Hummingbird Farm Brugmansia Culture Page

Growing Brugmansias

Please be aware that all parts of these plants are POISONOUS!
We do NOT recommend these plants for households where small children are present.

Brugmansias are small tropical trees - small being a relative term! Small compared to maple trees, "brugs" can easily reach 10 feet tall - far bigger than your average houseplant! And "tropical" means they can't stand cold temperatures.

These plants have a tremendous WOW factor; large plants with blooms that are often a foot long and fragrance like you can't imagine, especially at night. There is nothing else we grow at Hummingbird Farm that gets the kind of reaction that our brugmansias do!!!

You can plant brugmansias in the ground, but we keep ours in really large pots. They do very well in containers and we don't have to dig them up in the fall to bring them in for the winter. We use heavy pots (mostly clay) so the plants don't blow over in the wind.

Summer Care

*Don't move Brugmansias outside until night time temperatures are around 50 degrees.
*Water daily. These babies are THIRSTY!! They will use several gallons of water a day when it is hot and dry. Tip: use the hose; they use too much water to bother with a watering can.
*Spray the leaves when you water. Pay special attention to the underside of the leaves. And don't forget - spraying things with the hose is FUN!
*Feed them! Give them a heavy dose of fertilizer a couple of times a week and they'll reward you with tons of flowers!

A Note on Blooming

Brugmansia plants will not bloom until the plant has forked or formed a "Y" on the main trunk. Once the plant has reached a certain height, which varies depending several factors, the trunk forks and forms a "Y". (See the picture below.) After the first "Y" forms, the plant continues to fork and form "Y"s and then produces a bloom at each Y. Our brugmansia cuttings are taken in such a way as to encourage forking on the smallest possible plants.

Jean Paco Brugmansia
Jean Paco, showing the "Y".

Winter Care

*Your brugmansia will grow a LOT in a summer outside. Don't be afraid to cut it back to bring it inside. In the fall of 2004, we cut all of ours back by about half - they wouldn't fit through the greenhouse door otherwise!
*Once inside, your brug will need much less water and feed than it did outside. There is no wind to dry it our and the winter sun is just not strong enough to encourage it to grow.
*You can winter your brugmansia anywhere you have room and light. Cathedral ceiling? Large living room windows? Indoor swimming pool? (OK, so stop laughing...) Any of those spots, and many more, are ideal.
*Don't have a big enough spot with enough light? You can let your brugmansia go dormant and store it in a cool (but NOT freezing!!!!), dark place, like your basement.

home brugmansia site map

Hummingbird Farm

Where Innovative Gardeners' Ideas Take Root!
Brian and Cindy Tibbetts
202 Bean Street Turner, Maine 04282
(207) 224-8220 hummingbird@megalink.net
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