Hi Gill. I usually grow daturas as annuals. Some varieties will reseed but not the metels (what you have) in colder zones. In frost free zones they keep going. You can try wintering them over but it's easier to start each year from seed IMO. Brugs on the other hand are perennial and might even be able to withstand being inground year round in your zone. They'll die back but will return in the spring and easily reach 6'+ in a single growing season. Brugs don't survive the winter here (7a) so I allow them to go dormant in the garage or an unheated greenhouse. I have some seeds from an Emerald Frost brug that I can send you. Unlike daturas they don't grow true but I've never seen an ugly brug.

Karyn-
You say that you overwinter yours in an unheated gh? Is it insulated? I wonder if that would work in mine. Karyn-how do you prepare them for that kind of storage? Sorry to hi jack your thread Gil
Thanks!
kasha77

Kathy I keep the brugs that haven't been sunk and are in big containers at the farm in the unheated GH. I've been doing it for years. I don't do anything to prepare them and sometimes don't even bother to strip the foliage but they don't sit on the ground. All pots are elevated on wood paletts or the plant tables. They take an awfully long time to go dormant because even with cold temps the GH is quite warm if it's sunny. It can get really cold at night but the soil never freezes thru. I guess because the daytime temps warm up so much.

Hi Karyn, thanks for the info and the kind offer, I have emailed you.
The seeds I bought just said double cream and double purple, no mention of the word 'metel'....how do you know its a metel, whats the difference? So brugs can get to 6ft in a season, crikey! I thought these guys could grow.
We went down to -18c last winter, so we will see what happens this time round, brrrrr! It surely can't be that bad again...can it?? The g/h was lagged and heated to within an inch of its life but I still lost some plants in there, not to mention my outdoor palm tree.

Hi Kathy, no worries, its given me more info anyway....thanks!
Cheers, Gill from the UK

Gill, the flower photos are gorgeous! (and I see you picked up "crikey" while down there LOL!)

Thank you Tomsmum! Photography is another hobby of mine along with trying to grow plants that I shouldn't really be able to grow here in the UK!
Crikey, haha, always assumed it was an English word the Ozzies probably pinched from us in the first place as its commonly used here, lol!!
These daturas have me hooked, another flower has opened today on another plant and the whole room is scented again, lovely! Odd thing is my hubby can't smell it??!!
Gill from the UK.

Funny thing about mens noses, they smell different things than we do!

"Funny thing about mens noses, they smell different things than we do!"

I thought that was their hearing. lol

Heres a UK grower!
http://hurstwoodbrugmansia.blogspot.com/

Those are spectacular. I love the Sphaerocarpium group, especially the vulcanicolas. Unfortunately most of the cold group doesn't do well here. It's too hot and humid in the summer. B. arborea is the only one that blooms and grows. Sanguineas grow but I've never had a flower and vulcanicolas don't do either. It's the same with tasconia type passifloras but both the Sphaerocarpium group and tasconias thrive in the SF Bay area.

Thanks for the link....I can see I'm going to get hooked on these now!