I have been growing a brugmansia indoors for a couple of years now and, though the leaves are growing well, there has been no flowering. The plant is about four feet tall, has several branches off the main stem and seems to be in great health. Does anyone know how to encourage/force flowering in this plant? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Burgmansia only flower after the stems (trunk) have grown to the point where they have branched into a "Y". Has your plant grown to this point? - Millet
Yes, the plant is about four feet tall and has smaller branches about a foot to 18 inches long extending from it. I take it from your post that if they grow a little longer, they will flower. I read in other posts that they take well to high fertilizing. I have not fed it excessively so I wonder if a strong dose of food will spurt branch growth and result in flowering on the branches. I'd appreciate your further comments. Thanks.
Brugmansia are heavy feeders. Good nutrition is required to achieve quality blooming. Most growers fertilize medium to larger plants twice a week. Very large mature sized brugmansias are normally fertilized 3 times a week. Also magnesium (Epsom salts) is added at the rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon once every month. Fertilizer is withheld while the plant is dormant during the winter months. A medium sized brugmansia should be planted in a container 14 inches wide and 12 inches tall. Lastly, brugmansia flower under warm conditions. wish you success.- Millet
I foound that giving them 6 Hour min. full sun will induce flowering. I feed mine 5-15-5 CalMag at 150 PPM every other week twice a month one week 10-20-30 and the other week plain water. They will bloom year around. I guess I'm luck to have a green house.
We follow much of the same method of care as 'Millet' advises. We have three different forms and they do all perform, but at different times. They will flower as soon as the new growth forms a "Y" (fork). Some of them produce this much sooner and I have tried to force the ones that are later to produce, but I believe we would need to have them in a heated greenhouse to do so. We are fertilizing ours 2 - 3 times a week right now and straight water on the other days. Pink/white has been flowering since July and Yellow starting now, the orange form just starting to show signs now.
Yes I agree with the light, the "y" and the warm weather. Don't know about the fertilizing as I only do mine once or twice a year. Heres a pic of mine flowering with limited fetilizer, just my experience : ) I am in sub tropical though. Enjoy Ed
wow Ed I am so jealous of your Brugmansia! It must be wonderful to have such a great gardening climate!
I am in Southwestern Ontario. I bought a brug. from Canadian Tire late this spring. I replanted it into a larger pot and it bloomed all year out in the yard. Mine tended to go in cycles. It would just be lush green leaves for apx. 3 weeks; and then they would turn yellow and start to drop. I came to realize that that was a sign that the plant was putting energy into blossoms. Sure enough, it would be covered in blossoms for weeks; having more of them than leaves. Once the blossoms started to fade and fall the cycle would start all over again. Even short cuttings off that plant bloomed. The flowers on these cuttings were bigger than the plants themself. I have the big plant in the basement for the winter, hibernating. The 2 small cuttings are alive upstairs, but not blooming at the moment. The attached pic is from earlier in the summer. The number of flowers increased with each cycle.
The brugmansia's are quite beautiful and the fragrance unbelieveable, escpecially in the evening. We find with the three that we have (Pink/salmon, yellow and Grand Marnier) start flowering at slightly different times. The Pink one was flowering when we put it out in May. The Yellow in late June and Grand Marnier (orange) not until late Aug. They start with a few flower, then as each branch divides (or 'Y'), these branches all start to set bud and buds come at the crotch of each of these 'Y' 's, so need to be careful if you like to pinch out spent flowers, as new flowers will come at base of some flowers pedicels. One interesting thing we have noticed with our Pink form, in the evening the new leaves at the top all stand up, rather the horizontally. We had the form 'Sanguinea', but we did not keep it as we were constently having to spray for spider mites. Nice color of flower, but without scent. Can only keep so many.
My brug has been down in the cellar for over a month now, without any artificial lighting. I was expecting it to go dormant. It lost most of its leaves, but I was shocked the other day to see that it had produced one more huge flower!! This surely has to be a genetic/breeding thing because it sure has not been getting any special care. I think I may have given it just a sip of water to be sure it wouldn't die, and that was about it.
Congratulations, I bet it smells great down there at night. That actually happens quite often, since they develop their buds well in advance, and they have a "momentum" that keeps going sometimes even after you put them in storage. Many times it can even use this to pop out a flower on a cut branch rooting in a glass of water! :)
Just prior to the recent cold snap, I moved a decent sized Brugmansia indoors. My thoughts where to save it dispite making numerous rooted cuttings from it. For some reason I just couldn't see it die. Anyway, I had to cut all the blooms off as the perfumes from the flowers where just too over powering indoors. Cheers, LPN.
Might as well prune all the leaves off, because it will lose them all, except for the very tiniest that are half-open. Less bugs that way. Try to keep it as cool as possible over the winter (not freezing), and not in a dry spot. Good luck!
Thanks Tom. I'll take your advise. It does seem to be shedding some of the older larger leaves anyway. If the skeletal remains survive til spring, it'll go out and be planted. I'll make more from cuttings next autumn. Cheers, LPN.
