Blooming for the first time this summer is this new Angel Trumpet seedling from a cross I made between Brugmansia 'Orange Zest' x 'Bergische Symphonie'. Brugmansia 'Orange Zest' is a Sommer Gardens introduction with medium sized single yellow/orange blooms.  Bergische Symphonie is a large flowered double pink European import.What impressed me most about this seedling is that it had a mini-flush of eight blooms for its first bloom cycle.  Also impressive was that the blooms held up very well ...

Here's an Angel Trumpet seedling that has been in my watch zone for three years and now I'm ready to make it a keeper.  The seedling is from a cross I made between Brugmansia 'Rosalie' x 'Inca Sun'.The blooms have a thicker texture like those of the mother, ,Rosalie' and the color is a deeper yellow than its father, 'Inca Sun'.  It is a fast grower, frequent bloomer and has remained pest free in my growing environment.I plan to put it into production later this summer and make it available ...

Here's another Angel Trumpet seedling I have been watching for a couple of years and now must decide if should be a keeper. It is from a cross I made between Brugmansia 'Bert' x 'Naughty Nick'.It definitely has its father's growth genes and It is pushing up the top of my shadehouse, which is about 9 feet high in that location.  The blooms are mostly all triples and are slightly larger than those of 'Naughty Nick'.  The corolla skirts are often extended, much like those of Brugmansia 'Angels ...

Meet Brugmansia 'White Lightning', a new Angel Trumpet I recently named and registered through the International Brugmansia and Datura Society (iBrugs.com).Brugmansia 'White Lightning' is from a cross between Brugmansia Jazzy x Naughty Nick. I named it White Lightning because of the crazy explosive looking corolla teeth (tendrils). It sort of reminds of the wild lightning shows we have around here most summer nights. The blooms are medium in size with a long corolla tube and they stay snow ...

This Angel Trumpet seedling is a sibling to one I featured last month. It was placed in my watch zone last Spring and since then it has developed into a real gem.  The cross is Brugmansia Cassies Curls x (Ludger's Summer Dream x Creamsicle).The bloom on the left almost appears as if it is a dancing flame.  Another trait that I really like with these blooms is that the color extends all the way up the corolla tube.  I plan to continue to watch this one into the summer before deciding if it is ...

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 ...

We were doing some cleaning in our office and I came across this vintage areal photograph of Sommer Gardens circa 1984.  This photo shows my retail garden center on US hwy 27 just north of Clermont.Note the results of the devastating back to back record breaking freezes in the early eighties. Those freezes killed off thousands of acres of citrus in Central Florida, forever changing the landscape of Florida.The building pictured is the old railroad depot that used to sit in downtown ...

Introducing Brugmansia 'Pink Cadillac', a new brugmansia I just named and registered with the International Brugmansia and Datura Society.I grew this seedling out from a cross made by Brenda Delph involving Brugmansia Adeline x Miss Caylie.It is from an older group of seedlings carried over from 2007, the year I first started growing Angel Trumpets from seeds.This seedling has been blooming for several years and thrives here in Florida.  At first I was on the fence about registering it, but ...