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Fred's Garden Blog

After a nearly five year hiatus, Fred's Garden Blog is back! Now you can enjoy and experience the gardening exploits and adventures of Fred in his quest to hybridize brugmansia and keep his jungle and nursery under control.

Sommer Gardens / Sunday, December 19, 2010 / Categories: Brugmansia

Dealing with Posttraumatic Freeze Disorder

I'm not a big fan of cold weather.  I'm a Florida boy and my body and brain start to shut down when the temps drop below 40f.  :)  Even in my athletic days I would not bike if it was below 50 and unless I was racing I would not run when the temperatures dropped below 40.  As a nurseryman I hate cold weather even more.  I recently discovered I have Posttraumatic Freeze Disorder, or PTFD for short.  PTFD can be defined as a condition characterized by intense fear, helplessness, or horror resulting from the exposure of your nursery, garden or plants to a hard or severe freeze. 

I finally discovered there is hope for those of us who have this disorder.  The best treatment I have found is to find beautiful blooms like these a day or two after the big freeze!

unknowndblepink.jpgThe picture above is of a promising new Angel Trumpet seedling I am trialing. All these photos have been taken within the past two days, following our recent hard freeze.  Below is one of my favorite seedlings from 2010, Brugmansia New Orleans Lady x (Angels Flight x Charming).

neworleansladyxangelsflightxcharming1-d.jpg
Here is Angel Trumpet Bernstein, one of the brightest single oranges you will find.  The final color will be much darker than what is pictured below.

BERNSTEIN.jpgIt is hard to find a more beautiful medium pink double Angel Trumpet than Brugmansia Day Dreams, a Monika Gottschalk hybrid grown from seed by Shirley Morr.

daydreams2.jpgI had hoped to pollinate all these blooms but the bees beat me to it while the plants were covered with frost cloth and poly.

daydreams.jpgBrugmansia Inca Sun did not let the cold weather stop it from blooming.

incasun2.jpgHere's a new seedling I'm working with that has the largest blooms of any multi-skirt white I have encountered.  It is not uncommon to see blooms 16-18 inches long and 10-12 inches wide.

unknowntriplewhite.jpgHere you see Bernstein in the front with a cluster of blooms from Brugmansia Jessie Noel in the background.

bernstein-jessienoel.jpgAnother golden Angel Trumpet that really colors up in the cool weather is Ludger's Summer Dream.  Notice the tiny seed pods forming between the blooms.


ludgerssummerdream.jpg
More to follow!




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