southern California I would be afraid that the sky may actually be on fire...

Sunrise and sundown are the best time of day to admire Angel Trumpets during our hot Florida summers.

While browsing through my Angel Trumpet seedlings last night I came across a perky little bloom from a Brugmansia Miss Ellie x Unknown cross.

The bloom has a nice golden yellow color, like its mama Miss Ellie, and cute curly tendrils.  I think I'll hang on to this one and incorporate it into my fall breeding program.  It looks like a pesky housefly is hanging on to it too!  :)

I took a stroll through my brugmansia forest tonight and I was overwhelmed by all the blooms I encountered.  Even though our night-time low temperatures are breaking records (low's near 80f), and the highs are in the mid 90's, these plants are blooming like crazy.  The fragrance in the air was almost over-powering.

Here is an assortment of the Angel Trumpets I found blooming tonight.  The first one's blooms are not really that special, but the seedling makes up for it with quantity.  I cannot recall the cross, but I have marked this one to toss so it does not matter.

The seedling below has been displaying some great traits so I decided to add it to my 2010 keepers.  It is from a cross between Brugmansia Super Spot and Apricot Queen


Here you can see Brugmansia Kong in the center with Pink Perfektion on the left and an Ecuador Pink x Rothkirch seedling on the right.  Kong's blooms are not nearly as large as the one in the photo used to sell the plant.  The bloom size could just be an environmental or summer related issue.


I"m going to have to research the cross involved with the seedling pictured below.  The tag has faded and I couldn't make out the names when I shot this photo.  I know this seedling has been fully documented with earlier photos, so I just need to research my photo archives to find out the parents.  If it ever decides to stop blooming, I plan to get a bunch of cuttings growing so I can register it and release it next spring.  It is definitely a keeper!



Here is Brugmansia Jessie Noel.  I've had this plant for three years and this is the first year it has bloomed.  It was moved out to full sun this spring so perhaps that is what triggered the blooms. I like the waxy texture of the blooms.

Brugmansia Pink Charm is coming back into bloom.  This Monica Gottschalk cross loves it here in Florida.  It rewards me with flush after flush of beautiful pink blooms.  These blooms just opened and will darken by tomorrow.


Brugmansia Serendipity, pictured below, is another classic brugmansia that should be grown more.  It thrives in Florida and blooms like crazy all summer long.  If you look closely, you'll see a few seed pods hanging in the center.  These blooms just opened and they will "pink-up" more over the next couple of days. 


Continued in the next post....

Here's an Angel Trumpet seedling carried over from my 2009 "watch zone" that has been blooming non-stop for the past month.  My watch zone is an area where I place seedlings that show great potential for future breeding or commercial release.  This little cutie is a Brenda Delph (Seedsprout) cross between Brugmansia New Orleans Lady and (Angel's Flight x Charming).

Last year the majority of the blooms were double with an occasional triple.  This year all the blooms have been compact triples.  I'm not sure if this is related to maturity or the fact that last year I had the plant growing in partial shade and this year it is baking under the hot Florida sun with no shade whatsoever.

The blooms are on the smaller side and have a nice fragrance. They are waxy in texture and hold up extremely well in the heat. The blooms mature to a cream color with a tinge of apricot showing in the tendrils.

For those of you who follow Brugmansia crosses you may recall that The Chief came out of an Angel's Flight x Charming cross.  While this seedling has been predominately cream in color, it did show some orange color in the cooler spring months.  Here's a photo from late spring in 2009 that shows more color and the double bloom form it had last year.


I'm looking forward to using this one in my fall breeding program.  I have two other seedlings from this same cross that I am also watching this summer.  One is another double/triple and the other a single.  I also have a couple of second generation seedlings I'm growing out from crosses I made with this one last year. 

I will most likely wait until winter to determine if this one should be registered and released to the public.