Brugmansia

Easy to grow | Brugmansias

Brugmansias are a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family of Solanaceae. They are woody trees or shrubs, with large pendulous flowers. Their large fragrant flowers give them their common name of Angel’s Trumpets, which originate from South America.

This fast-growing evergreen or semi-evergreen makes a large striking container plant for a patio in the summer and is ideal in a conservatory, garden room or cool greenhouse in the winter.

 

We have three species available:

  1. Brugmansia arborea – Brazil’s white angel trumpet also known as angel’s tears and snowy angels trumpet.
  2. Brugmansia suavolens with highly fragrant flowers of ivory cream and peach at between 12-17 cm long, they are the shortest of all Brugmansia
  3. Brugmansia versicolor – the largest flowers of all the Brugmansia with a length between 30-50 cm long when fully mature. Available in several colours. The yellow flowers are most fragrant at night.

 

Maintenance

Brugmansias can be pruned back heavily in the autumn as the weather gets colder. You can cut back into old wood, leaving a balanced framework of branches, and next year it will regrow vigorously next year if it has enough water and feed.

It is important to provide plenty of water and feed to your Brugmansias as they are greedy plants. Water freely during the growing season and provide a balanced liquid fertilizer (liquid seaweed would be ideal) once a month. In dry hot weather, container Brugmansias may need to be watered twice a day.

Brugmansias can be propagated easily from cuttings. In spring or autumn, use softwood or semi-ripe cuttings, about 10-20cm long, and place them into free-draining compost and keep moist.

A word of warning; all parts of the plants are highly toxic if ingested, and the sap can be an irritant to the skin, so make sure to wash your hands after handling them.

Roger Eavis
roger@greenshutters.co.uk