Linking With Fishtail Cottage Garden Party #20 and Fertilizer Friday... click on badges at right
Another very good day in the life of my Inca Sun brugmansias... lots of fragrant blooms that are appreciating our overcast 70 degree temps. Inca Sun is the peachy yellow variety in these photos. Little by little I've gotten rid of most my larger cultivars to the point where I've gone from 14 of the really big plants to three large varieties plus four Inca Suns. This year the remaining large cultivars will be left to freeze as it's much simpler to deal with plants that grow only four to six feet tall.
That's not the only reason for switching out to Inca Sun however... most brugs generally don't have the ability to grow and bloom at the same time so there are big lapses in blossoming... the Inca Sun hybrid is a huge improvement in that regard as it has the ability to bloom as an eight inch rooted cutting when the length of the bloom actually is greater than the height of the plant... amazing! Further more it can continuously bloom on spurs and new shoots throughout the season and into the winter inside.
What really amazes me however, is this cultivar's origin... I think of brugmansias as really exotic plants with the power to poison, cause frightening excursions of the mind, and possibly kill any who would ingest any portion of their stems, blooms, leaves or seeds... from all accounts they can be a very dangerous plant.
For some reason I am in awe that this particular and hugely improved cultivar was hybridized in the little town of Norwalk, Iowa. As I said it's a very long way from Ecuador where brugmansias are quite at home... the plant world's a-changing and for me this is just one more exciting example of the surprises that come our way in the wonderfully global hobby of growing plants... there is always something new to explore!
The picture below could be titled 'Sons of Inca Sun' (subtitled 'My Three Suns'), for in fact these are from cuttings rooted last winter. In fact, they were slightly sick eight inch rooted stems on June first, and yet they had been producing occasional blooms since last January. One caveat however, I personally feel that Inca Sun needs to be watched a bit more closely over winter than other examples of brugsmansia that I've grown. The larger plants were fine with going without water for months at a time in very minimal light. I generally like to maintain life in the taller stems for a larger show sooner in the coming season, but sometimes have experienced difficulty in that regard with Inca Sun.The problems appear if Inca Sun if allowed to go almost totally dormant so I give them a bit more moisture through the winter... they also make a fun houseplant for a bright cool room during the winter. I generally give them a goodly dose of systemic insecticide 2-3 weeks prior to bringing them in... aphids and white flies appear to appreciate them as much as I do... makes me wonder though... since they are so poisonous what does this do to the critters who partake of their juices? I noticed that a huge colonization of aphids on some of the larger forms in the basement last winter, seemed to die of their own accord... or was it some exotic poisoning by their Ecuadorian host... hmmm... very strange indeed.
Just remember... keep these plants away from children, or curious cats and adults for that matter...
Take care, Larry
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