Friday, February 3, 2012 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 18317 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Mission Accomplished 2 ......well almost. A few weeks ago I started my second greenhouse project for Sommer Gardens, a new hoop house. This project followed the completion of a large shade house friends and I constructed during the holidays. While I really wanted to build a nice greenhouse with a heater and fans, finances dictated I switch to a less expensive hoop house kit.The kit arrived on a 16 foot pallet, three quarters of a ton of tightly bound galvanized steel pipe ready to be assembled. Its new home was going to be an open ... Categories:Random thoughtsGreenhouse Tags:Brugmansiagreenhousenurseryshadehousesommer gardens Read more
Monday, December 26, 2011 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 8207 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Christmas presents for my brugmansia My Angel Trumpets will have a nice surprise soon when they are covered with a new shadehouse I'm building with the help of friends during the Christmas Holidays. When completed there will be just under 9,000 sq ft of growing space under the cover of shade cloth. During the winter growing season a layer of clear poly will add additional protection should we have sub-freezing weather.The toughest part of the construction project was sinking 80 sixteen foot 4x4's amongst my brugmansia. Our ... Categories:Random thoughts Tags:angel trumpetsBrugmansiagreenhouseshadehousesommer gardens Read more
Sunday, May 30, 2010 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 10376 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Pick up sticks... Seeing how I'm sort of playing catch-up here I thought I would share a few photos from the post-freeze clean-up. To recap, the winter of 2009 was said to be the worst ever here in Central Florida. I had planned to build a large shade house last fall to protect my brugs, but was not able to do so. I relied on frost cloth, plastic sheeting, and an endless supply of water to protect my brugs. The damage was great and I estimate that I lost about 30% of my plants.Here's a photo from early ... Categories:BrugmansiaRandom thoughtsWeather Tags:Brugmansiadead brugmansiadead brugsfreeze of 2009 Read more
Thursday, May 20, 2010 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7498 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating I'm back!!! No I didn't give up blogging, I just had to focus my energy on a couple of other web projects this spring. While both are still a work in progress, I now have time to get back up to speed with things here. Also motivating me to post is that the brugs that survived the freeze are rebounding nicely. I have had a bunch of blooms appear this past month and have been able to get a couple dozen seed pods to set with hopefully more to come. I made over 50 additional crosses since last week, but ... Categories:Random thoughtsRamblings Tags:Brugmansia Read more
Thursday, December 24, 2009 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7199 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating The Blue Jay of Happiness? While everyone knows of the Blue Bird of happiness, well I've encountered the Blue Jay of happiness. This cutie has been hanging out in a group of my older brugmansia seedlings for a couple of weeks now. It tends to hang out near me when I'm out there and as you can see, it does not seem to be afraid either. Could this be love??? Categories:Random thoughtsRamblings Tags:Angel Trumpetblue jayBrugmansiabrugs Read more
Monday, November 16, 2009 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7091 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Up, up and away! While I was home for lunch today I managed to capture a photo of the space shuttle launch. Here it is taking off over the horizon.Even though I'm smack dab in the center of the state, shuttle launches are still dramatic. Categories:Random thoughtsReflections Tags:space shuttle launch Read more
Monday, October 26, 2009 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 5289 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating A warm Florida Welcome to my new readers! I would like to welcome my new blog readers that came over from Blotanical.com. Thanks for the nice comments. Please visit often to see what surprises my hybridizing efforts produce.I had a major event over the weekend so I missed a couple of days of new bloom pictures. I'll make uip for it this week by posting a few extras. I'm heading out now to see what is blooming this morning. Categories:Random thoughtsRamblings Tags:Angel TrumpetBrugmansia Read more
Saturday, October 17, 2009 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 6894 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating An Angel Trumpet Pot of Gold Just before dusk tonight I spotted this rainbow illuminating the sunset lit sky. The real pot of gold at the end of this rainbow is the cool weather that is moving in on Saturday. Categories:Random thoughtsWeather Tags:Angel TrumpetBrugmansiapink perfektionrainbow Read more