Our Amazing Brugmansias

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Today’s Blog Post


Our Amazing Brugmansias

Our driveway is about as far from the section of the Andes between Ecuador and Chile as you can get. Yet each night we are reminded of the area by way of our two magnificent Brugmansia that stand tall in front of our garage. Now at just about 6 feet tall – the tallest and the other just under that height and almost that wide – they have almost taken over.

Now the plants have finally opened their amazing Trumpet Flower.

At night the smell is totally over powering… it fills the entire driveway with only five Trumpets open now. At last count we may have another dozen or so that will come on one plant and perhaps one on the tall plant. Our yard will smell powerfully.

As I sat last evening in the garage carving I noticed something odd. There was not one mosquito in the garage! The smell was there and it appears that the mosquitoes in our area don’t like the smell… or maybe cannot smell me with these things blooming now.

There is a small problem with this “Angel Trumpet” (another name for the Brugmansia…) EVERY Single part of this plant is highly toxic and can kill a person and pets if ingested. That… we didn’t know when we bought it…but have no idea of eating it.

Last year it was small and never got very big in the pot. I did what was suggested at the end of the year in the fall season and simply put them inside the garage and stopped watering them. I did give them a little drink about once a month as the stem was green and producing new leaves in the cool garage.

The minute that we put them out in the warmer weather they took off and did they ever grow!

On the really hot days, whether it is humid of dry, the Brugmansia needs water. It is huge and must need lots of water… so a squirt in the morning does the job…. Then at evening time after a real hot day another watering seems to be appreciated.

At night as the smell comes, especially after dark, the top leaves on every branch suddenly begin to reach up and kind of clump together like praying hands. This seems to open up the while plant to allow more access of the critters that should be coming our way and into the trumpet.

I think the needed critters in the Andes can’t fly that far… so it is to no avail that it makes it self available.

As our fall comes and the weather changes it will be back into the garage again for another winter inside away from the snow and ice. Just the pot and the stem sticking out of the soil will do.

Apparently we have a Brugmansia arborea. The article from Wikipedia is great to know more.

Yes it starts from a clipping too. Let me know – we have enough to cover most Peterborough yards and driveways – forever.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia