Grow, Damn It!

ALL I WANTED WAS TO SUCCESSFULLY GROW A BRUGMANSIA!

Maybe that is a little strong. I’m frustrated.

Forgive me.

I’m stuck between a zone and a hard place—a hard place to grow for sure. Hey, but on one side of my hill it grows, and on the other side of my hill it grows, also. What’s my hill? Chopped liver?

I’ve tried to grow them in my side yard, my front yard, in my back yard.

I tried to grow them in a pot.
I tried to grow them in a plot.
I tried to grow them near a tree.
I cannot grow them for a fee.
I cannot grow them, can’t you see?

O.K. so it finally appeared that I had found a place that brugmansia would survive, a location between my house and my garage. Brugmansia like to be placed in a sheltered area. It has survived there for more than a year.

Ta-da.

The poor plant has had its ups and downs. It developed a parasite in the spring and started to die back. I thought it was a goner, another failed attempt, another slap in the face to my gardening prowess. Then it rebounded. Yep, it looked as though I just might have a brugmansia that was going to make it and maybe even develop into one of the beautiful tree like plants that I had seen in Peru with blooms that draped off like tubular ornaments.

And then in a whirlwind of my famous “timing” I decided to have my driveway finished. My landscape contractor told me that in order to lay the perimeter of the driveway I would have to replace the existing wooden planter near the garage (the one that housed, you guessed it, my brugmansia) with a concrete planter.

Oh just shoot me, first one of the main branches of the brugmansia was broken off. Who ever committed the crime leaned the broken branch against the trellis behind the plant. Maybe they thought I wouldn’t notice that the largest branch, a once strapping branch decorated with broad leaves was now a wilted stick feebly sloped behind what is left of my brugmansia.


My sad abused brugmansia

Good-bye my little brugmansia.

Even though I am a brugmansia growing loser, here are some growing tips:

Brugmansia like to be planted in a sheltered area where they get good sun exposure. They like lots of water. They are heavy feeders so you can fertilize them twice a week during the summer months.

They make good container plants, but they must be repotted often because they have a tendency to become rootbound. Buy mature plants from the store. It can take up to five years to get them to bloom if they are grown from seed.

Comments

[Cooling Systems]

Wow, even went a little Dr. Seuss on us. That is a great looking picture.

[kimmy]

Wow! That's gorgeous. I liked your Dr. Seussian rhyme. Very nice.

[chigiy]

Hey Kimmy,
When they are big and blooming they are gorgeous, maybe some day...