One of the double pinks has decided that the first night of expected frost would be a good time to burst into bloom again.
This message was edited May 26, 2012 4:57 PM
Brugmansias.....it's almost winter.....
Golden Butter#2 has suddenly come out in flush too. (Pink Sweetie is playing chorus in the background.)
Finally, Alistair Pink#1 (older and paler sibling of Pink Sweetie, aka Alistair Pink#2) has decided to flower after having either no blooms (or maybe one flower) in the last growing season. Tonight, as the temp heads below zero!
Added: You can see the darker-pink blooms of Pink Sweetie in the background--Pink Sweetie is both darker and more floriferous than its older sibling.
This message was edited May 26, 2012 4:52 PM
Oh no ...I am so sorry to see that, gosh so unexpected considering how far up North you are.
Lets hope for a miracle and they survive, I suppose at least we got to see them once more before the big sleep.
Just remember 3 months will go quickly !
Go have a big cup of cocoa (maybe with some brandy in it).
Commiserations.
chrissy
Not that far north but, more importantly, not along the coast. Hence the frost. Nothing unusual there except that it's started a week or two earlier than in the past. I'm resigned to it now, which is why I no longer try to grow tender tropicals. (I guess you could call the cananga a hardy tropical!)
Just took another pic of the suaveolens, which has begun to flare open. (You can see the outside light reflected off it a little.) You can see a normal bud on the same plant but I couldn't get a normal flower (fully opened) into the same frame as there are only sparse blooms on the plant now. You can see how thin the canopy is though, as the brug started dropping leaves weeks ago when the night temps first fell.
This message was edited May 26, 2012 5:25 PM
I haven't seen those cuts in the skirt before, it's like a Star Dancer isn't it ? hmmmm.
Well we skipped Summer down here this year so anything can happen. How many weeks of frost do you usually get ?
Good luck tonight ...our turn next month, usually about 6 weeks of frosty mornings, some more severe than others.
chrissy
Chrissy... I am as far north as Cestrum, but on the north side of Brisbane(close to the coast) only expecting 6-8 C tonight. I have a very nice flush on FFA forming at present so hope I can post photos of the blooms in about 1 week.
Allan
Quote from chrissy100 :
I haven't seen those cuts in the skirt before, it's like a Star Dancer isn't it ? hmmmm.
chrissy
My thoughts too, Chrissy and Jean's one has the split corolla too, maybe not as dramatic as cestrum's but it's there......maybe these two plants should meet up...interesting......those shreddeds have to start somewhere.....
Looking forward to the pics Allan, not many Brug flowers here at the moment.
This message was edited May 26, 2012 7:44 PM
Ivoire is flowering Dianne. Beautiful blooms. Colleen
Well it's been a cold & wet day here in Melbourne me inside working all day and didn't notice the weather at all.
It looks like all of you are haveing a bit of a flush with your brugs it must be just dam cold here i have buds but no flowers at the moment.
Dianne the crosses with PP fascination is interesting and should get you some nice plants when the they come throw, love the foliage if the cold group very healthy and fresh looking good luck with them
Cestrum your probably going to have blooms till almost spring how thring are going there but you mentioned the 0oC not nice hay,,, the pic's all look so beautiful in such a dreerie time of the year.
Chrissy, I hope all is well in your neck of the woods and the frost has not hit yet being close to the BlueM,, i could Imagine the cold snaps would happen often throw winter,
Alan hope your babies are also doing well in the QLD climate
I have just bought another small hot house for the seedlings so that i dont loose many throw winter i was going to get a big one but Gil put his foot down and said there is not enough room where i wanted to put it
so im rugged up and trying to stay warm in the cold weather but will get oout side tomorrow to do a few things in the garden and also pot some seedlings up
Thank you for that we are not as cold as south, for I am cold here, but the Brugmansia love it, a bite cooler then our full on summer heat, and the grubs love the Brug's so every morning I squash.
Keep squashing those bugs, Gena......post any pics that you can...
I feel sorry for poor Gil, Shaun......he probably has to fight his way in and out the front gate...
Colleen, well done......isn't Ivoire a beauty....now stand back while it takes off....mine is full of buds again and I've let it grow the big pod and taken off the others....it's very flirtatious....
Well, it didn't fall it to freezing last night after all, but it's only a matter of time. Frost season here is the whole three months of winter. The latest day of frost that anyone can remember was 1 September. I would have said that the earliest was June but, even though it didn't reach freezing point last night, I think frost is a possibility from late May. So late May to 1 Sept is the frost season here. Mind you, the days are glorious. While it's frigid inside (except for the sunroom), it's beautiful out in the sun (still not warm enough to strip off, though), which still has real warmth in it.
Shaun, Gil is doing you a favour as, take it from me, it's a real pain to have branches hitting you in the face every time you venture outside! (Too late to cut back now because of frost, and I resist doing it in Sept because I want shelter from the hot sun LOL)
Here are pics of this morning's flowers; I've included one of a normal-shaped suaveolens too. All the blooms are still open this late in the morning because of the cold.
Cestrum the shredded leaf suaveolens is to die for it would be in a breeding program YES!!!!!!!!
the colors are beautiful on your plants at this time of year h have buds on a number of plants 'Dr.S', 'EP', 'FP', 'WR','OA','OA1023', and a few aurea's + a few others but weather they eventuate to any thing is left up to the weather,
I know Gil is looking out for me he ant being smacked in the face yet with brug branches but there are other plants hitting bot of us in the stomach as we walk to the front gate which i dont wanna cut back just yet because it seems to loose branches all over and i have a few leaders on it to be the canopy in the walk way.
GENA, great to see you back keep those grubs off and squash em hard
Dianne i thought i was going to get a bloom from Ivoire this season but it looks likt there could be no chance as the bud droped
In addition to the brugmansias, I'm being slapped in the face by the Buddleja madagascariensis, which is particularly ironic given how hard I found it to initially propagate the plant. But it's a winter bloomer and so I esp. don't want to cut it back now. The hedychium canes are also whacking me in the face, along with the cestrums, philadelphus, galangal, and one of the bauhinias in particular. At least we're in the dry season now :-)
PS All these photos show overgrown pathways through the garden--they're not beds!
This message was edited May 27, 2012 11:26 AM
Cold in Cairns??! hilarious. It was 11 degrees top here the other day... been freezing for weeks, I'm heading back there (fnq) asap!! love the tropics, the humidity takes some getting used to though.
Dianne, Sphaeros looking quite good, they really come to life in winter, any sign of Y's?? mine are still yet to (almost a year and counting, vulsas i mean)...
Yes smacked in the head with branches here too Shaun, and if you escape them you have to dodge the spider webs or take them down with a stick.
Love that your brugs escaped the predicted frost, cestrum, so far we haven't had the predicted storm, these weather people can't predict the weather the next day properly, and you have to wonder how they think they can predict it into the far distant future.
Yes Gena as Dianne said, keep squishing those munchers, so glad you found us again.
Jean I often talk to my brugs "helloooo beautiful" or "Hurrrrry up darling" ...so far no singing to them though, I hear themes in my head though hence Heart of Gold and Twilight Time, if I sing to them they may try to run away. ^_^
Off to explore ...no wind and a bit of sun,whoo hoo.
Jean and Colleen, any signs of Y's on your Sphaeros?? Shouldn't be too long now with the cooler weather to come.
Humidity in May? LOL You ain't seen real humidity, Lucas! BTW, when there was a cold snap a few years ago and night temps fell to about 8-10 deg. C overnight in FNQ, well above freezing, many of the plants died simply because they could not tolerate such cool temps. So it all comes back to what you're used to, plants and people alike. I find the combo of winter frost and summer humidity esp. difficult for the plants. Obviously many of the tropicals cannot tolerate frost, but many of the frost-hardy plants that can also tolerate high summer temps can't withstand humidity, e.g. the common buddlejas, which have progressively been dying in my garden. Plus, my arborea is barely alive, all my sanguineas have long since died and there's no chance of growing spaeros here. And then there's the fruitfly ...
But I still have my ylang ylang :-)
Chrissy, your Old Apricot x Butterbomb seedling is still flowering. As is Alistair white#13. Shaun, that cut corolla seems to be fairly common among the suaveolens, although it's been pointed out to me that my white suaveolens is a hybrid. Unfortunately, I don't know what it was crossed with. I guess I could dab some pollen from one of the other flowering brugs onto it; the overhead canopy might protect it from frost.
Love your jungle cestrum, my garden tries to be one and it was up until a couple of weeks ago...
It's far too small an area for the Brugs and others to play "Land of the Giants", so they have all been cut back very hard and now the Brugs will shoot from lower down and give me more flowers in Spring.
The Clematis has grown all thru OA and BF and is headed towards PP....good thing it's gone to sleep for Winter....it's one of the C.Montanas, very hardy and quite pretty...
No buds on the SV x S, Lucas, but the common Sanguinea is in bud...though how could I call it common...it's a lovely thing...here it is last year, it's about 5 times that now.
Well it is gentle sun out there, numerous buds are looking wonderful but when you look through the calyx into the sunlight for the bloom silhouette you see only very short brug lengths, meaning they will take ages to bloom in these temps and will probably be greenish when and if they make it.
Can't believe the pod quantities ...of course they won't all make it, I think they may need a certain amount of maturity before the frost comes ...almost all the singles I have now sport donor pods, sheesh wouldn't we have done anything for that in the early years, I just could never understand how people could have donor pods before, but something has happened, something has changed. Pollinator, weather (cooler rainy), a combination of both of those things ? is one Brug responsible ? one Brug and her generations ?
Yes, well you may blush PP ...you cheeky thing !
chrissy
Lucas, my sangs are all looking so much better now in the colder weather.
They are still lanky but getting taller with many more leaves at the top now.
I dont think I will see any flowers this year, being my first year, but am hopeful for next time.
The other sphaeros are all doing well although still small.
Jean.
Your sanguinea is lovely, Dianne; what a treat when all the coldies start flowering.
Couldn't believe when I pushed my way thru the galangal and looked up: FFA! It's cream with a tinge of apricot, lovely in all its guises.
I photographed it on its own, with Old Apricot x Butterbomb and with my double pink.
It's the inground plant, so I had to cut the bloom down to photograph it.
This message was edited May 27, 2012 2:55 PM
And here it is with my long Aztec Gold#4 seedling, pollen donor unknown but I suspect it's Ecuador Pink judging by the shape and size of the bloom.
Finally, here it is with the usual suspects.
Or as many of them as I could round up :-)
Quote from cestrum_SEQ :
Finally, here it is with the usual suspects.
Or as many of them as I could round up :-)
they are all looking good Cestrum, the suspects you call them have they been up to mischief??
if so then they are but you must be quite happy walking throw the Jungle and coming across these beauties.
I also cant wait for the cold group to bloom mine flava from Colleen is doing the best about 8-10"tall and starting to put on a growth spurt and new leaves arriving daily,
My 'Strybing Vulsa' X.vulcanicola 'Zunac'(hyb:Michael Graupe) is doing well also getting a bit of growth on it with the cooler weather so i hope with in 10months i will have a bloom fingers crossed
It's as if they've all decided to marshall their efforts into producing one last flush before the winter frost strikes. Truly, I had no idea that FFA was flowering! I've dusted that suaveolens flower with pollen from Bucks Fizz (it had the fluffiest pollen) but the canopy has thinned out so much that I don't know if the bloom will survive the frost/s to come. Que sera, sera; I'm not going to worry about it.
Those cold-climate brugs will be something to see. It was only a few years ago that I discovered that Alistair was growing them, and suddenly now you've all got seedlings. Pretty amazing ...
I wonder if Allan's FFA blooms will be the same colour as mine?
Hello all.
You have lovely blooms. everywhere
I found some new buds yesterday.
While looking at all the big seedlings, I reached up to see what was going on at the top of the 6 1/2 foot trunk of one. It has 3 buds.
Mountain Treasure x AxelRose.
I do hope at least one hangs on and flowers before the frost etc arrives.
It looks like I am going to have a few pods on GHA with no daddy known . The only flowers around at the time were GHA and aurea Lucas.
Maybe a bee or some other insect carried some of the pollen I put on other of his flowers.
Nearly all the ones I pollinated have fallen off. Perhaps the bees do a better job than I.
Its a waiting game now to see what we all get.
Jean.
Love your handful of beautiful there cestrum ...how wonderful to see that lovely sight. Double the love huh ?
I am missing mine so much as they dawdle along. Thanks so much for the pics, it eases the withdrawal a little ^_^
Land of the Giants ? Dianne ... Love feeling that way really, except for the jungle critters in Summer and the cold wetness in Winter.
I hope all you coldie growers see your babies soon, I am looking forward to the pictures.
Good luck with your Star dancer seedlings Shaun ...are you really looking for 10 acres somewhere ? I hope you get it.
Jean good luck with those buds ...I think these German Brugs prefer the cooler weather, they seem to sulk a bit in any warm humidity. Perhaps they were waiting for Winter, I think our winter is like the German Autumn. My Grand daughter was in Germany in the Autumn/Winter and they had snow in Autumn where she was. I hope they open for you, but remember these buds will be very slow compared to the warm weather buds.
chrissy
Chrissy yes it is in my radar to get some land in the south west or central east of the state depending of what Gil is preferring, He likes Camperdown area near the 12 apostles where there is less frost and a higher rain fall then the other area that i was looking at.
The 6 Star dancer seedlings are doing well there are growing well the temp is a hindrance but that's what happens all over the world not just in my back yard
OT, you should have a word with one of the Tea Room visitors, Shaun....Her name is chookie 2 (Sue).
She has recently moved to Camperdown and is setting up what sounds like a little paradise...
Jean, Mountain Treasure x Axel Rose sounds interesting, hope it flowers for you, I really mean us...I get some sort of withdrawal symptoms not having any babies to look at here.....I can't work up the same enthusiasm in OS ones...
Avoid the frost if at all possible, Shaun. Higher rainfall = less watering needed from you, which is great too.
Knightii, both a normal fully mature double bloom and a still-green single bloom.
How pretty is Knightii, cestrum....I've never had a bloom this late on it.
Knightii is one that can flower thru winter here, as it's in a pretty sheltered spot.
The double blooms are variable, sometimes throwing a single as with knightii above and sometimes a triple, as with this double pink.
BTW, this is the top-left bloom shown in http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=9138939 (not the mature pink one at right).
Except that in the earlier photo the second/inner skirt was scrunched up and here it has opened to reveal the third skirt within.
This message was edited May 28, 2012 1:34 PM
I wonder if throwing an extra skirt or two for a double brug is similar to throwing one or more extra points for single blooms? Most of them do it, some have more extra skirts/points than others, or throw them more frequently ...?
I'll be watching my Knightiis next season as they all flower. The one out now has 2 doubles and the one single . All lovely and white.
It is sheltered , being next to the fern house and partly under a gum tree with sparse foliage.
There are a couple of buds on the one on the front veranda, but they are slow and may not open.
Even though it does go brown quickly, I do like the dainty Knightii flowers.
Shaun, you will enjoy having more ground for your brugs if you move.
Dont come too far west or you will be dry for a lot of the year.
Jean.
I think there are still many mysteries regarding these lovely flowers ...it's one reason they are special. They never cease to amaze.
The doubles seem to get better and better with a couple of flowering years under their belt, well that is what I have found from my experience (seedlings , I am talking about.). Maybe because there are so many mixed genes in the Hybrids. Or is it the original gene here and there, finding their way back into the picture.
chrissy
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