Planting, growing and caring for Brugmansia in open ground

To plant an exotic Brugmansia plant and provide appropriate care, you need to know a few simple rules. Despite the fact that the guest from South America is accustomed to a hot and humid climate, even in the conditions of central Russia you can enjoy its beautiful flowers. Indoor varieties will delight owners and surprise guests all year round.

Description

Brugmansia is known primarily for its beautiful flowers, reminiscent of giant gramophones hanging on the branches. Their colors are very diverse: depending on the variety, you can find white, yellow, red, all shades of pink and even multi-colored. Breeders creating new garden varieties have developed plants with double and multi-tiered flowers that look like fancy ball gowns.

Popular varieties

In nature, Brugmansia is a shrub or tree that grows up to five meters. However, not so high varieties have been bred for home breeding, differing in the shape and shade of flowers and leaves. More than a hundred cultivated varieties are grown all over the world; in Russia, the following are among the most popular.

Fragrant

Brugmansia fragrant (fragrant) pleases the eye with white or light green flowers up to 30 cm long and up to 15 cm in diameter. The buds are pinkish.

Golden

Thanks to the yellow-orange flowers, the variety received the name “golden”. The large leaves grow up to 50 cm in length and are soft to the touch.

Snow White

Initially, the flowers were white, which gave the name to the variety, but on its basis varieties with yellow and apricot colors were bred. It is a low tree, for which it has a second name - arboreal. The leaves are velvety to the touch and oval in shape.

Multicolored

This Brugmansia variety is called multi-colored for the unusual color of its flowers, which with age can change from white to peach or apricot. Gramophones grow longer than 50 cm, which makes them the largest among plants of this genus.

Blood red

Blood-red Brugmansia comes from Brazil. The tree grows up to one and a half meters. During flowering, it is covered with flowers up to 30 cm long, colored with red and white stripes on the tube and yellow-green shades at the base.

Variegated

The variety differs from others in the color of its leaves: they are green, covered with silver spots, and have a white-yellow border along the edge. The flowers are large, white or cream.

Tree-like

Brugmansia tree came to us from Brazil and became the ancestor of many varieties with a wide variety of flower colors. The bells of the flowers, compared to other plants of this genus, are relatively small, up to 12 cm long.

Features of growing in open ground

The subtropical origin of Brugmansia makes wintering on a personal plot in a frosty climate unacceptable for it. Temperatures below +5 will destroy the tree. In Russia, the plant is grown in open ground only in the south, for example, in Crimea.

If climatic conditions are unfavorable, the plant in a pot is removed indoors for the winter, and in the warm season the tub of Brugmansia is taken out into the garden. If the temperature allows, the perennial is buried in open ground for the summer, and closer to the autumn frosts, it is again transplanted into a tub and taken into the room for the winter. To make the replanting process easier, the plant is grown in a container with holes and replanted with it.

Selecting a location

In order for Brugmansia to feel good and delight with abundant flowering, it is necessary to provide it with conditions as close as possible to the subtropics and tropics, where the plant comes from. This means that adequate lighting and humidity will be required. The tree does not like wind, since drafts create windage due to the size of the flowers and leaves.

Soil preparation

The ideal soil for Brugmansia is fertile, loose, neutral. At the site of future placement, a mixture of loam, humus and peat is prepared for the plant. The components are mixed well, loosened and disinfected with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

Watering

The tree naturally grows in the humid tropics, so it is important to provide it with enough water. During the summer season, the plant requires daily watering, and on hot days it may be necessary to moisten the soil twice a day, it all depends on the condition of the soil. But water stagnation should also not be allowed; it is no less dangerous than drought.

In addition to watering, frequent spraying is necessary. During the flowering period, you must carefully ensure that moisture does not get on the flowers. It is best to spray late in the evening.

Top dressing

The tree is fed regularly: starting in spring and throughout the warm season, complex fertilizers are applied once every 7-10 days, watering the Brugmansia with water with added fertilizer. You can feed the plant with organic matter, for example, a solution of mullein and water in a ratio of 1:10. Blooming Brugmansia is deficient in phosphorus and potassium.

Trimming

In order for Brugmansia to delight with luxurious flowering, it is necessary to regularly trim the shoots, forming a crown.

When to carry out

Sanitary pruning of Brugmansia is carried out before the beginning of the active growth phase, as a rule, this time falls at the end of February - beginning of March. Autumn pruning is done to prepare the plant for wintering.

Scheme

First of all, you need to determine which branches the flowers will appear on, so as not to accidentally cut them off.

• Firstly, the flowering part of the plant differs from the non-flowering part by leaves. In the flowering zone there is a ledge at the base of the leaf plate; in the area without flowers, symmetrical whole leaves grow.
• Secondly, the buds grow on shoots shaped like the letter Y. Such branches are not cut, only the tops of non-flowering ones are shortened by no more than three buds.
• In addition, the standard pruning for shrubs is carried out on dry, damaged, too long, thickening, non-flowering shoots.

How often

Pruning is carried out annually in early spring, if necessary, to prepare the plant for wintering - in the fall. In summer, thinning and trimming the crown is not required, unless the gardener wants to give it some interesting shape.

Reproduction

Brugmansia is propagated by cuttings, layering and seeds. The most popular is cuttings; the material can be prepared yourself or purchased in a store.

Cuttings

Most gardeners prefer to take cuttings from shrubs because this is the easiest and most reliable method. Cuttings are harvested in September or March, for which shoots are cut from the top of the plant, approximately 20 cm long. The lower leaves are torn off, the upper ones are cut in half.

You can root cuttings in water or directly in the substrate. After a sufficient number of roots have formed, the cuttings are transplanted to a permanent place, be it a tub or open ground.

Layerings

To propagate Brugmansia by air layering, you need to select last year's shoot in the upper part of the bush. A wedge-shaped cross-section is made on it, sphagnum moss is applied, and film is wrapped on top. After the roots have formed, after a month and a half, the shoot is cut off and planted in a pot, placed in a shaded place and sprayed daily.

Seeds

When Brugmansia is propagated by seeds, heredity is not preserved, so a sprout of a completely different variety may appear.The seeds of the plant are sown at the end of winter to a depth of 2 cm, covered with film, and maintained warm and moist in bright light. After 2 weeks, shoots can be expected, and after the fifth leaf appears, the plant is transplanted into a temporary pot. After the root system of the flower has grown to cover the entire substrate, the seedling is moved to a permanent location.

Subtleties of winter care

In the southern regions, the plant overwinters in open ground. In more northern latitudes, the flower overwinters indoors in a pot, and in the summer the plant is planted in open ground or taken out into the garden directly in a tub. Overwintering Brugmansia indoors is possible in several ways:

• Flowering in winter. In order for the plant to bloom all year round, the pot is placed in a warm room and long daylight hours are maintained through artificial lighting.
• Semi-rest. The tub with Brugmansia is placed in a bright room with a temperature of up to +15, watered periodically.
• Peace. Wintering the flower in a dark, cool room. They maintain the temperature up to +5; by watering they only maintain soil moisture.
• Wintering with cuttings. If it is not possible to provide conditions for wintering a whole perennial, you can prepare a cutting from a flowering bush in the summer. To do this, part of the shoot with the apical bud is cut off, rooted, and next spring a young flowering plant is obtained.

Diseases and pests

Both when grown in open ground and when planted in a pot at home, Brugmansia is not immune to diseases and pests. Outdoors, the flower is often attacked by parasites that eat the foliage; indoors, fungal diseases can develop. Timely treatment with special preparations will help keep the plant healthy.

Spider mite

If light dots appear on the leaves of a perennial in hot and dry weather, developing into large colorless areas, and cobwebs on the underside, this is a lesion of Brugmansia by spider mites. “Fitoverm”, “Aktara” and increasing humidity cope well with it.

Aphid

A colony of insects can be identified visually; the first signs of their appearance on the plant are twisted shoot tips and a sticky coating on the leaves. They fight the pest by washing the greens with soapy water and spraying with tobacco dust.

Viral diseases

Viral infection leads to the cessation of Brugmansia growth. At the first signs, which can be expressed in the appearance of foreign colored areas on the greenery, deformation, twisting, the plant is isolated and destroyed to prevent infection of neighboring ones.

Nitrogen starvation

Signs of nitrogen starvation are yellowing and falling of greenery. To combat the disease, it is necessary to feed the plant with nitrogen-containing fertilizer.

How to grow at home

To grow Brugmansia at home, you need to provide it with warmth and sufficient humidity. Care should be taken when choosing a location for the plant, as the strong aroma can cause headaches.

Soil selection

The soil for the plant needs to be fertile and moist, but at the same time light. A mixture of humus, vermicompost, clay soil, 1 part each, and 2 parts peat, works well. The mixture is well loosened, moistened and disinfected in any way before planting.

Transfer

Brugmansia is replanted every year, increasing the size of the pot as the plant's root system grows. The perennial should be dug up carefully so as not to damage the roots; the earthen ball should be placed entirely in a plastic pot with drainage holes.

Prevention

To keep the plant healthy, it is necessary to perform simple preventive measures:

• When watering, you should avoid getting water on the leaves and flowers.
• Regular ventilation or moving the plant tub into fresh air will help against spider mites, which love stagnant air.
• Adding crushed charcoal to the soil will prevent the appearance of fungal infections and putrefactive bacteria.
• To prevent fungal diseases, you can treat the flower with fungicidal preparations.
• Treatment with insecticides to prevent pest damage.

Answers on questions

The most common question that novice gardeners ask is why the plant does not bloom. The reason may be a lack of light or other violations of the rules for the care and maintenance of perennials. If this is a delay in the onset of flowering after a period of winter dormancy or semi-dormancy with the onset of spring, then it may have occurred as a result of violations of wintering conditions. If you store the plant in compliance with the temperature and light conditions, then even wintering in an apartment, in the summer it will delight you with bright and beautiful flowers.

Reviews

Gardeners who have tried to grow Brugmansia are captivated by the beauty of the plant and the variety of species. Groups are being created on social networks, flower growers from different cities exchange growing tips and cuttings.

Alina, 34 years old: “I encountered a spider mite infestation. It's good that I noticed it in time. I treated it twice with Actellik, and the insects disappeared.”

The reviews are mostly positive, despite some difficulties in growing the perennial, flower growers recommend planting it on your property or at home.

Although the origin of Brugmansia is exotic, the plant takes root well in our latitudes.You can enjoy the beautiful flowers of this perennial by planting it in a tub at home or placing it on your garden plot. If you provide the tree with the necessary care, it will give real aesthetic pleasure.