Congrats, SweetAnnie. I have no answers for you, other than I know we must take them in before the first frost. Please post pics when you can. I have some buds (I think) this is my first burg.

Annie,

I stop fertilizing at the end of August. That way, the plant has a chance to harden itself off for the upcoming cool weather without putting forth new growth. I find it blooms best in cool weather as well. You will still need to water your brugs however.

About the temperature, brugs grow best above 50 degrees, but they can survive in less. However, if you are going to have a frost, be sure to cover them. The upper storey will not tolerate a frost. I take mine in to my garage, depending on weather, near the end of September. There I repot them, and let them get used to their new pots. Later in October, they go down to my cold cellar which does not freeze, but stays about 40 degrees in the winter.

Hey Annie,

Is this one of the brug cuttings I sent you? I am in Zone 6 too and I have stopped fertilizing a couple of weeks ago. When is your normal first frost date? I would say as long as the temps are not below 45 degrees you should be fine. Brugs like cool nights, but not too cool.

Please post pictures when you can.

David in WV

Congrats on your new buds Annie. I'm in 7a and just gave everyone their last feeding the other day. I probably have another month before the first frost. It figures that all my brugs, some that have never bloomed before, are just getting loads of buds. So are many of my other tropical and sub-tropical plants. We've had strange weather this season, temps and rainfall. I doubt that I have enough warm weather left for all of them to bloom and definitely not enough greenhouse space to keep all of them growing. There's always next season, right.
Karyn

Thanks All.

Yes David, it's one of those you sent me in the spring. It formed tiny buds earlier this summer, but it was too hot, I suppose, and the buds dropped off. It has since grown to about 6 ft tall and formed an umbrella, and has produced new buds. These are growing at a phenominal rate and resemble pods now. They look like something from a sci-fi movie - aliens. (hehehe).

I will post pictures of it's progress.

I am loving this weather.
Just wish it would rain.
~ Annie

After adopting 3 brugs two months ago and driving them 200 miles from one So. CA city to another--two in pots standing up in the back of a pickup and the 3rd with its root ball in a plastic trash bag--they have regained all of their leaves (they arrived looking like big stems after every single leaf was whipped off by the wind)and now I want to know what the buds look like before the pod-like things appear.

I examine them every day hoping I get blooms, but each time I see what I think might be a bloom, it turns out to be another leaf. These are my first brugs (Angel Trumpets is what the previous owner called them--I learned the brug name from this site) and I so desperately want blooms or is it too late? I give them water and Miracle-Gro.

One is about 5 feet tall with somewhat serrated leaves and part of one arm of the Y (learned that here too)was severed, but I believe a new one is forming further down on the stalk. The 2nd one is nearly as tall, but has two Y's and has formed somewhat of a canopy with its full, oval-shaped leaves; and the 3rd is about one foot tall and has a Y with lots of leaves (and is still growing in a trash bag--I plan to pot it this weekend).

As stated before I live in "southern" So. CA (is that zone 10?), so will I get blooms?. And how will I know that they are coming? Also what might be snacking on the leaves? Not gorging, just snacking.

Gail your brugs should do great in So Ca. Is there a reason that you are going to put them in containers? They'd do well inground in your zone and wouldn't need to be watered as frequently as potted trees.

However you plant them just keep them watered, feed twice a week and you'll get blooms. I have some caterpillars that look like inchworms snacking on the foliage but that's about it. Tomato and tobacco hornworms also like brugs.

There's a thread on page 2 of this forum posted by trigger that has some good pics of buds and some good info. It's called "Y and brugs" or something like that. It shouldn't be hard to find. Good luck with your new plants.
Karyn

Thank you, karyn1!! I just visited trigger's thread and I am going to burn rubber (not an easy thing to do on So.CA freeways) home to look at my leaves now that I know the difference between a flowering leaf and a vegetative leaf!

So far I haven't seen any worms and I hope I don't since I am truly "critterphobic", so as long as they are just snacking, and I don't see them, then we can co-exist just fine. I hope I never see one of those tomato worms--saw one of those just once in my life and I have been traumatized ("wormophobic", too) at the thought of that gigantic thing ever since!

The reason why I think I will keep them in pots is because a neighbor had one in her yard and it became invasive. She gets little baby brugs sprouting in her lawn area all of the time. She cut it down and they still sprout. She says she wishes she had never planted it, even though it was beautiful. I don't want that to happen to me. Now if you (or anyone else) has a suggestion to prevent that from happening . . .

One more thing . . . are all brug blooms fragrant? The previous owner of my three said she never smelled anything from them.

Uh, oh!
Gail, I wonder from what you just wrote if maybe you do not have a Brugmansia, but a Datura. Some people mistakingly call Datura plants "Angela Trumpets".
Daturas drop seeds like crazy and will spread everywhere. I have a clump of those. I just pick all the seeds every year and that keeps them from getting rampant.
It has no fragrance. The correct common name for a Datura is Jimsonweed, but is now also called "Devil's Trumpet". Brugmansias are called "Angel's Trumpet".
Another way to tell the difference is that Datura blooms grow erect (point up), while Brug blooms are pendulas (hang down).
Another thing I notice (a novice myself), is that the leaves of Daturas have a very bitter, acrid smell, but Brugmansia don't.
The leaves of my Brugs look rather similar to Poinsettia leaves and are green - some are fuzzy and some are smooth.
My Daturas have a slight purple tinge to the leaves and the base of the flowers.
Brugs bloom in the day and Daturas bloom at night.
Brugs smell heavenly, while most Daturas don't - they smell just like the leaves. I do remember the wild Jimsonweeds that grew along the Santa Margarita river near my hometown in Southern California had a sweet smell, mixed with the acrid smell of the leaves. I delighted in seeing them when we camped out on the river. They glowed in the moonlight and smelled nice. But the ones I am growing now here in Oklahoma don't have any perfume whatsoever, just that stinky old weed smell. Strange.

I have to replace the batteries in my camera tonight, then I will take some snapshots tomorrow and post them.

~ Annie

I was thinking the same thing as Annie. I've never heard of a brug becoming invasive. The seed pods are huge and the seeds are fairly large. I've never heard of them scattering and growing. Daturas on the other hand have much smaller exploding seed pods and will freely reseed all over but daturas aren't as big as the plants you are describing. They sound like brugs. Have you looked at any pics to make sure of what you have? The first pic is a brug that's just about to bloom. The second pic is a datura blossom, sorry that the whole plant isn't showing but you can see a leaf in the top left corner. BTW all of my brugs smell wonderful. The daturas have no aroma.
Karyn
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Karyn,

The Datura plant I got my seeds from was about 5-6 feet tall and it was humongous in diameter! It was growing next to the feed store where I buy my feed and hay. The owner gave me some seeds and dug me up a couple of seedlings. The 'mother plant' was a mass of blooms of the common white variety. Perhaps the colored ones don't make as big a plant as the weed.

Your purple Datura is lovely! I was given some purple Datura seeds in a trade this spring but didn't get them planted. Next Spring I will get them in the ground. They are supposed to be purple w/ white ruffles or something like that.

Oh, and BTW, I spelled my Brugmansia wrong. It is 'Janet Reno'. The buds are exponentially growing & swelling each day! It is absolutely amazing to observe the process!
~Annie

I guess I should have read more here about the burgs. I have many buds on mine, but I didn't know to stop feeding them, I just feed it yesterday. Am I in trouble now? Does anyone know if I will see the blooms this year? How big are the buds when they open? Thanks everyone.

Donna

Donna if you are going to put the brug inside a greenhouse or your house and keep it going with heat and lights you can continue to feed it. If you are going to allow it to go dormant just don't feed it anymore. I don't know when your frost date is. Depending on how much warm weather you have left your buds might open. Even if you bring it in the buds might drop from the shock of being moved indoors. Good luck.

Annie you are right about the weed variety of datura. I've seen those get huge. My colors and doubles never get that big but it would sure be nice if they did!
Karyn

Annie . . . Thank you for your info. Well . . . I believe they are brugs, but until I see a bloom, I won't know for sure. But the previous owner (who gave them up because she had to move into a situation where she could not take them with her) said they were Angel Trumpets. After finding this site, I asked her which direction the flowers grow and she said down, so I enlightened her about Brugs vs Daturas which she did not know. She says that one of them is salmon colored, one is peach, and one is yellow, but I don't remember which is which. As I stated before, she said that she has never smelled anything from hers. I will be waiting for your pics.

As for my neighbor and her problem with baby brugs popping up all over her lawn, hers was definitely a brug because the huge yellow flowers hung down over her fence and, because her backyard runs along a narrow, one-way alley that is heavily used by neighborhood vehicle traffic, people complained that the flowers kept hitting their cars. As a matter of fact, I got all the way to work one day, got out of my car, and found a blossom stuck to my car antenna. I got the impression that the babies were more like runners than seeds. I was just over there and she is still pulling them up as she sees them.

Karyn . . . thank you for the pics. The leaves on one of mine (the one with the partially severed Y) looks like your first picture. Some of the larger, lower leaves are somewhat jagged (sort of like a big pointsettia leaf as Annie described), but not all of them are like that. I can't see enough of the leaf in your second picture, but the flower sure is beautiful!! I will spend some time looking at pictures that people have posted on this site to try and get some idea of what I really have.

Annie . . . How do you smell the leaves? Do I have to snap them? crush them? I get very close to mine because I am constantly looking for evidence of blooms, and I have not detected any smell at all. My leaves are all smooth . . . none of the plants have hairy leaves.

If someone could tell me how to post pictures, I will do that and maybe someone can help me identify exactly which I have.

Oh if I could only get a bloom!!

Pictures

This is a photo of the 3 Bugs I am growing in 5-gallon buckets, taken on Juky 23, 2006.
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The largest plant (in the middle) is the Janet Reno that now has buds. The Brugs at the bottom and in the back have soft, fuzzy leaves. They are supposed to be yellow. Didn't bud this year.

The photo below shows a flower bud that you can see formed in the crotch of the branch, what others refer to as the "Y". The new leaves grow along the stems, whereas the buds grow out of the crotches, where the branch forks.
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Here is another photo of new buds growing out if the crotch of the branches:

To ensure you are looking at the correct things, note that the flowerbuds have white tips on them. You can see a tiny new bud forming on the branch where leaves form a fork, and a slightly bigger bud about a week older that is growing in a fork at the lower right of the picture. You will note that it is beginning to swell and get elongated.
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In this photo, you can see that the oldest flowerbuds have really grown and are rapidly swelling and growing each day.
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Hope these pictures help give you an idea of what to look for.
~ Annie

Oh Annie! I am soooo excited! I went out this morning and looked where you said and guess what?!! I have several buds forming on one of my brugs!! It was what you said about the white tip that did it!! There are several teeny, tiny little growths with white tips all over the plant right where you said they would be!

I read your post last evening and ran out just before dark to do a search, but I was forced back indoors by a gigantic critter sitting amongst the leaves (remember . . I'm "critterphobic") which I think was a grasshopper (I could only see its rear legs and body--I didn't care to look any closer), but I guess I found out what is snacking on my leaves.

As I left the house for work this morning, I went to survey my brugs (which has been my practice ever since I brought them home)and to my delight, I found the little buds!! I did not see any on the one and a half-armed (or one and a half-Y'd) plant, which by the way, has the somewhat serrated leaves and the upward growth of the leaves like yours in the photo; nor was there any on the little one growing in the bag (didn't get around to potting it over the weekend), but when I get home this evening (I'm so excited, I may not be able to wait--may have to leave early), I will look at that one again. It was a little too much to squat down with my dress, heels and purse to really check it out.

So, Annie, your screen name speaks volumes . . . you have been so Sweet to put up with me and I cannot thank you enough.

Karyn . . . thanks to you too.

When my flowers bloom, I will check in and let you know what color they are and if there is any fragrance at all . . . oh yes, and if they are truly brugs (vs daturas).

Thank you both so very much!! I'm going to be a MOMMY!!