I saw a picture years ago in some magazine. It took me years of searching on & off to find out what they were & I bought one as soon as I figured it out. That was about 5 years ago & was the start of my downfall. LOL

Linda

I think I really noticed them when I saw them growing in a beautiful cottage garden in Morro bay. They garden was crammed with David Austin roses, plumerias, brugmansia standards, fushias, daisies and tons of annuals and bulbs. It was so pretty and smelled so good. I also noticed really large brug trees growing in San Diego. I just love the way they look. After you get your first one you're hooked.

Jill

2 years ago I saw the plants and bought one pink. I liked it so much that I went and bought another pink and a yellow. Last year I thought that will be fun to have other colors too so I started to search and found GW brugmansia forum. The rest is history.

Pat

This last summer I seen one on line and as soon as I seen it I knew I had a problem lolol the pic was beautiful and I just knew I had to grow one and see one in real life. lolol I have yet to get one to bloom but I just started collecting this fall so I missed the boat but I will be on it next year lololol
Cassie

About 7 years ago I was reading comments on one of the other GW forums along the lines of "your favorite flower" and brugmansia kept coming up. I had never heard of it but did a little research and thought, " what a gorgeous plant"! I ordered 2 from, I believe it was Kartuz Greenhouse. It was funny that my DH's elderly cousin, who loved gardening and has since passed away, kept telling me she had a cutting for me of a beautiful plant. It turns out it was brugmansia and her NOID cutting has grown to a huge size as did the cuttings I ordered, Charles Grimaldi and Frosty Pink. I have taken many cuttings from those original plants to share with family, friends, and anyone who will take my rooted cuttings in the spring.

Wonderful stories. Thanks for sharing.
Ingrid

Now Ingrid it was a LONG time ago when I first brought seeds over from Germany. I grew them...Enjoyed them one season and then moved away from the house because the Army was calling hubby someplace else again.
But that 1 year left such a deep impression on my...that when I came back 3 years ago...was away for different reasons though lol....it was the Brugmansia's that I really wanted to grow again. But THIS time...I wanted to know EVERYTHING about them and that is how I found this place and have been blessed for having both in my life.

Angels who grow a plenty here and other Angels without wings that grew in my heart.

Lucy

A few years ago, I came to this site and saw some pictures, but that is as far as that went. We (gardening group) had a gathering at one of our member's home and she had a noid white and a noid pink brug in her garden and gave us cuttings. I stuck the cuttings in the ground and they took. When they flowered, then I wanted to see more, and have more brugs!

I've always had an interest in gardening, especially tropical plants. About 15 years ago I was reading a mystery novel and the author had written about the brugmansia as a beautuful but deadly tree. There was more to the description and it piqued my interest so I searched one out. I started with CG and got Jamaica Yellow and Frosty Pink soon after. It wasn't until I found online gardening forums several years later that I discovered there were so many gorgeous varieties. BTW I still can't remember the name of the book or the author but I'm thinking it might have been something by Dean Koontz.

Oh my, I think it mus be 10-12 years ago I was doing one of those "too early to plant anything here in MN" walks through one of the better greenhouses in our area and they had these puny little plants in boxes. I really NEEDED to buy something so that's how I started (thnk it was a white but memory fades), then stumbled across GW and this forum along the way and from that point on...well its a lot better habit than smoking I reckon - LOL, Will

My sister-in-laws sister has them growing all along her fence line. We went to drop off plants we had dug at her grandmothers house. Brenda was whacking away at them and gave me some cuttings. 14 years later I'm a total junkie. When Ike hit there were almost 100 in the yard. About 80% of those died. Now there are close to 100 in the yard, albeit much smaller ones, 47 cuttings just put in, a pot of cuttings in the backyard and I'm fixin' to order some doubles. I had to dig up old, huge dead brugs. It took me a month to finally start on the yard, took almost that long to FIND the yard under all the debris! I was walking the dog one day and found a huge pile of cuttings, you should have seen me carrying all those while being dragged down the street by a 90 pound dog!!! LOL!
Tally HO!

I got a cutting at a plant swap thru the Florida Garden Web Forum, without really knowing what it was (much like most of the plants I had gotten). It rooted and grew and I gave it as a gift, but it died or was mowed down.

Then while doing yard work for some friends, I saw this one blooming:

{{gwi:454328}}

and that's all it took. It just happened that this brug was in need of pruning and now I have lots of its children to grow and share.

Now I'm on the lookout for cuttings of different colors. And I gave my friend another baby, by the way, and it is doing well in its new home:

{{gwi:454329}}

Susie

I love all of your stories. Keep them coming!
Ingrid

I had a friend that kept talking about this brug plant. I had never heard of it. Never seen it. So finally, one day, I was driving down the street of my town when I saw this huge plant covered in massive blooms. I went back later that evening when I had time to stop and explore. The fragrance was overwhelming. I was hooked. I now have at least 3 varieties. Brenda shared her seeds with me this year and I have three sprouts with several others attempting to break free. I am overjoyed at growing a never before seen or smelled plant from her crosses. I'm sure there's no end to what I can or will have if there's even a square foot of room left in my yard.

I was in the backyard of a fellow gardener sipping tea in the shade. We had the requisite tour of the plants and I saw this tall stick with huge leaves at the top and asked 'what is this?'

I googled it and saw the picture of that beautiful huge bloom and knew I needed to try one. I traded a large clump of spider lilies for a nice rooted cutting and once it had a bud, it became the focus of my gardening. How big would the bud be? Oh my, it's 8 inches long! Finally the flower edges emerged from the end of the bud and a week or so later it opened. I thought it was white or yellow when it first opened, but the next morning it was a lovely pink! I must have 100 pictures of that first bloom!

I've been obsessed with brugmansia since then! The huge blooms really do it for me.

Pam

Ingrid I am with you...I love everyones story. That was a super idea to start this thread!

Susie now worries....as sharing as you are...I am sure you will get your wish this year. Just hang around :-)

Lucy

I first heard about Brugs when I was trying to grow Datura. Most of the research I found mentioned them, but I really did not get the difference between the two plants. My shady yard was really not friendly to datura, even though they comeback every year they really do not flourish like they should. I lost interest. Then one day I was coming home from the botanical gardens and saw a sign on the side of the road that said "Angel trumpet $15 or 2 of $25"

We stopped and talked to a man who had dozens of TREE sized brugmansia growing all around his yard and pool! Pink yellow and white, they were gorgeous and I bought a yellow one, it was love at first bloom!

I now have 4 small trees growing in my yard and happily share with anyone who takes an interest! This is my first year to keep cuttings indoors. Really looking forward to adding more to my garden!

Suzie
If you would like pink and are not terribly fussy about pedigree perhaps we could exchange a cutting in the spring!
I would love to add white to my collection!

Have a wonderful day!

Frances

Hi Frances
I would love to swap cuttings!

Drop me an email whenever it's rooting time in your location. I could even try to send you one that is already rooted.

I love all these Falling-In-Love Stories, by the way.

Susie

Susie

Would love to exchange rooted cuttings, but it is very cold here now (about 20F colder than normal for this time of year) BRRRRR. Getting soft in my old age!

Will send you an email as soon as we get a break in this awful weather! (my cuttings are well rooted now)

I love the stories too! I hope to read many more! Though personally I do not believe I will ever have the passion for brugs that some here have, (I still choose fragrance first and colour second, I do not know what their names are)

Frances

I fell in love with Datura first. We were living in the Boston area and I would cure the winter blues by going to a garden center that had two acres indoors. They had a Datura by the pond and it was amazing. At the time I thought it would be difficult to grow such a beautiful plant. We retired a couple years ago and I turned to GW for help with the yard and that led me to a plant swap. I came home with a yellow NOID and turned to the Brug forum for help because I thought it would need lots of TLC. My first few posts were done in panic, I thought I killed it every day. Now I know better, but I stay here to see all the beautiful photos that are shared.

I saw one at house in the country on Louisiana/Mississippi border and used to pass it regularly in awe at the huge tree with great big yellow bells dripping from it. I never knew what it was and the small nurseries I asked about it they said oh thats poisonous so we don't sell them. I think someone even told me it was illegal in Louisiana so I gave up on it. Once I moved to Texas I asked about it here and there again but nobody knew what it was. I finally found my first one a couple of years ago and didn't even know it, lol. It was labeled datura and was a small scraggly rooted cutting that was supposed to be pink. As it grew I looked it up online to see what kind of care it needed and was surprised to find I had the plant of my dreams since nobody had ever heard of a pink datura, lol. Then I drooled waiting for that first pink bloom and was really upset that it came out white then turned yellow. I think that was my first post on here, lol. My pink brug is not pink, lol. Well by the next morning it was and then I had to come back and laugh that it changed colors. After that I was hooked and been here ever since. I love my brugs but have to get more of them in the ground. So many in pots is a real chore, lol.

I was in santa cruz in 2005 visiting my uncle, and we went to one of those silly touristy things, they called it THE MYSTERY SPOT. it was essentially a bunch of optical illusions caused by a very steep slant in the hillside, but it was seriously fun and the guide was really clever. at the entrance to the place were these trees with giant blooms on them, a white and a yellow. I took a bunch of pictures, marveled, and moved on.

a couple years later while shopping at logee's for passiflora, I decided I needed a brugmansia too, an inca sun, and a few months later a super nova :) but it STILL wasn't until months later when I was looking through some old pictures and found the ones I'd taken in santa cruz, that I connected the dots.

so it could be said that I've loved brugs from the moment I set my eyes on them, that first unattainable pair back in 2005 :)

Susie that is a beautiful garden.. I love the Swan!!!!!
I guess the first time I saw a Brug was at my SIL back in 2002 she had a pink NOID that smelled heavenly so of course I had to have too many!!LOL

Kylie

About 7 years ago I was in an older neighborhood in West Denver and saw two huge brugs in full bloom on someone's patio. I went to the door and banged on it (vacuuming sounds inside) till he heard me and came to see who the crazy person was. We talked for a long time and I found out which nursery had brugs and bought on right away. Still have it, it's my peach versicolor. Since then I've added Cherub, Santa Rosa, and now Heloise. Found out much later the guy whose door I banged on was a local horticulturist who is featured on the local news shows every now and then!

Years ago I was looking online for fragrant plants and ran
across brugmansia, I bought my first one on ebay it was a
white sauveolens, it`s the only one I would let myself have
for years..............then one day I thought well just one
more.....and I know ya all know the rest of the story.....
hopelessly addicted, :).
Great thread!

yes I think most of us know how the story goes ha ha ha

Lucy