Now that our nights have cooled most of my Angel Trumpets have switched into bloom mode.  One that has certainly raised the bar in my hybridizing program is this Brugmansia Daydreams x Ludger's Windsong seedling.It is now in its second year of trialing and it just keeps getting better and better.  It survived our hot and steamy Florida Summer without a problem and it is especially loving our current weather.In warmer weather the blooms stay lemon yellow but when the weather cools they slowly ...

One of the more elegant double white Angel Trumpet seedlings I encountered this season was this one from a cross I made between Brugmansia Sweetheart and (Miss Caylie x Genevieve 7).The bloom on this cross is much larger than Brugmansia Sweetheart and has the flouncy look found in its father, Brugmansia Miss Caylie x Genevieve.  Despite our recent cool spell, the blooms remained white through their life span.  I plan on carrying this one over to 2012 for sure!

I've had so many yellow/orange seedlings bloom this fall that it is really going to be a challenge to decide which ones are worthy of keeping.  Here is one I just placed in my watch zone.  It is from a cross I made between Brugmansia Angel's Moonlight and Bert.Here in Florida I feel it is very important to grow out any promising yellow/orange Angel Trumpet seedlings for at least a year before deciding if they are worthy of keeping.  Yellow and Orange cultivars are more susceptible to fungal ...

Another one of my Iochromas that is blooming now is Iochroma Wine Red.  Looking at the photo you can certainly see where the name came from.  :)Iochromas are very easy to grow here in Central Florida, thriving in partial shade to full sun. A hard freeze will take them to the ground, but they quickly rebound when spring rolls around.  They are almost an everbloomer, blooming on and off all year round.

Brugmansia Marshmallow Sunset is showing off its fall coloring now that the weather has cooled.Brugmansia Marshmallow Sunset is an Angel Trumpet I recently named and registered.  It was grown out from a Brenda Delph cross involving New Orleans Lady x (Angel's Flight x Charming).Here in Florida Marshmallow Sunset stays cream colored during the warmer months.  From November through April the blooms are fringed with an apricot orange color.  It was this unique coloration that inspired me to ...

With cooler weather settling in, more and more of my Angel Trumpet seedlings are blooming for the first time.  Every couple of days I come across one that just wows me.  Here's one that really caught my eye this week.  It is from a cross I made between Brugmansia Jazzy and Brugmansia America. What is really cool about these blooms is that both have eight points (corolla teeth).  Normally a corolla skirt will have five teeth, and sometimes 6.  Having 8 teeth on both open blooms is rather ...

Once I got hooked on growing Angel Trumpets it did not take long for me to also start collecting and growing their miniature cousins, Iochroma.  Here's a new cultivar I acquired this summer, Iochroma Royalty.There really has not been much hybridizing work done with Iochroma, so I was pleasantly surprised to find several new hybrid cultivars this summer. I was so impressed with them, this fall I decided to play around with hybridizing Iochroma.  I now have a bunch of seed pods growing out and ...

I had an Alfred Hitchcock moment last night when I encountered a flock of Bluejays, one of which scared the bejusus out of me. You see typically I take a nightly stroll through my Brugmansia forest looking for newly opened blooms.  Last night I was gazing at a group of Brugmansia seedlings zoning in on a fresh new bloom when a creature buzzed by my head and scared the bejesus out of me.  I'm used to hummingbird moths and the like buzzing me as they are attracted to my headlamp, but being ...