Friday, December 28, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7288 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Almost there.... My brugmansia Ambrosia x Creamsicle bloom is almost open but the color has not changed much. It is still a cream to light yellow color.The bloom does have a nice texture to it and it looks like it will be well shaped double flower. It also has a pleasant fragrance associated with it. Now if I could only inject some yellow color genes into it I may have a keeper on my hands. Categories:Seedlings Tags:ambrosiaBrugmansiabrugscreamsicleSeedlingssommer gardens Read more
Friday, December 28, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7067 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Anticipation..... One of the toughest parts of growing out brugmansia seedlings is waiting for the blooms to open. Sometimes it takes weeks for the buds to open. Of course the more you watch them, the longer it takes them to open. With brugs, the dominant color is white. For me this equates to about every three out of four seedlings I grow having white blooms. This monster bud is playing with my mind right now. I know it is going to at least be a double bloom and it appears to have a yellowish tint to ... Categories:HybridizingBrugmansiaSeedlings Tags:ambrosiaBrugmansiabrugscreamsicleSeedlingssommer gardens Read more
Friday, December 28, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 6779 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Better with age That's the story with this brugmansia. It is a cross between Miss Caylie and Genevieve and is one of several plants I have growing from this cross. Here's what the flowers looked like when the plant first bloomed in November. It was so ugly it almost ended up in the compost pile. Knowing that the first blooms a seedling produces may not resemble the flowers the plant produces as it matures, I decided to let the plant stay for a couple more rounds of blooms. Over the weekend the second ... Categories:HybridizingBrugmansiaSeedlings Tags:Brugmansiabrugsgenevievemiss caylieseedling Read more
Sunday, December 16, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 6588 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating The Fox and The Hound Actually it wasn't the fox and the hound, it was the fox and my dog Inga. I apologize for the dead animal picture, but this is what I encountered while I was out spraying for pests on Saturday morning. I heard the ruckus in the wee hours of the morning, but I had no idea what was shaking down outside. We've had red foxes around our house as far back as I can remember. Usually I spot them late at night when I am returning home from the office. I'll spot them as they scurry across the road ... Categories:Ramblings Tags:Brugmansiagravered fox Read more
Sunday, December 16, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 5684 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Pods, pods, and more pods! By Christmas I'll be encountering another major flush of blooms on my brugmansia plants. Before I go crazy cross pollinating blooms I decided to take a pod inventory to see which of my earlier crosses actually took. I was shocked to see that I had over 150 seed pods in various stages of development. I only counted them if they were at least an inch or two long and fattening up. I probably have another 50 that are still small and haven't made it past the stage where they could easily be ... Categories:HybridizingBrugmansiaSeedlings Tags:brugmansia. seed podsbrugspods Read more
Sunday, December 16, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7152 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating (Kleine App x ?) x New Orleans Lady This was the only new seedling blooming this weekend. It is a cross between Kleine App x Unknown and New Orleans Lady. It is trying very hard to be a double as you can see by the second skirt still stuffed inside the bloom. The peach color has deepened since I shot these pictures.Here's another picture showing the nice recurved form. Categories:BrugmansiaSeedlings Tags:brugBrugmansiaKleine appnew orleans ladyseedling Read more
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 7397 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Double Pleasure I recently was rewarded with a couple of new double blooms on my Brugmansia seedlings. The yellow one is the one that I'm most excited about. It is a cross between Hawaiian Double White x Ecuador Pink and Jamie's Monkey Business. It only had the one bloom when I snapped this picture but several new buds have recently formed and should be open before the new year. This was just one of several plants I have from this cross but it is the only one with double yellow blooms. ... Categories:HybridizingSeedlings Tags:Brugmansiabrugsdouble blooms.ecuador pinkhawaiian double whitejamies monky businessseedling Read more
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 / Author: Sommer Gardens / Number of views: 6278 / Comments: / Article rating: No rating Down with Delta Dawn Brugmansia Delta Dawn was a vigorous grower for me and loved to show off her large over-sized yellow blooms. During the couple of flushes she had this summer there were so many blooms that the branches were touching the ground.A couple of weeks ago I was ready to pollinate some of her flowers and I noticed what appeared to be stem blight, the scourge of brugmansia growers.Delta Dawn is now history. I chopped her up, tossed her in the dumpster, and sanitized the garden tools used in the ... Categories:BrugmansiaGarden Pests Tags:Brugmansiabrugsdelta dawn Read more