Winter 2009/2010 in Lyn and Malcolms Garden

[Lyn and Malcolm]

A busy start to the winter, all the tender plants have to have some shelter. The Brugmansias, all ten different ones have to be housed in the conservatory which is heated to about +10c along with as many of the most tender plants that we can get in.

We have to cut down the Brugmansias, keeping as many of the forked branches as possible, we also remove any remaining leaves from the plant as well, then give them a good hosing down to blast off any insects, especially Red Spider Mite that may be hiding on the remaining branches. We certainly don't want to bring in too many bugs as they will only increase over winter.

The branches we cut off are cut into lots of cuttings which we root in water, again the leaves are removed and each cutting is immersed in water then under a running tap to get rid of the bugs.

Here is a picture of the cuttings in water. Each variety of brugmansia in seperate containers with a label dropped inside, so we don't get them mixed up.



And here they are about 3 weeks later after having rooted into the water and been potted up. Note they now have individual labels.



A view of the conservatory packed with some of the overwintering plants.



Malcolm

[ideasguy]

That sure is impressive Malcolm. That conservatory doesn't look like a place for relaxation

I for one certainly do appreciate the time you have taken to take the photos and post them here to share with us.

[roiphil]

very impressive, your Brugmansias is it shrub like tree like, i know nothing about these plants, maybe i should do a search later, what sort of temperature will they survive to outside, because round these parts we have palms, being on the edge of the gulf stream we are milder but wetter, so there are tender plants which get left outside in the winter and they still survive, i have seen palms 20 foot plus on the way to ballybunnion beach

Been quite myself on here, busy with digger and building a greenhouse, planting up that great big hole  in the front garden, planting trees around here and at the other place, its all go at the moment, i hope to have my windows in the greenhouse this week, all block work is done now, i look in daily when i have chance in the evening

Phil

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Hi there Phil

I would describe Brugmansias as woody on old growth, soft on new.
They can be grown as bushes or like we do as standards, they don't take up so much room at ground level when grown as a standard 
You can see the trunks of them in the picture, inside the conservatory.

If planted in the ground, and they get frosted, they normally shoot from ground level again. As it takes a couple of years to get them to grow into a decent standard we grow them in pots and give them shelter in winter. All parts of the plant are "Toxic" and supposedly are hallucegenic (sorry if spelling wrong) although we have never suffered any effects, mind you we have not eaten them or smoked them. 

Hope you are staking your newly planted trees well, we have had lots of wind here for the last week. The trees around here are now looking decidedly bare.

Malcolm

[roiphil]

thanks for all the info malcolm, we have had some winds aswell, i will have to go and check the trees at the site the ground is boggy and the winds if too strong just blow post and tree over  , i was planning on putting greenhouse windows in today but is raining cats and dogs so i think i will delay that job for a bit and see if it clears up later,

hallucegenic have you seen any pink elephants around your parts 

keep up the good work

Phil

[Eric Hardy]

That is a great posting Malcolm. I am full of admiration and just looking made me feel tired