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Mutant in paradise... Mutant in paradise...

Mutant in paradise...

Last season I ramped up my brugmansia hybridizing efforts using brugmansias with mutant and deeply serrated foliage.  The results of those...

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 / Monday, January 7, 2008 / Categories: Brugmansia, Weather

The aftermath.....

Now that both myself and my plants have thawed out, I can assess the freeze damage.  It is not a pretty sight around here as you can see by looking at this picture of one of my larger angel trumpets, brugmansia Coral Glow. coralglow.jpg   Fortunately it did not get nearly as cold as many forecasters had predicted.  The low temperature hovered around 29 for a couple of hours and briefly dropped to 28.  That is much better than the 24-26 that was forecast to be the low.

Over the weekend I was able to assess the overall damage.  One thing is for sure, there was plenty of it.  Because we had such a warm fall, coupled with the fact that I tend to feed plants more than I should, most of the plants were actively growing and had lots of tender new growth.  That is where most of the damage was concentrated.  That's the good  news.  Most of this damage was superficial and the plants will out grow it.  I do not think I lost a single plant to the freeze.

serendipity.jpg
My hybridizing  program was impacted the most by this freeze.  I predict I'll lose at least half the seed pods that were developing.  That doesn't mean I'll be short on seeds because I probably have 50-75 pods that were not impacted.  Because most of my plants were in full bloom, in the two weeks prior to the freeze I had made close to 300 crosses.  I would suspect that 3/4 of those will not take, but you never know.  Many of those blooms are still hanging on.

Freezes are just something you just deal with and then move on.  This time next year I know I'll have a large shade house up to protect my most prized plants.  Not to waste any time, last night I was back outside with my headlamp on looking for new non-damaged blooms to pollinate.  Go figure.....
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