This week I was rewarded with a beautiful Angel Trumpet bloom from a Brenda Delph cross involving Brugmansia Terri Schindler Schiavo x New Orleans Lady.This seedling bloomed for the first time back in Spring of 2008,  I almost lost this Brugmansia seedling for good during one of our previous freezes.  Fortunately it has rebounded, and after taking its time growing this past summer it is finally back in bloom.  I really like its crazy tendrils.I'm hoping it will color up some more as spring ...

My cat often accompanies me when I work with my Brugmansias.  It loves to hunt and of course likes to impress me with its catches.  She usually does not bother with the small stuff like frogs and lizards, but would rather go after the big game like rabbits, field rats and birds.Lately I think my cat has been spending too much time watching the Animal Planet channel.  She recently started positioning herself like a meerkat while she scans the horizon looking for prey. I'm having a challenging ...

I'm starting to enjoy my first hibiscus blooms following last month's killer freezes.  Here's Exotic Hibiscus Sun Charm illuminating a somewhat gloomy day.Despite our record cold winter and recent freezes, my hibiscus plants came through relatively unscathed.  I think I lost a bunch of newly formed seed pods, but had no plant losses.  It won't be long and I should be able to get back on track with my hibiscus hybridizing.

In preparation for our December freeze I knocked down over 1,000 gallon-sized pots of my brugmansia seedlings and piled them up in a long row.  This made them much easier to cover and protect.  The majority of these seedlings were ones from 2009 that came back from their roots after being damaged in last year's freeze.  They were scattered around in various locations and it would have been nearly impossible to cover all of them.  The majority of the seedlings are now blooming size and range ...

Actually it only rained a single bird, but I was still startled.I found this lone Cardinal laying in my brug growing area over the holiday weekend.  At first I thought it was the work of my cat, a prolific hunter.  Upon closer observation I could find no visible trauma to the bird.This is quite a change from the Christmas Holidays last year when I encountered this beautiful Blue Jay resting amongst my Angel Trumpets.

While prepping my Angel Trumpets yesterday for yet another freeze, I discovered this beautiful new double orange seedling.  It was like having Christmas all over again! This seedling is from a cross of Brugmansia Ludger's Windsong x (Color Point x Double Dark Rosetta) 6.This cross may sound familiar because I featured one of its siblings in this blog post last month.  It was a super sized single orange that quickly earned keeper status. I'll be anxiously waiting for the next set of blooms on ...

Another great surprise and certainly a nice way to end the year was spotting these Angel Trumpet blooms on a seedling from Brugmansia Hawaiian Double White x (L'Amour x Day Dreams).This seedling was carried over from 2009 and finally came back in bloom after a near death experience in last year's freeze.  The calyx is normally not dry and crispy as shown in the photo, that is just the effect from our most recent freeze.These blooms have a very strong resemblance to Brugmansia Day Dreams.  ...

I guess I must have been a good boy this year because I have a great new bright orange Brugmansia seedling in bloom.  This beautiful Angel Trumpet bloom is from a seedling from a cross of Ludger's Windsong x (Ludger's Summer Dream x Creamsicle).As you can see by the photo below this seedling is a nice triple.  The bright Orange color is consistent throughout the bloom.I'm really looking forward to seeing how this seedling develops. I'm already watching a couple of other seedlings with ...