They are not liking the heat. The blooms don't last too long. Enjoying the Angel's Trumpet just the same!

That looks nice in the photo! I got 4 cuttings last fall and all three of the pink varieties have been trying to make buds and they just kept turning yellow and dropping off in the early stages. Finally, though, 'Eternity' had buds that started growing. It's my smallest brug and I overlooked getting it inside once last winter, so it froze to ground level. Now there are more than 20 bud pods showing up. This was two days ago and today it's about 3" longer and two more buds have busted out of the shell. All the brugs have had mite problems and I think that's not resolved yet. All I've done on three is power wash the foliage. That seems to be helping. One got some insecticidal soap sprayed on it in addition to the power wash, but it's no better off than the others. Still, some new growth is coming out flat and normal. I think they would have benefited from a 'nearly every day' wash on the foliage like I do on the croton. I think 'Isabella' is going to manage some of the bud pods now. At least they've grown way past the size when they usually fall off. Anticipating my first brug bloom ever on 'Eternity'.


The Bougainvillea also bloomed. I cut this back to about 2" when I brought it out of the garage this spring. I really wasn't even sure it was alive and I didn't expect it to grow this much or bloom. Now it will have to be cut back BEFORE it gets stored in the garage. A couple of those canes are more than 4' long and I can't handle that length. 7 to 8' spread is just too much. But right now I'm enjoying it :)

This is how Brugmansia 'Eternity' looked late this afternoon. In early p.m. it was still yellow. I took a nap and when I looked again, this is what I saw. I couldn't detect any odor until the sun set and dusk was heading into darkness. It'll be nice when there are multiple blooms. Is it only fragrant at night? How long 'til it turns pink? What's the lifespan of a bloom?

Here she comes @needrain Donald!! Your bloom is probably pink right now. It doesn't take long. AndI see more "Bloomers" to follow soon! I smell the fragrance the strongest at night. With many blooms, the night scent is amazing!

wow! I was expecting blooms later in the year. Is this the regular bloom time?

No, this is about a month early. Must have been the early rain then intense heat? IDK???

@ShadyGreenThumb Cheryl
Saw your post and grabbed a flashlight. Definitely has turned pink. Fragrance is stronger and had a couple of moth visitors inside the trumpet. There are more than 20 pods or buds on it and tiny ones still showing up. I hope they hold on.

@needrain ENJOY!

@ needrain.....you must have patience, grasshopper....

Definitely pink today!

When the weather cools down a bit, the blooms may last more than a day on some of them.

Now THAT'S pink!

This is all of 'Eternity'. I'll let it rest in peace after this photo. Yesterday's bloom still looked pretty good this morning, but it didn't enjoy mid 90s heat and stiff breeze yesterday. Multiple blooms did increase the fragrance power.

@needrain, that's a beautiful, healthy looking brug!

Bubbles said:....... that's a beautiful, healthy looking brug!

I think the power washing trying to slow down the mite damage worked best on this plant. A lot of the new growth is basically flat instead of being shaped like a parrot's beak. But the curling on the leaves isn't entirely gone either. This was the smallest plant so it was the easiest to tip over and roll around to do the power wash, so that may be why it worked better. That's going to be a lot harder with all those buds one it.

I wonder if mites have natural enemies? I think they probably do and the brugs have a collection of really tiny, real spiders collecting in those deformed leaves. Some appear to be really small versions of the crab spiders which are small anyway and others seem to be really small versions of the regular spider form. They are really small and don't seem to grow to a larger size. I haven't noticed them before, but I usually don't examine foliage as closely as I've done just trying to SEE the mites. I suspect they are eating the almost microscopic mites. They have reappeared after the power washing, so I think they might be better at climbing back up or, literally, hanging by a spider's thread instead of washing away.

This summer I've only used water spraying, but if I discover a big infestation of spider mites I'll resort to Neem Oil. I'm careful with it because it can burn the leaves if the weather is hot. I'm not going to use Bayer 3-in1 unless the spider mites are overwhelming a particularly special plant. Then I'll go with the "big guns."
Possibly, all the rain we've had has kept pests to a minimum this summer. Brugs are fairly resilient. I've thrown broken limbs onto a pile of leaves and seen them begin to root in the leaf litter, just like plumerias are apt to do.
Check out this website:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTN...

That is really la beautiful deep pink, @needrain Donald! So pretty. I'll bet you are happy to see them!

DD had lots of spiders. I helped her get rid of the webs all over her yard and patio. But she told me to leave them on her lime tree, that they helped get ride of her mites. So, it could work? @Drdawg on the plumeria forum was mentioning he sprays his plumeria with epsom salts/magnesium and that helps keeps his mites away from his plumeria? Try that??

You misunderstood, Cheryl. I am sure I simply did a bad job giving advice about spider mites on plumeria. I meant to tell Mark that IF he could find no evidence of spider mites (he posted photos of leaf damage) he might want to use the Mg solution. I use that solution to green up my plumeria and orchids. It has nothing to do with mite treatment though. I spray the leaves of my plumeria once and sometimes twice a day with plain water from a hose, early AM and/or late PM. This deters spider mites since these pests seem to prefer dry conditions.

@drdawg. You just said you spray MG to "deter spider mites" as I said you " sprays his plumeria with epsom salts/magnesium and that helps keeps his mites away from his plumeria ? Same difference?

I misspoke then. Isn't that one of the terms that our politicians love to use?