Trying to figure out this cross ....

I purchased some seeds online last year. I managed to get a few to germinate on my window sill. Unfortunately, my dear cat knocked them off all over the floor, so my labels got mixed up.

What I have is the pod parent for them is Rubirosa. But the pollen parent is what got mixed up. Both crosses had Rubirosa x ??? The mixed up parentage for pollen parent could be Goldflame or Lizzy.

One of the plants just bloomed for the first time. I got a weird bloom color. Not pink or yellow. More like a very pale peach color. This is the actual color of the blooms which have been open for 2 days now and are starting to wilt. So the color is what it is. Is there anyway to tell which pollen parent could have created this seedling brugmansia? It seems odd that the color turned out like this. Is that possible given the possible parent names or could the seeds have been mislabeled when I bought them?

And I have another question unrelated to the above .... what is the Brugmansia cultivar name that has the largest bloom?

Thanks in advance!

A close-up of the blooms:

Becky, I have to say it is a beautiful flower. Also would like to commend you on a nice looking plant. Usually the pictures posted, used to be, that the plant itself was so ugly, how could you possibly enjoy the flower. That is why I quit growing Brugs. My season is so short that by the time I had a really nice looking plant, it was just starting to bloom and my season was cooling down. If they don't have sun and heat, they do not have any color.

I haven't looked at the brug forum for so long, that hopefully they have changed how they post pictures. Or grow them for that matter.

I see you are in Florida. So, the weather is not the reason for ugly plants.

Yes a beauty!! the largest single I have is kong and super nova you have to be proud and job well done

Gorgeous!

noid yup stinks but thats what it is very nice noid

It isn't a noid if you know the pod parent.

It is a Rubirosa x Unknown. ^_^

It's lovely ...wait until Autumn to see the true colour, I like it as it is.
Congratulations on your pretty Plant.

Jnette - Thank you! I sympathize with your dilemma about the short growing season and cooler weather in WA. The year round growing season is what keeps me in FL.

Dana - Thanks so much! And also thank you for listing your two largest blooming cultivars. How is Miss Emily McKenzie's flower size in comparison with Kong and Super Nova?

Chrissy - I appreciate the information. You are right ... it is not a NOID, but rather Rubirosa x unknown! You think the color will change with cooler weather in the Fall/Winter months? If so, what color would you guess it might change to?

It is currently is a place that gets full sun most of the day. I wonder if I should move it to a partial-shady area since it is so hot here (and it is going to get even hotter)? I have some other brugs in a shadier area and they do have a better true color.

The one negative thing about this plant is the blooms are smaller. Perhaps as the tree gets larger, the blooms will increase. Or not?

Becky, I am no expert on growing Brugs, but just after a few years growing them here, where it is cooler climate, I would think the full sun down there where you are so much hotter, I would put it in the shade. Maybe a partial or filtered sun/shade would probably be perfect. If you have such a thing. I had mine in a container and even here in the sun it would wilt down during the heat of the day, and spring back up after the sun went over the mountain. But, the blooms did not die so fast. I think you would find your blossoms would last longer if they weren't in the full sun also.

It would be interesting to know what others in your area think. One more thing, out of curiosity, do you have much trouble with spider mites?

Yes your right I have Miss E it is huge too forgot about her santa rosa is also a huge flower too. With my plants the flower size doesn't change gold face is a smaller flower blooms like crazy. I really love this plant Angels Surprise is a monster. Thats the neat thing growing out your own crosses never know what your going to get :)

Jnette - Thanks! I am looking to move it to a more partial shade location. I do think the intense sun and heat is stressing it out. They always do so much better in Winter here in FL.

Yes! I do get spider mites. They are a pain to get rid of! I usually just spray the leaves down with the hose and keep doing that for a couple days in a row and then again in a week. But I've come very close to treating the Brugs with chemicals. Since they are not in the ground, I don't feel quite as guilty about using chemicals on the container plants. I try to be an organic gardener.

Dana - I miss having a large bloom Brug. Most of mine have the smaller blooms.
And I do like hybridizing them, too! But I have only so much room for Brugs, so I'm kinda limited. I have mostly pink brugs. No names, all were grown from seed or were a cutting with no label. I do have at least 1 NOID yellow which I managed to salvage before the entire tree was killed by the root knot nematodes. (I tried growing them in the ground here and that was a mistake. They are all now being grown in containers again.)

Is Angel's Surprise a large bloom brug? Or just a large plant? It sure does have some beautiful double blooms! Very, very nice!

The brugs are lovely, and I do miss them but I spent so much time on them and didn't end up with anything but a beautiful 7 foot plant. Yes, some had gorgeous blooms, but they didn't have any color. This is just not the right climate for theme.

I am glad you are going to move them Becky, think that is the problem. I know you can get rid of aphids with a good blast from the hose for a couple days, and I also know that spider mites want dry so water on them for a few days will discourage them too.

Boy, do I remember. LOL, Good luck. Jen

Thanks, Jen!

I have one that is almost 10 ft. tall growing in a container. They were all grown from seeds last August 2013! It has double blooming pink flowers. More of the sibling plants are getting ready to bloom. Each plant is different. I was expecting more similarity, but that has not been the case. It's been rather fascinating to see what each seed is producing as a grown plant.

I am surprised that your climate is not good for Brugs. Too cold?

Yes, a very short season. We might get them out in June, and our next freeze date is about the first week of September. By the time our plants get some growth, they have buds and starting to open but no color. We grow beautiful, big leafed plants, a few buds, but washed out blooms.

Jnette - I am so sorry to hear that it is a little too cold for you to grow brugs. That's such a bummer!

Several of the seedlings are blooming now for the first time. Some have pink blooms. And there is one that has blooms just like the seedling I posted photos of in this thread. They must be siblings for sure! I am very pleased with each of the seedlings.

Quite a few are blooming now and the backyard smells so good! The scent to me is divine!

Becky, that is wonderful that you like all of them. So nice. My gosh, you are in zone 10? Amazing. I don't know what that would be like. Do you have to worry about the hurricanes and tornadoes? I just don't think I could deal with that every year. Worrying about them all the time. I know there are floods, some areas have a lot of heat, etc.

Knock on wood, we don't have any of those. BUT, I don't have the lovely plants like you do. I love tropicals. I just ordred some from a dealer in California. Mostly South American plants.

Oh well, can't have it all. Have a good weekend.

Jnette - I am in zone 9b. And yes we have to worry about tornadoes spawned from the occasional hurricane. And it does get very hot and humid here. But we typically have very mild winters so we can grow plants year round. Though there are many plants that require the colder temps that you get up north that I can not grow here. Like Peonies that I think are beautiful!

This is a photo of a few of my brugs blooming. They all seem to bloom at the same time. Must be my fertilizing schedule as I fertilize them all at the same time.

Very beautiful Becky. Your fence sure gives them a nice background for a picture. What kind of fertilizer do you give them? Is it a pretty high phosphorous? Never could remember, isn't that the P in the middle of the NPK?

Do you give them Epsom Salts? Think I used to do that. Can't remember, but seems like I used to bury banana peels in their soil once in a while. I know I did that with roses, but can't remember brugs or not.

How many brugs do you have? They are a lot of work, but so worth it if they bloom nice.

Jnette - Thank you!

I use alfalfa and half strength miraclegro (NOT the bloom booster) and add some fish emulsion or whatever other organic stuff I have on hand. I am trying to go organic. And yes, I do use Epsom Salts sometimes, too.

I have 12 Brug trees. Mostly pink blooms. One yellow. And a few white.

For me, they are not that much work. I just water and fertilize them.

The pinks are beautiful, and the 2 most common yellows were my favorites in those, Dr. Seuss, and Charles something. Loved them both too. Isn't that crazy can't remember the name of that one. My very first one I had bloom was a pink one and had it blooming in my bedroom in December of all things. But, I really worked with them.

I mixed an alfalfa fertilizer one time in a garbage can, 32 gallon, and forgot about it. OMG, the smell was horrid. LOL, Bob had to get rid of it. It was terrible. But, if you use it right, it is great stuff. My daughter got some horse alfalfa pellets one time and just put them all over the top of her flower bed, not realizing they were going to smell so bad. She had my grandson out there digging them in.

Funny how you get into weird situations when you don't know what you are doing.