June 19 ~ Time to Bump Up To Tree Sleeves

4 of the Brugmansia Sanguineas were ready to be bumped up into tree sleeves today!  Here are some updated photos so that you can see how it's going.

Recently I was asked if I would post what we do when we take tip cuttings so that folks can see why it takes

so long to get a plant from us.  These are B. Sanguinea 'Karma' cuttings and we take the very tip.  As you can see there is also larger ones, Sanguinea are hard to root and we don't like them to get to large.

When they reach a certain size they will get their own pot and these are about 11 months old.

This is the size we like to sell and in the 10 to 12" size and still in a protective area.

This one will go out into the garden next season as in a tree sleeve so that it can be sunk into a one gallon pot and that can be sunk into the ground.

We are not selling any this year due to filling commitments and loosing a few plants due to the hail storms we had early in the season, we had to cut them back. 

At our garage sale I purchased from my friend some awesome pots and plant stand which I repainted.  I then decided I needed to find some special plants for these.  Abutilon/Fowering Maple was what I went with.  A. 'Challo' is the orange colored  and 'VooDoo' which is a deep read and hasn't flowered yet.  This brings our collection of these up to 4. Our other plants which are a red and 'Bengal Tiger' are old enough last fall to  attempt to get cuttings from.   So far so good!!

Seedlings

Update on the new Brugmansia Seedling, just watchin' them grow!!   Love the bottles as you can see the root system and track their progress.  Another few weeks and some of them will be ready for the tree pots.   Today I'll give them their first diluted feeding if they are over 8" tall.  On the far end are my newest European seedlings, which sprouted in just days of being received!!  TY Mike and Gilly!!

 

Baby seedlings with second set of leaves go into this size

for a couple months.

Next they are bumped up to the tree pot on the left.

I will also tell you I will not push these to bloom the first year,

it isn't important to me to see them bloom.  What is important is 

the quality of the plant.

Tree pots also allow for them to be sunk into a half gallon

or gallon pot.  When we move them into the Brug house for

the winter months we take a large pot and sink several to 

house them together and keep them stripped of leaves.

When we do larger cuttings they are housed in our root

trainers.

Here you can see the pot in a pot method, where the first pot

has holes in the side so the roots can escape.  When the pot is 

totally root bound is when we move them up to the five gallon pots.

This is usually when the plant is 3-4 years old.

Here are the older Brugs in their permanent homes of the 5 gallon buckets

which are the easiest to move and store.  These also can be stacked if you run 

out of room in the area where they are stored, just space them right and stack.

Much easier to move for one person with a dolly, for those of you without

a helper.

We do the pot in a pot method for other plants too!!

This also helps with wind and blowing over of the smaller

pots here when we get high winds.

Here you can see the plants are in their Spring-Fall spot

and see they are starting to take off.  We keep them stripped

and what you see is the new growth.  We are also testing the use

of fabric softener and found less pests, just wrapped a piece around 

the pole in each pot where there is some new growth.  We tend to stake

the plants until they are at least 8 years old, after that they are on their own.

Hope this help give you an idea of what pots to use.  We have found Brugmansia

love to be root bound to preform at their bests.  Bigger pots are not always the best 

route to go.

I found this idea on Pinterest so I modified it for what I needed.  These are my newest Brugmansia seedlings.

Aquilegia

                'Black Bart'

                'Nora Barlow'

                 02-03-2009

                  08-08-2009

              'Mc Kana' Giant w/2" spurs


                                                                      Aquilegia
                                                                       Columbine

For the past 20 years we have added different varieties to our gardens.  We have varieties such as:
 A. v. 'Woowside Variegated w/ blue flower
 A. x h. 'Ruby Port,'
 A. h. Mc Kanna Giants of which the last photo is one of them with 2" spurs,
 A. Bonnets in both Pink and Blue,
 A. x h. 'Black Bart''
 A. v 'William Guiness Double' in both light and dark blue,
 A. v. 'Magpie,''
 A. v. 'Nora Barlow,'
 A. v. 'Nora Barlow Mix,'
 A. v. 'Sunlight White,'
 A. c. 'Yellow Star,'
 A. c. 'Biedermeier' mix of dwarf variety
 A. c. 'Fairy Pink' dwarf variety
 A. 'Harlequin' mix (add this one several times)
A, f. var p.k. 'Rosea'

We have some exciting creations and allow some to open pollinate.
We save the seeds per the mother plant and labeled them as so when we collect or put them away.

We do sell these 100 seed package for $2.50 and $1 for postage in the USA.  All international orders
are higher on the shipping, just depends on your location.  If you are interested email us at our business address:  karmahappytoes at hotmail.com so we can work out the payment arrangements.

This year we will be putting up an Aquilegia photo album on PhotoBucket so that these all can be viewed.  When we have this up we will link it here.

The clivia bloom from the Mother plant.  We hope she will bloom again this year, we have taken 

several babies from her last fall and they now have 3 and 4 leaves.   The year before last she didn't 

bloom but we obtained a couple babies that are now in one gallon pots.  We will scream if we get

more seedpods as this last set went to Europe to a grower over there.

Clivia seedpods and harvested seeds with a couple already sprouted.