One reason for me to not be annoyed this morning

This morning I need a good reason not to be cranky. (nothing major, but some minor annoyances)
And I have my reason to not be cranky.
It is my new plant light area. DH got fired up for this project because it gets the plants out of his new basement. Also, he got some nice attention when he took a few pf my overflow plants to work for giveaway.
I am fired up because, well, PLANTS. LOL But also, I have more lights than ever, right next to a sink, on which he added a sprayer hose ( that's been rolling around the basement for ten years probably!) There's my crop of baby Meyer lemons. There's Gita's brug cuttings. There's odds and ends, oh Chantell's tiare seedlings, (slowly but surely ! had mite mania) This is one shelf. but the unit has two with lights, plus an overhead for the tall ones if I need it. Apologies to those who have shared probably better designs, but he had a concept and I had to run with it!!
Now excuse me, I have some plants to water.

Oh Sally - I'm so envious!!! It looks perfect!!! MY "light area" is via Mother Nature and the 2 big south facing living room window...that's it!!! I'll take pics tonight/tomorrow for you - you will be SO pleased with YOUR set up...seriously!!! I'll make sure to include the "humidity area" I set up for those with higher watering needs....did I mention this consists of bar stools in my bathroom beside the widow???? LOL You're giggling now - come on...I KNOW you are. Sad thing? I'm serious about all of this!!! And ummmm, BTW - would you like some more Bruggies? I've got a slew of them rooting in the "humidity room" - let me know which you have already and then I can share the 3-4 types I have rooting.

Wonderful!!

Chantell, I am giggling now- your're bringing me back from the brink. Yes I have also gone to lengths for my green babies. I sure hope your green babies stay safe from your brown and pink babies. I am sometimes heard mumbling- I can never have what I want around here. Last week, a shelf that I thought was safe- well had been for a year and a half- became an innocent victim of some fur-baby hijinks of some kind . But not a horrible loss. Just a mess. I was grateful that my new (Gita's) red epi, and my older (Jill's) begonia stayed on the shelf, along with my (medium) asparagus fern that I've thought about giving away ten times. but its cute and could probably survive actually being a dog toy.

Yes - can relate to mishaps initiated by our furbabies...grrrr!!! If Amber aka The Protector - leaps on to the love seat that sits in front of the 5 shelf unit (by windows) and knocks my plants over again...she's going to become a rug sooner then later (yeah, right). Hmmm...Epi's...can get you some cuttings of those too...just say the word

Sally, your DH did a fantastic job with that project. Won't it be nice to have all that perfect space for your plants?

Clutter-buster's Award!!! Congratulaions on your neat plant space, Sallyg. Your DH earned some karma points, I'm sure.

Sally: What a wonderful husband you have! I hope you enjoy using your plant stand as much as I utilize the plant stand my DH built me. I put the shop lights on automatic timers and that way you don't have to worry about remembering to turn them on & off.

One more bit of advise about over-wintering Brugs indoors; they are VERY prone to spider mites. I learned from the Brugmansia Forum here at DG to strip the leaves off your Brugs throughout the Winter. So, from the moment I bring my Brugs in the house, I pull off every leaf. Yes, the Brug looks pathetic & naked, but that way the insects will not be able to hide on the under side of each leaf. As the leaves grow back, be vigilant and pull them off. You will keep doing this until you are ready to put the plants back outside in the Spring. Also, you probably want to pick up some insecticidal soap. I believe that SAFER is easy to find in the big box stores. I also spray this product on the stems & soil of the Brug for any insects that try to linger around. Repeat spraying every 4-6 weeks. There are several different methods for over-wintering Brugs, put this is the easiest and most cost effective way that I have found.

Shirley - so glad I read this!! I stripped their leaves initially but didn't know you should continue to strip them. All the tropicals were sprayed down with the neem mixture (what is found in many of the safer products)...will make sure to stay vigilant over the next 5 months.

Chantell: Yes, keep pulling the leaves off so that spider mites can't hide & infest your plants. Brugs do require a lot of maintenance, but when they bloom & permeate their fragrance through out your garden, all your hard work is rewarded!

Sally, How nice your shelf is, and with a sink and sprayer near by, how great. My shelf is upstairs covered with plant paraphernalia but no plants yet. Water is an issue for me upstairs. There is a semi torn-out bathroom upstairs. With a toilette but no sink or shower. Ric hooked up a valve, hose and 5 gallon bucket so at least I don't have to carry water upstairs to water the plants but a sink and sprayer would be wonderful.
Boy do I understand about having things knocked down or over. When the kids were younger and we had more animals I never had really nice furniture and anything special was well hidden. Hey I still don't have nice furniture. LOL

Shirley- Thanks for the advice. Hopefully one year from now I'll have a nice big naked Brug (OK, three) in the basement.
Chantell- I didn't know Safer had Neem. I was scared of neem, hearing about how bad it smells. I can handle Safer. (but it is a weird yuck smell!)
Holly- it IS a pain getting water to the plants or plants to the water. At least, outside, you don't worry about drips, and Mother Nature does a lot of the work. But she gets lazy sometimes, like me. Hey, didn't you just get rid of a chair recently, for your plants? LOL!

Sally - yes neem has a disgusting smell however I'm not fond of the heavy duty chemicals to kill buggies...I rarely use them outdoors - definitely don't want to use them indoors - so everyone will suffer with the neem smell for a few hours when used...LOL
Shirley - I'll keep on them for sure!! This was my first year with the Brugs and the scent of that CG in the evenings...OMG...love at first sniff!!

Yes I did get rid of a chair (and don't miss it at all) but I do want to put up a Christmas tree in a few weeks so about 3/4's of the plants have to go up stairs. Where they will be packed together as tight as I can. Luckily that floor is linoleum. Besides that is where my seed starting stand is.

Shirley, thanks for the tip! Part of the reason I stopped trying with my 2 brugs is that they'd get such bad spider mites over the winter and drop their leaves repeatedly... that weakened them, I think, and then they wouldn't do much during the summer. After 2 years of overwintering and not getting anywhere near blooming, I figured it was time to rehome them! Maybe I'll try again one day... :-)

I do love the sink & sprayer, Sally! Jim put in a little "parasite tap" with a quarter inch pipe that lets me fill water buckets downstairs for my seedlings... but a real sink would be lovely!

Isn't that a kicker? Just when you think the plants are settled, you remember the tree has to go somewhere. at least I do.

2 years plus and no blooms--what am I getting myself in for??? I ass-umed that this winter's cutting could bloom next year.

oh, parasite TAP, first I saw TRAP and pictured a drain fitting to keep all my fungus gnats from clogging it up.

Sally - just an FYI 3-4 of my brugs bloomed first year - so don't be discouraged.

Sally: Glad you have 3 Brugs. That way they can keep each other company! :~)

Jill: You're not alone! Every Brug grower has spider mite problems, dropped leaves and infestations of these nasty bugs! Early & continual prevention is the key to maintaining healthy plants. If one of your Brugs does develop a problem, then isolate it from your other plants so that the problem does not spread & multiply.

Chantell: I've used Safer and Neem. Yes, Neem smells, but it may be due to tea tree oil and/or other natural ingredients. That's Mother Natures way of keeping the plant or tree healthy.

A Brug's maturity depends on when it will flower. The plant needs to develop a "Y" shape in the main stem and then in lateral branches. Flowers develop along the "Y's". I've always had mine bloom during their 2nd year of maturity.

Stripping the leaves off Brugs during the cold months is just one way to over-winter them. As I mentioned above, I found it to be the most economical way. Some Brug lovers swear by the "bubbler method". I've never wanted to invest in all the equipment that is necessary to maintain them this way. However, if this method interests you then I recommend hopping over to the Brug Forum. It is explain over there in great detail with lots of pictures.

Brugs like most other plants are VERY addicting. I use to have several dozen of them, but have traded them away and now I'm down to only 2. If you find that you HAVE to have lots of them, they are very easy to grow from seed or from log cuttings. The Brugs I grew from seed, where the ones I was the most fond of. They were my Brug babies! ;~)

I have several small ones that came from log cuttings. That is at least one of the places that my spider mites came from. Although I have had them before so I can't blame them all on the brugs. Hopefully I will be able to over winter them this year.
Sally I had a small starter this spring that flowered beautifully for me this first year.
Shirley your info about blooming after the Y helped me understand why some of my other ones never bloomed and others that were much smaller did. Thanks for the Brug info that you have posted in this forum and some of the others.
I'm waiting till after my Thanksgiving guests leave to stink up the house with neem. I had a friend for dinner on Sunday that complimented me on my lovely plants, she didn't see what is hiding in there. LOL

To add on to what Shirley said - if your cutting came from above a "Y" on the mother plant you will also get blooms sooner. Yes, I can see how these can become addicting but much like many of my other plant loves I'm looking for ones with an incredible scent...such as the CG I was talking about. Again...I have cuttings rooting in my bathroom window sill...so I'm sure they'll be ready by our mid-winter get together. I also, before deciding only highly scented ones, purchased seeds from seedsprout (I think it was them) - that I'll start and should be ready for our spring/summer get together.

I have done something very similar with my plant room. Purchased some of the cheapie plastic shelf units from wal-mart to which I added cheap tube flourescent light fixtures. I think they are meant to be used as lighting under kitchen cabinets as they have holes on the bottom of the light fixture for mounting. I just attached screws through the plastic shelves and hang the fixtures under them. They seem to be working pretty well. Took me a while as I had to budget for them but will get a lot of use out of them during the winter months so it was worth it to me. Will have to try to get a pic.

Mine were from cuttings above the Y, and they Y'd the first year... but they didn't progress much due to the mite problems... I'm sure yours will bloom early and often!

Now, if I could only get my night blooming epi to bloom... party time!

Jill - how long have you had the epi?? Mine took 3 years and was a mature piece from a mature plant

This is only its second winter, I think... I lose track and really should keep a journal! The plants (I had a couple of little pots each of 2 varieties) went into larger containers only this spring. They're growing well... guess I just need to be patient about the blooms!

I could be wrong but some how my mind remembers they actually prefer being root bound - double check that though

You may be right. That's true of a lot of plants -- they wait until they're root bound to bloom. But I've also heard these need fairly large pots, so I figured it was time to get them out of their quart containers. I've got 3 plants/cuttings potted up together in a slightly shallow container that's probably 12 inches across. They did put on a lot of growth this summer, so I think they appreciated the room... but it may be another year or two now before they bloom. Everything I've heard about the "Queen of the Night" says it will be worth the wait! :-)

Have no idea if I posted these or not (Sally - my apologies you KNOW I'm terrible about hijacking), Jill...but hopefully this encourages you...God knows if mine bloomed - YOU should have no problem

Close up...then back to your regularly scheduled program...LOL

YUM!

Sally, sorry if we've hijacked... but maybe we can make it up to you with epi cuttings... :-)

Still highjacking ;} What are epi??????

Shirley: I have a bunch of brugs, and last year I stored most in the garage in the dark. Except for ones that were none-too-healthy when they went into the garage, they all did fine. Is there any reason to keep them in the house, stripping all the leaves, rather than holding them in the garage? Does the warm and sun help them come spring? I worry about my cats snacking on them, because I know brugs are poisonous.

This year I took the less healthy looking brugs to my office. I'll be sure to try removing the leaves. Gotta say, that'll seem really weird! The kind of thing a plant-hater might do!

Holly, check out this PF entry: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2443/

Hi jack away!! It's all good !! Gita gave me a few pieces of red epi with these brug cuttings. doing well.
I thought the brugs couldn't freeze, a garage would be iffy around here? Can you store datura trunks that way? I pulled up my two huge Daturas, cut off the trunk at about 18 inches, and have them in the basement just to see. to see if I ever get around to finding out if its a good idea or not LOL

I thought datura were annuals, and so wouldn't make it through to the next season.

Our garage has a heated room over it, so I don't think it freezes. I keep meaning to stick and thermometer in there to get a sense of how cold it gets . . . .

From what I understand the Datura inoxia "might" come back from roots in our zone. Someone north (Ohio, I think) said theirs did. A DG friend in FL sent me a 2 ft one in trade - I planted it in a semi-protected area in my south facing front yard...going to mulch it to death and see what happens come spring. I have seeds if it doesn't make it. Sounds like most those folks (Datura forum) just plant their daturas IN the ground let em die - collect seeds and start over since they will bloom first year - unlike some of the Brugs.
Edit to add - I don't see why you couldn't let the daturas go semi-dormant/dormant like can be done with Brugs and Plumies

This message was edited Nov 26, 2008 11:10 AM

Oh those epi were very pretty, Looks like one of those plants for the greenhouse, when we get it done.

tetleytuna Well done! It sounds a lot like what we did. No way to make this
*dirt *cheap, but we made it fit the space. Looking forward to see what you have on yours.

OHHHH! So much i want to comment on.....

I have always dragged my Brugs in the basement and they have survived really OK--
Yes--I have removed most of the leaves--except the very growing tip ones. Funny--they continue to grow anyway! I actually have both of nine blooming in the cold, dark basement.
Not much----onr gloriouis bloom each.

I have never really had any mite problems on any of my plants. Not outside--not inside.
GUT--before I bring anything in, I treat all my pots with Systemic Granules about 2 weeks before. It takes about that long to have them get into the "system" of the plants....

Jill--sorry if I am wrong--but you just have too many plants in your house and they seem to carry on with too many insect problems, You know--once you have them--it is hard to get rid of them. Streamlining how many plants you keep inside might help....
Plants crowded on top of each other just contribute to insect problems.

I have never tried to overwinter Daturas outside. However--I am "playing around" with trying to ovrer winter my Tropical Hibiscus. I piled a lot of leaves over the cut-back plant and then covered the pile with a burlap. Just playing around.....See what will happen....

I also had a "Lady Margaret" Passi and I cut it back and did the same thing. If I lose either---NO biggie! If they survive--I shall be very happy! Each one is an $$$ investment.

I hope by now you all know how I feel about plants.....They are ONLY plants! I am NOT going to stress out over whether they live or die! The fun is in trying to grow something new from a seed or a cutting.

Here are my "Maya" Brug cuttings under my grow lights. Doing exceptioanally well.as are Sally's.....

I have,by now, found that most, stumpy cuttings do better than any tip cuttings you may take.
Here are my tip cuttings---looking awful!
They just never thrived--even if they seem to be alive......

This message was edited Nov 26, 2008 10:11 PM

These are all of my "Maya" (which I previously called "Peaces and Cream"...)
Just as a lark--here is one of her blooms in the plant I dragged down in my dark and cool basement. Just amazing!!!!

Now--also my Rose Souvelons has bloomed out one of her buds. It looks perfectly normal. I do not have a picture of that.