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The Buzz - October 2010
Message from the President
Written by Dawna Bernier
The time has come for most of us to throw in the towel and get our plants in for the winter. The
growing season seems so short and the winters seem so long. I've noticed that many people this
year are starting seeds very early. Maybe some of our growers are on to something. Plant early and
hopefully see blooms in a one year growing span. That would be wonderful for our short season
growers. Remember the seedbank is open and ready to take orders. I hope many of you experiment
with early seed planting and have wonderful results to post next year.
I am very happy that Joelle Dewhurst has taken Patricia Watson's position as lead advisor for the
upcoming year and hopefully many more. Abig thank you goes out to Patricia. I know she will always be with us but right now she has some family issues
that need to be dealt with and she felt it would be better to have someone with more time to spare. Abig thank you to both of you.
Another person that needs to be applauded is Mike with the galleries. He is right on top of things with getting new pictures added daily. Great job Mike.
Keep up the great work. The galleries look terrific.
Within a few months we will also be preparing for election time once again. The schedule for the election process will be announced by our Secretary Paul
Phillips in the month of December. This election will be for our Vice President positions. I hope to see many people interested in running. BGI will also be
forming an election committee. If anyone is interested could you please contact the Secretary.
Don't let winter slow down our forums. We always welcome posts as to what you are doing for the winter and other plants you are growing. We have the
friendliest forum on the web. Let's keep it active for the winter.
Wishing for an early spring this coming 2011. Looking forward to our next growing season.
Photo Challenge - Let's Ditch The Color!
Growing in Dung
Written by Diane555
Written by Al Maas
Flower photos are naturally filled with tons of lively colours but that's not
the only way to enjoy them. Let's take out favourite photos and change
them to black & white. Sometimes a photo has so many different
colours that it's difficult to really see the plants. Changing it to B&W can
make all those wonderful detail pop that you didn't even notice before.
I have horses.
(Too many horses,
in my opinion), but I
can never have too
much horse
manure. We stable
our horses on
sawdust which
comes from a large
sawmill nearby so it
is not dust at all; it
is actually "chippy".
The grains of wood
are almost the size
of kitty litter. When the droppings are sifted from the bedding every day,
a significant amount of sawdust comes along with them as well as all
the urine-soaked sawdust from the stalls. I pile all this precious
substance by the wheel barrow-load in a linear heap along one edge of
a rectangular garden plot about 3-4 feet high. When I get to the end of a
row, I start another row along side and just keep the fresh stuff cycling
slowly down the garden plot keeping the top roughly level. This means
that I always have a moving rectangle of compost somewhere in my
It's pretty easy to make a B&W image just using the image processing
software that you have. You also may find that cropping the image may
bring out more of the subject. You can take the pictures in B&W of
course, but I prefer to take mine in colour and change them later in post
processing because I may want that coloured version again one day.
If you are using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements you should be able
to tweak the way your B&W images look when changing. If you are
using your camera software there should be a B&W conversion tool in it
as well.
Here's a couple of screen captures for steps on how I adjusted this
image using Photoshop.
In Photoshop I can go to image > adjustments > black and white to
bring up the next screen which is the default colour change.
garden. It is important to pile it up in a large enough mass, otherwise, it
cannot build up enough internal heat to "cook". This is especially
important in the winter. It does slow down a lot induring the cold
months, but continues nonetheless. It is the hot moistness that allows
the beneficial fungii and insects & bacteria to break down the cellulose
and other organic matter as well as kill the bad fungii and weed seeds
that are inside. This cooking causes a massive decrease in the
volume of the manure, but a major increase in the quality of the growing
media. If you use the manure before it is fully composted, it will stunt or
kill your plants bacause the manure will be too hot (too much
ammonia) and the sawdust will not be broken down enough.
Click to see larger image
As you can see the default conversion is a bit dark and light without
much mid tone or details.
How do I know when the manure is ready? I have a couple of hints.
The weeds are the most visually obvious. When the weeds start
sprouting on the surface, I know that it is no longer too hot. The most
certain sign, though, are the worms. If you uncover a shovel-full of
compost & the whole thing wriggles, you're ready. I will either plant
brugs directly into the compost heap or use the compost (100%) to pot
them up. This mixture drains VERY readily due to the chippy nature of
the sawdust & the fluffiniess of the organic matter. When potting with
pure pony-poop compost, I must use fairly large pots because it is so
porous, that if I use small pots, the plants will need watering twice daily
by the end of summer. I have grown brugs fairly successfully without
any additional fertilizer and have no problem. I have found that
additional chemical fertilizers have brought me more leaves and fewer
flowers so I don't use them any more.
Preparing for Old Man Winter
Written by Joelle
I can't believe its October already! Halloween is around the corner, and
Christmas is fast on its heels. Here in Saskatchewan we had an Indian
Summer thus we had weeks of beautiful weather after the first light
frost. The Autumn clean up in the gardens has been stress free due to
the extended warm temperatures.
I'm not crazy about the conversion so I can tweak the setting just by
pushing those sliders back & forth depending on which colours need
adjusting. For instance there is quite a bit of red & magenta in the lilacs
so I'm going to push the reds & magentas to the right until I like the way
they look. Here's my final image. It has much more contrast and lots of
detail in the tiny blooms now. Whatever software you're using, there is
probably a B&W conversion and you should be able to make
adjustments in some way, even if it's just contrast and highlights etc.
Let's see some of your favourite images in Black & White. Here are two
of mine, a magnolia blossom & a cropped leaf from one of my
Tropicana Canna Lilies
In preparing for the winter sleep I always start with the tropicals:
Brugmansias, Iochromas, Bananas, Gingers and such. Over the years I
have found it simplest to deleaf and spray with insecticidal soap while
the Brugs are still in the ground supporting themselves. I pick off 95%
of the leaves leaving just the tiniest bit at the top. Then I dig them, root,
prune, and pot up. I find it easiest to then take them into the
Greenhouse and water them before putting in a systemic pill. You can
find info on CoreTect here.
My Brugs spend over 180 days indoors so winter preparation is very
important. I have found that proper placement in the GH is crucial as
they require at least 6 inches between pots to allow for adequate air
flow to minimize fungal issues. I also rotate the pots 180 degrees every
two weeks to facilitate even growth. I water every couple of weeks and
set the temperature to around 10 degrees Celsius. My goal is to keep
them in a 'holding' phase with no active growth, or dieback. I fertilize the
plants the end of March.
Next in line are the Bananas, once
again I remove the leaves while the
plant is still in the ground. I cut off
all but the centre leaf then dig the
plant out, hose it off and plant in a
deep pot. I give special attention to
where the leaves attach to the trunk
as it is a favorite hiding spot for
slugs. Bananas must have good
drainage in the GH and are kept on
the dry side as too much moisture
at the low temperatures will cause
them to rot. While aphids are not
generally an issue with them over
the winter, white flies are!! For this
reason they also get the systemic
pill.
I don't remove the leaves
on the Iochroma after
digging them and
bringing in as they are
very easy to winter in the
GH. I would imagine they
would make good
houseplants because
they don't tend to shed
their leaves when
brought inside, and they
hold their seed pods
well. I just give them a
good spray of insecticidal soap and pop a pill in the soil.
The Crafty Gardener
These fun garden markers not only
mark off your garden rows, they
also make nice decorations.
Materials Needed:
* Wooden Spoons
* Paint
* Seed Packets or
Hibiscus are a nightmare for holding over in a winterhouse!!! I remove
all leaves (or they will shed them almost immediately once inside) and
spray the stems and soil with rubbing alcohol. This kills any eggs and
insects hiding in the woody stems and on top of the soil.
Plumeria and Ginger
are the best behaved
and easiest to care for
over the winter. I just
dig, pot, and spray
them. NO FUSS!!
Catalogs/Magazines
* White Glue or Decoupage
Medium
* Permanent Markers
* Clear Acrylic Spray
Five weeks later the
systemic insecticde
has kicked in and new
leaves have grown.
* Paint Brush or Foam Brush
* Scissors
Instructions:
Paint the entire wooden spoon whatever color or colors you desire. Let
the paint dry.
Cut out pictures of the produce or flowers that you will plant or have
already planted in your garden. The packets from the seeds you planted
are perfect for this project or you can use catalogs from nurseries. Trim
these pictures so they fit in the 'bowl' of the spoon.
Glue the pictures onto the 'bowl' part of the wooden spoons. Glue them
so that when the handle of the spoon is poked into the ground the
picture is not upside down. Let the glue dry and then coat the 'bowl' area
with a few more thin layers of glue or decoupage medium, letting each
layer dry.
Use the permanent marker and write the name of the plant running
down the handle, starting near the edge of the spoon's bowl. Seal with
several light coats of the clear acrylic spray.
Sphaerocarpium Species Conservation Project: Year
One Update
Written by Michael Graupe
It has been one year now since I started the project to assemble a
collection of sphaerocarpium species wildforms and cultivars to help
preserve the genetic material for the brugmansia growing community.
These particular species of brugmansia (B. sanguinea, B. arborea, B.
vulcanicola), also referred to as “cold group”, originate from the high
altitude Andes and are difficult to maintain in cultivation unless cool
summer temperatures and cool but frost free overwintering can be
provided, with B. arborea being a little more tolerant of warmer
conditions. The local climate here in my garden in Pacifica, along the
central California coast, seems to be ideal to not only grow these plants
successfully, but also to get them to bloom and set fruit prolifically.
Once the spray is dry, take your new garden markers outside and poke
the handle of the spoon into the ground.
I started out with several seed grown B. sanguinea, the ‘Strybing’ vulsa
cultivar and four seedlings coming from seeds collected from a B.
vulcanicola near Zunac, Ecuador, which I was hoping to be pure B.
vulcanicola.
Welcome Mat
I had been looking for true B. arborea for some time and was finally
successful in obtaining several plants from various sources. Dawna
sent me a beautiful ‘Ida X’, a grower in Oregon one of unknown origin
and I also obtained some seeds coming from Germany
(Herrenhaeuser Garten). All of these plants turned out to be self-fertile,
with flowers of very similar size, shape and fragrance. Just as one
would expect from a true species. I am planning to make seeds from
these plants available through the seed bank.
Written by Paul Phillips
BGI would
like to
welcome the
following
new
members for
the past
quarter:
Sharyl,
mamadog,
Randy, Jim83360, the best, silverchimes, vital1, njreis, brugsinCR, rae,
Roxanne, moetje1951, brugmanic, gentian21
Thanks to the following members who have renewed their membership
in the last quarter:
ThePlantLady, Tussemusse, Bruno, Dana58, Chocolate Brug, ram,
kimarj, lulu, Richard in Conneticut, Greenthumbguy, calypso, poiuy704,
Paul, Grrrnthumb, Shawn,
Newly Registered Brugs
Written by Pambi
The following Brugs have been registered since the last Buzz.
New Cultivar Name: Brugmansia 'Hazelnut Buttercup'
Registrant: Patricia Watson
Date and Time Registered: 09-05-2010 12:58
Hazelnut Buttercup
New Cultivar Name: Brugmansia 'Galaxy'
Registrant: JT Sessions
Date and Time Registered: 09-09-2010 9:45
Two B. sanguinea
cultivars I have been
searching for were
‘Inca Princess’ and
‘Inca Queen’. Annie’s
Annuals, my favorite
nursery here in the Bay
Area, had ‘Inca
Princess’ listed on their
website for a long time
but it never seemed to
be actually available.
After contacting one of their propagators, I learned that the stock plant
was most likely virused and they were not able to propagate from it any
more. But I got lucky in that they found another small one tucked away
somewhere which they were willing to trade for a ‘Strybing’ vulsa. A
couple months later while visiting a friends garden I couldn’t believe my
eyes when I saw a huge ‘Inca Princess’ loaded with hundreds of
flowers. I was offered to take as many cuttings as I wanted, which I
happily accepted. These rooted with >90% success rate which now
allows me to offer this rare cultivar to other brug growers.
B. sanguinea ‘Inca Queen’ was more difficult to obtain. Nurseries which
used to grow it informed me that they lost their plants to virus, as did
Strybing Arboretum. One plant which I found in a nursery in Half Moon
Bay was so virused that it didn’t have a single healthy looking leaf and
all new growth was completely deformed. One day, looking online
through brugmansia photos, I found a picture of a flower that looked like
‘Inca Queen’. I discovered that it was taken a couple of years ago, along
the California coast, a couple of hours north of San Francisco. On a
weekend trip I was finally able to visit the area and luckily found the tree
growing in the garden of a community center. I brought home some
cuttings which then took a very long time to root. After 3 months I was
able to pot up two plants and after about 8 months several more
cuttings still haven’t rooted yet but look fine.
Finally this summer one of my B. vulcanicola ‘Zunac’ seedlings decided
to bloom after growing for two and a half years to a height of 11 feet.
From the photos of the mother plant I was expecting yellow-orange
flowers but the flowers on my seedling turned out to be of deep orangered color with yellow veins. Also the edge of the corolla recurved
backward more like a B. sanguinea than a B. vulcanicola. These
differences to the mother plant led me to believe that the Zunac
seedlings are probably vulsa hybrids. But to confirm this, the natural
location in Ecuador would need to get studied more thoroughly.
After the first year of my project I am very happy with the progress. So far
I have not had any issues with fungal or viral disease and only minor
damage to plants from caterpillars, slugs and snails. Brief heat waves
in September where temperatures reached 90-100F for a few days
caused significant bud drop but no damage to the plants otherwise. My
number one goal for the future is to add several clones of B. vulcanicola
to the collection to be able to produce pure seeds. Of course I am also
always on the lookout for some different yellow, red, orange or pink B.
sanguinea forms and will also consider some of the rarer hybrids. After
optimizing my propagation technique, I can now also provide rooted
plants at very reasonable cost to anyone interested.
To summarize, my collection now includes the following cultivars:
B. arborea ‘Ida X’
Galaxy
New Cultivar Name: Brugmansia 'Brenda's Beauty'
Registrant: JT Sessions
Date and Time Registered: 09-09-2010 10:02
B. arborea (from Oregon)
Brenda's Beauty
These three new ones have been published in our BGI Herald, Vol 6,
Issue 3,
and mailed to our new ICRA, Fred Sommers, the ISHS, and 12 other
entities
on September 28, 2010.
B. arborea (seedlings from German seed)
Home is where the Heart Is
Written by Mary Voss
With Fall
here, now is
the time for
soup!! Abig
bowl of
hearty soup
is one of my
favorite
things to eat
when it is
chilly outside. Here is one of my favorite soup recipes.
Easy Tortilla Soup
B. sanguinea ‘Inca Princess’
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 diced onion
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 (17 ounce) can whole kernel corn, undrained
1 (17 ounce) can cream-style corn, undrained
1 (10 ounce) can Ro-Tel tomatoes, undrained
1 (10½ ounce) can Campbell’s nacho cheese soup
10 ounces water
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cumin
Doritos
1 avocado, sliced
2 cups grated monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend
Chop chicken breast into bite sized pieces. Place chicken, onion, and
celery into a soup pot. You can add a drizzle of oil if you prefer. Saute
chicken, onion and celery until chicken is done. Add the 2 cans corn,
soup, water, tomatoes, chili powder and cumin. Mix well. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to very low and simmer 30 - 45 minutes, stirring often to
prevent sticking and burning. To serve, place some doritos in a bowl,
top with grated cheeses. Pour soup over this, and top with avocado
slices.
With the Holiday's coming, I thought of this recipe. When we have my
family here for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, I make this for
breakfast, as it is easy and can be prepared ahead of time and popped
in the oven on your Holiday morning. Everyone loves it. This recipe will
B. sanguinea ‘Inca Queen’
serve 4, but can be easily doubled for more servings.
Croissant Breakfast Casserole
B. sanguinea (4 different clones, the photo shows one with a dark
colored calyx)
4 plain croissants
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup sliced green onion
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 cups diced ham or diced crisp bacon
Split croissants in half and place bottoms cut side up in one layer in a
rectangular casserole. Melt butter in a fry pan. Saute mushrooms and
green onion until tender and liquid has evaporated. Set aside. Beat
together eggs and milk. Pour half over croissants, layer mushroom
mixture, ham or bacon and cheeses on top, then pour over remaining
liquid. Position croissant tops over the bottoms, cut side down. Let
stand over night in the refrigerator. Bake at 350 F for 25 to 30 minutes
or until set. Cover with foil if browns too quickly.
B. ‘Strybing’ vulsa
Seed & Pollen Bank Update
Written by Patricia Watson
B. vulcanicola ‘Zunac’ (4 different clones, probably also vulsa)
Here we are at the
end of another
growing season. For
many of us it was not
one of our best
growing years
because of weather
issues, but it seems
like every year one part of the country or the other is struggling with their
growing conditions.
For myself, we were cooler than normal up until the end of summer and
then turned incredibly hot. What this did was that my brugs bloomed
later in the season, and I didn't have as many blooms as normal to
collect pollen from. On the other hand, because it was cooler I was able
to harvest more seed pods than I normally can. Once we turned real hot
(106 for several day's) many of the Fall buds dropped off the plants
which meant not as much pollen to add to the bank.
The Tropics for a garden
I wish I could say that there were lots of seed and pollen contributed
this season, but that wasn't the case. Aspecial thank you to JT
Sessions for the large seed donation, and also to Gala for sending in
pollens and Michael Graupe for his Sang. donation. Other than myself,
those were our only donations this season. What this means is that
next Spring when people are wanting pollens, what I will be sending out
for the most part will be 2009 pollens. I did donate quite a few 2010
pollens myself, however there wasn't much of each variety.
Written by brugsinCR
If you have harvested pollen and have extras, even if it is only a few of
several varieties, it would be very much appreciated. The same goes for
seeds for the seed bank.
We are very dependent on our members to contribute to the bank or we
will find ourselves without any newer seeds to offer. We would like for
BGI to have the best and most up to date seed and pollen banks in the
brug. world but we can't do it without your help.
In the place where I live,
Costa Rica, Central
America, there is a saying
during the rainy season,
“Just throw a piece of a
plant or a seed on the
ground and it will root or sprout; and if you are not careful, you will root
too”. Not quite, of course, but there is a huge variety of plants that will
easily grow and thrive in the tropics because of the different factors that
convey here: cool to warm temperature year round, high humidity over
half a year, sunny skies the rest of the months, rich soil as a legacy of
our volcanoes and rivers activity, small valleys and mountains at
different altitudes.
I will be adding these seeds to the Bank for November:
Rubirosa x Langer Busher Garten Pod #2
Peanut x Langer Busher Garten
Karoline x Double L'amour
Happy Growing, Patricia
Shocking
Written by JT Sessions
Have you ever just been shocked by some little item.In my case it was a
photo about 5 or 6 years old.We were going through some old photos
deciding which ones to have digitized and placed on disc.I ran across a
simple photo of Ann,sitting on our patio and stopped dead.Now,our
patio has never been a showplace but we did keep things neat,with
nice flowers decorating the corners.What brought me up short was the
difference between then and now and the fact that the patio was
symptomatic of the whole place.
I won't put in the "now"
picture.It's embarassing.
The beauty of the World at
our house is that what you
cannot grow in one place,
another person can grow it
in another. What a wonder!
Orchids, crotons, azaleas,
cacti, amarillys, hydrangeas,
fuschias, ferns, palms,
cycads, musaceas, fruit
trees, wood trees, herbs,
vegetables, and many other
plants, will find a place in
the tropical gardens. As well
as the precious
Brugmansia, which has
been around for quite a long
time, as shadow givers in
the coffee plantations, as hedgerows, as shy ornamentals for some
people. Unfortunately, Brugmansias have escaped cultivation,
hybridization and popularity not only in Costa Rica, but I would dare to
say that in most of the Central American territory.
Luckily, I have found a
treasure of knowledge,
enthusiasm, inspiration,
Back then,there were
beehives and baby goats
and a good size heirloom
vegetable garden.Back
then,there were neatly
trimmed lawns and painted
barns and time to smell the
roses.There were even
roses to stop and
smell.Back then,there were
fishing trips and days at the beach,and canoe trips down the beautiful
Blackwater river.The beehives are gone,their occupants killed by
something called the "small hive beetle".The goats are gone;too much
trouble to keep the barn clean and milk twice a day.The heirloom
garden, a joke of a weed patch, the lawn needs mowing and the barn
could stand a coat of paint.The to-do list keeps getting longer and
longer.
So what happened here?
Well,for one thing I got a few
years older and have less
energy but the real culprit
sits,like a beached whale, in
the northeast corner of the
property.It's what happens
when an obsession takes
over.It's called a
nursery.Obsessions creep
up unnoticed.Little by little
they take over your life and
the other things you enjoy.Obsessions are fun so they can push aside
other important parts of your life until there are none of the other good
things left.When you finally wake up to this,you make the necessary
changes to put your life back in order.There will still be a nursery but it
will be much,much,smaller after next spring.There will still be new
hybrids in the pipeline but they will be far fewer.New bees will be here
next spring and the garden will be free of weeds.There may be baby
goats again and there will be a rose,or two,to stop and smell.
enthusiasm, inspiration,
appreciation, humor,
practicality and
perseverance from the BGI
members that I am willing
to put into practice on this
side of the globe for the
brugmansia cultivation
sake.
Bringing in the Harvest
Written by Joelle
Every year its a
race! Can I get
the bounty in
before the first
frost? Yes, this
year seems like
we are going to
have an "Indian
Summer" it was
35 degrees(95)
on August 26, a
real blessing. Ah
but the marathon
is not over, even
though the
weather is agreeable those damn black birds have spied the ripening
apples and are pecking away at their leisure. As I run out to the yard to
'shoo' them away I am bombarded with angry wasps drunk on the
delicious nectar of the plums. I blindly swat at the air and slip in the goo
from the slugs that have been sliming all over the fallen grapes. I limp
toward the house my face swelling from the hornets sting, tears sliding
down my cheeks.... and there out of the corner of my good eye I see the
2011 seed catalogs peeking from the mailbox.
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