It's November, lots of Brugmansia buds ready to open....

It's getting to the exciting time of the year for Brug fanciers....buds everywhere.
Lots of 2yr old plants ready to flower for the first time..
Cuttings that haven't flowered will do so shortly....c'mon FFA and Alistair's cross.....
So I thought that I would use this pic of my $7 aurea to start the new thread..
It typifies our weather at the moment..overcast.
This year should be our best year ever for all our OS purchases...we all have some so it's exciting for everyone.
Good luck to us all...
We came from here...http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1225065
Can't get it to highlight..



This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 3:53 PM

This Knightii has an extremely fat corolla...I think that there is more than the usual skirt stuffed up there...
I will open it up and see how many skirts are in there...
Back soon.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 2:59 PM

It definitely has more skirts than the normal flower, but the 3rd one isn't complete, more like long petaloids.... interesting....

I've had really large blooms on my knightii this spring, not sure why (perhaps liquid feeding). It's promising for the knightii seedling crosses.

Here's Golden Butter#2 late yesterday arvo, yellow and flared open. Noticeably different shape from yours, Dianne.

Here it is this morning, with an orange tint and corolla closed. The corollas of pure/r aureas don't open and close this way, but the suaveolens in particular do. The pollen donor is unknown and I thought initially it might be Old Apricot because the blooms in the first flush seemed to have a tinge of apricot at some stage of development. But now I wonder if it might well be Aztec Gold. Anyway, should be an interesting breeder.

PS Dianne, has your aurea darkened? Can you post a pic as the flower ages?

This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 3:23 PM

I took this one this morning cestrum, it's a day or so older..and in a bit of shade....it's about as dark as mine get.....

Your GB2 certainly has the look of Aztec Gold.......looking at everyone's pic's I find Buck's Fizz and AG very similar..I think that you have them both?.....if so what are the differences that you can see?

This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 4:56 PM

I'll have to try and take a photo a bit later today, for comparison. (Or maybe tomorrow morning.)
Mine has ordinary green leaves but those on yours look as if they have a blue-green tint. Very interesting. I assume it has the classic aurea perfume? Do you plan to breed from it?

This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 3:56 PM

I am waiting for Jean's GHA to flower, I think that they are the same.....I have them growing next to each other and I have saved some pollen from mine, to test them......it has lots of very fluffy pollen.
Yes the perfume is aurea.....I just had a look at the plant again and that blue/grey must be the camera...
The leaves are identical in colour to GHA....the flower starts off yellow then goes to a colour very similar to OA as it matures....

Colour is hard to capture sometimes. (Lots of times!) If you're using IrfanView, hit shift and U and it will automatically adjust the colours. See how you go. If you don't like the result, simply don't save it.

Here's Golden Butter#2 now, just starting to flare open. Hard to photograph because it's growing thru the bauhinia, among other things.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 4:48 PM

Here's Golden Butter itself. I only realised it was in flower as I was trying to take photos of GB#2--hadn't even noticed it was in bud!
Meanwhile, the short overseas seedling I've been watching like a hawk keeps dropping its buds. I guess it's just not ready yet.

Dianne I think that is Glass House Angel.
Lovely Pictures !
Loving yours cestrum ...Golden Butter 2 ?
Is it a cross ?

This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 8:12 PM

oooops the signpost is broken here is a new one ...we came from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1225065/

Looks like my golden boy GHA, Dianne.
He always has lots of pollen and the perfume hangs around all day. More noticeable in the warmer weather of course.
I have a cutting of another aurea from Lucas to get going so I can see how GHA goes with it.
After his very hard cutback, GHA is now powering away with so much new growth.
I expect him to be flowering again by January.
This is a pic from last June.
Jean.

Well I tried to get outside but it is pouring rain and I got drenched. It's cold too.
Sigh.
Must not complain though, it's better than high 30's that we usually have by now ...it may prolong the short window of time to make crosses, if the rain does not wash away the pollens.
Lets keep fingers crossed for mild fair weather for just a couple more weeks, when doing the crosses try to pollinate the blooms that will be sheltered if per chance we do get a sudden hot change, this gives the pod the best chance of succeeding. Have a great day , I am off to make some soup.

Just remembered to ask you cestrum those dropped buds ? are you opening them up ? Usually that means a double is on the way. Just in case it's too much water in the closed calyx, just nip a teensy bit off one of them at the tip and see if water pours out. It's a weird feeling, rather like breaking the waters when a baby is on the way. I have water pouring out of my buds at the moment when I do this, so the water may cause bud drop too if it becomes too full and heavy.

Tiny buds (too small to determine no. of skirts inside), not waterlogged, prime position under old clothesline, dappled light. It's just not ready yet ...

Might just mention here to every generous person I've corresponded with: please, please, please DO NOT send me any cuttings/seeds or any plant material, as I have my hands full. Thanks!

This message was edited Nov 3, 2011 10:04 AM

Ok yes then they just are not ready.
I still think it could mean doubles ...could you tell me what cross it is ?

I'll have to check later, but right now I just want to know who of our little band of brugsters still wants some brug seeds. ( I assume that no one wants any more of the Big Floppy Apricot (Joli x Angels Flight) from early this year.) I've got Golden Butter x unknown; GB x Pink Sweetie; GB x Big Floppy Apricot (fresh seeds); and Dr Seuss X x unknown. (i.e. from the brug initially misidentified as Dr Seuss but now believed not to be).

Plus some of the climbing Bauhinia corymbia seeds harvested earlier this year.

Grab them while you can guys ! they should be fab !
That is very generous of you cestrum. I am sure they will go a long way into helping make beautiful Brug babies every where here in Australia.

Very kind of you cestrum, but I have as many as I can cope with........it's amazing the difference in 2 yrs,
Isn't it....I would have been so grateful for any one of them back then......now like you, I am up to pussy's bow with seeds and plants...
We have very different tastes in what we have purchased so we have a great cross section of genes,
plus our excellent locals.....just imagine in another 2 yrs what will be available locally....
It would be nice if we got Chrissy's white for her and I know that you like the oranges....
I would like one of the ones that has separate skirts like Angel's Exotic...that's not asking for too much is it?....LOL

Chrissy thanks for putting up the link again....I couldn't get it to highlight so after a dozen tries I gave up...

Thanks Cestrum but I will pass too. I have too much on my plate too. Thanks for the offer. Colleen

Well I have just squelched inside, still wet out there ... I was very pleasantly surprised by the semi opened bud on Maya,there is some chat that she has not much fragrance, but I was thrilled to find that Lemon Barley Sugar fragrance coming from the bloom. A different fragrance to the yeasty lemon, this one is a real lolly note.
I am delighted ! It was sheltered behind other plants prior to this and so I never noticed her fragrance before (a large mandarin tree not far from it.).
Still too cool and wet here, our highest temp today was just under 14C :( . I have never seen aphids on my Brugs before, but there are many dead ones as well as live ones, thank goodness there are the good lady birds present, unfortunately the 28 spotted munchers are out there too.

We need some Sun , but not too strong. ^_^

Send any orphans to me Cestrum -but from now on I won't be just giving away my special *grown from seed babies*. I think we work hard to grow our seeds out and it's only fair that we only swap noids for other noids otherwise there is only a handful of us putting in the hard yards with the Brugs, I am happy to share those that I have purchased and have been shared with me, but my noids will only go to fellow hybridizers from now on.
Most have you have benefited from this work so now you can do your own hybridizing.
I think that is fair.

Sounds like a plan, Chrissy :-)
An eye for an eye! A cutting for a cutting LOL Or, put another way, two years' work for two years' work ...
Here's Golden Butter#2 (i.e. Golden Butter x unknown) this evening, with a 2nd bloom which is lighter than the mature one.

This message was edited Nov 3, 2011 5:57 PM

And here is a Dr Seuss X bloom this evening. Never a heavy bloomer, often scentless (although tonight it still has the faintest whiff of its light cold-winter aurea fragrance), but still a pretty bloom..

Funny how we're all in the same boat re seeds. Like everyone else, just a few short years ago I would have jumped at the chance of getting brug seeds!

Everything seems to have come into flower in the last two days! Well, all the old stalwarts, anyway; still waiting on those thoroughbred seedlings. Pink Sweetie has darkened nicely.

Not sure why that photo was so grainy. Here's another, fingers crossed.

I found this little surprise in the brug bed by the galangal. I assumed it was Bucks Fizz, but it had that heavenly aurea perfume. Plus it was big. Then it developed that upturned skirt ... I'd forgotten that I'd sown a cutting of Musketeer here.

Hang on, now I'm confused. I already have a Musketeer in this bed. But this one seems to be growing from a different stem about 20cm away. A sucker? Two cuttings? I can't remember! Anyway, it's definitely Musketeer.

This message was edited Nov 3, 2011 5:52 PM

I've worked out what went wrong with those Pink Sweetie photos: I'd turned the NumLock key off. So when I thought I was reducing the image from 100%, I wasn't. Should be OK now.

I'm going to finish with another photo of Golden Butter taken this morning, front on.
Looks like another brug, doesn't it. Such chameleons, these brugs ...
That's not a brug, that's an arboreal starfish! LOL OK, time to stop ...

This message was edited Nov 3, 2011 5:53 PM

Chrissy I'm sorry if I've offended you by not wanting any seeds at the moment, but I have brugs everywhere. Hopefully Brian's will all flower this season. I'm not really expecting anything grand in his lot, because he was going to experiment with the seedlings for grafting, that's why there's so many. Later, when I've thinned this lot out I will take some more seeds if they're offered but just not yet thanks. Colleen

I am not offended colleen just pointing out that it is quite an effort to make and then bring a little seed into a full flushing Brugmansia .
Besides you are growing seeds out aren't you ? I know not everyone has enough room to keep growing lots of seeds out.
Just saying I would not ask for a new noid or seedling- without a noid or seedling to offer in return that's all.

Edited to say Pink Sweetie is a really pretty thing cestrum and the other is very nice too.
Musketeer is a lovely Brug ...a little on the shy side but he also throws whole flushes of 6 points at times.

This message was edited Nov 3, 2011 9:56 PM

hi there Guys
it looks like a small but cossy family of Brug junkies here so i have to be 1!!!!!!
thanks Chrissy for your introduction & help
i hope i can make many new friends here in this group
have a good day
This is
B.conigera (B.knightii)????

i dont know if your aware of the site
http://www.bgard.science.ru.nl/solanaceae/

which is a SOLANACEAE database in Holland, which carries many species & cv it was 1 of the first places i have donated seed stock to many years ago

This is Latua pubifolia

This message was edited Nov 3, 2011 5:30 AM

I've never even heard of Latua; very interesting. And that database is a new one for me too.
Have you been across to the BGI website? You need to be a member to read most of the forums (several of us joined earlier in the year to take advantage of their free (postage-only) quarterly seed offers) but some are open to the public, including the gallery and two databases. You can check your B. conigera against photos of knightii in the warm-group brug gallery: http://www.brugmansia.us/forums/index.php?/gallery/category/2-warm-group-brugmansia (It does like like my knightii--there's also a whole series of pics of it at https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1054957/ )
You can check the parentage of known cultivars at http://www.brugmansia.us/cultivars/cultivardatabase.html/_/cultivarnames/
And you can check for specific pod or pollen parents of seedlings at the hybridiser's database at http://www.brugmansia.us/hybridizing/index.html/_/hybridizers/

This message was edited Nov 4, 2011 6:17 AM

I will have to add my thanks, but no thanks for more seed, too. I am full up with seedlings and grown babies waiting to Y.
I will be only keeping the ones I like, near the house, as they flower and putting all the others way down the back to do their own thing.
I think we all must , by now, have the same basic originals
, ..eg BB, FP, PP, GHA.. etc.
The fun now will be growing out our international babies then hybridising between us.
I am off to pot out the last of my seedling babies to make room for the seeds I have now planted.
Who knows what we will have succeeded in growing in a few more years.
I , too, remember that thrill of growing the first crop of seeds, any seeds, back then.
I hope all the #44 x GHA seeds have sprouted for everyone that received them.
Mine were slow to start , then took off and are now so much bigger than any others. Looks like GHA has passed on his hardiness and quick growth.
Jean.

Yay for Glass House Angel Jean, I will never forget the thrill of his first bloom remember ?

We thought it was supposed to be a Versicolor- and how big was the thrill to find it was an Aurea.
What a treasure !
Of course we are all up to our ears in seedlings and Brugs (and it's wonderful !)
Thanks to Alistair and some of our wonderful growers we have some fantastic stock to work with.
Of course the seeds from overseas have been awesome and now it's time to play with the Genes.

Just in case he peeks in

•*¨*•♫♪ღ░H░A░P░P░Y░ღ░B░I░R░T░H​░D░A░Y░ ღ♪♫•*¨*•
Happy Birthday To You♪♫•*¨*•.♥.•*¨*•♫♪Happy Birthday To You♪♫•*¨
*•.♥.•*¨*•♫♪Happy Birthday,♪♫•*¨*•.♥.•*¨•*¨*•♫♪ღ​ღ♪♫•*¨*•
Happy Birthday To You♪♫•*¨*•.♥.•*¨*•♫♪and many more♪♫•*¨*•
.♥.•¨*•♫♪Have a great day :O)♪♫•*¨*•.♥.•*¨... Alistair ! ...we wish you every success with your new book and new amazing Brugs.

Yes Chrissy, you are right. Thanks to Alistair for his many hints on growing and help with names. Happy birthday...

Wayne too has been a great help to us beginners.
Lucas, cestrum and the others we met along the way, have all made it easier for us to get going.
I think we can stand back and be proud of how far we have come in just a few years.
Dianne has her patch now , Colleen also. Cestrum is surrounded and I have all my babies too.
Who knows what marvellous brugs we will end up with .
Congratulations to all of us. We are doing well.

The only downside , which happens in all types of plants , is that there are those out there who are unscrupulous in growing and selling anything under any name that suits them.
May their plants all fall over and die.


Jean.

This was posted on BGI by Liz......the discussion was on seeds that were taking ages to come thru or not germinating at all.....see what you think.

This is Liz.

Which brings us back to soaking and peeling. Is anyone still handling seed this way? I hope not.
The seed case is there for a reason and that reason is to protect the seed as it journeys to germination.
If you peel off the seed case, you're exposing the seed to a situation it is not timed to encounter until it has had the seed case experience.
When you plant a seed with it's case in moist soil, it gradually moistens and softens. At a certain point, it gradually moistens the seed germ and gently wakes it up.
If you soak seed before you plant it, you hasten the moistening process and the seed remains overly wet for a longer period of time. Say hello to opening the door for fungus.
You're putting an overly wet seed into wet soil.
If you strip off the seed case entirely, and plunge the seed into wet soil, you expose it to moisture more rapidly than would happen if the seed case remains intact. The kernel is timed to awaken gradually as the seed case slowly moistens, doing otherwise does what I call "drowning the seed."

I believe that peeling and soaking became the fashion when folks grew impatient with seed cases that wouldn't jettison the cotyledons and decided they'd hasten the process to insure less decapitation of sprouts. In the process, they've made decisions about small kernels, or what they may have thought were undersized or deformed kernels and missed out on allowing the seeds to make their own decisions about coming to life. Also, a lot of seed has been damaged by mistakes made during the soak and peel process.

In truth, it's best to leave the cases on and plant the seeds dry. If, during the germination process, the seed cases appear to be stuck, mist them with a bit of water/fungicide solution to soften them.
Thanks to Liz for her opinion.

Back in August, I planted the Vulsas without soaking or peeling,
Then when I planted Jean's seeds I soaked and peeled them.......
In both cases they all came up and grew very quickly......
Now I'm having probs, due to the inconsistent weather I hope...erratic germination or none at all.....
In theory I agree with Liz totally, but in practice,
If you are having success does it matter how you grow them?