Angel’s trumpet – care, cutting & wintering

Angel’s trumpets are not that easy to care for, after all, the Brugmansia genus is native to the tropical parts of South Africa and South America, so the plant has to cope with a completely different climate here. If you give the angel’s trumpet enough help with this task, which should be easy with the following instructions, it will show itself to be willing to grow and bloom. There are quite a few tricks you can use to make the beautiful tub plant’s existence in the tub more bearable.

The best location for the angel’s trumpets

In the summer season, a trumpet tree should definitely have a place in the garden. Preferably a warm spot where the plant is not exposed to the full summer sun at midday. Otherwise, it would evaporate so much water through its mighty leaves that you would almost have to stand by with the watering can to keep the plant from drying out. This place should also be reasonably windless.

You can simply place the angel’s trumpet in its bucket in the garden. However, you get a much better alternative approach. You take the Brugmansia at the beginning of the outdoor season and put it in a plant basket, like the one used in e.g. B. is offered for pond plants. It is now placed in a suitable place in the garden soil, can (and will) stretch its roots out of the pot and develop splendidly over the summer, usually much better than an angel’s trumpet, which has to stay in the pot. At the same time, however, you should take precautions against snails, which unfortunately find the angel’s trumpets incredibly tasty.

Incidentally, depending on the variety and breed, angel trumpets can tolerate quite a bit of cold. There are pictures on the internet of impressive avenues of angel’s trumpets growing in a garden a few hundred meters up on a mountain in the middle of Germany. However, these are huge Brugmansias. They were probably quite a size before they were placed in the garden forever. However, if you purchase seedlings from a knowledgeable grower, they may be able to sell you Brugmansia varieties that are almost certainly garden-appropriate in your (milder) USDA climate zone. Maybe not as young plants, or they get very good winter protection in the first few years, but in principle angel’s trumpets can already grow into trees in Germany.

If you cannot or do not want to put an angel’s trumpet in the garden, put it in its bucket in a partially shaded place on the balcony or terrace in summer. There it is neither “grilled by the sun” in the middle of the day nor is it constantly exposed to drafts. The same applies when she wanders back into the apartment in autumn. It doesn’t matter whether it’s summer season outdoors or winter quarters in the apartment, the angel’s trumpet needs a lot of light and some protection from constant draughts.

Growing medium for trumpet trees

The angel’s trumpet doesn’t actually need a special soil. It should just be nutritious and fairly fluffy. Simple garden soil enriched with compost and mixed with a loosening peat substitute is well suited. Nutrient-rich potting soil from the trade is also suitable.

Sow or cultivate young plants

You can grow your angel’s trumpet from seeds, it works like this:

• Soak seeds in lukewarm water overnight at most
• Prepare pots with loose, unfertilized sandy seed soil
• Plant seeds about an inch deep in the soil
• Put a bag made of transparent foil with a few holes or a glass over the plant pot
• Place pots in a place where the entire pot (including the bottom) is at an even temperature between 20 and 24 degrees.
• Be patient, the seedlings can appear in two weeks, but also in two months.
• when seedlings have their first leaves, they are rooted and can move into a large plant pot as individual plants

You can harvest the seeds from an existing Brugmansia. To do this, pick the flowers of the mother plant, remove the seeds and let them dry over the winter. It can then be sown in spring, but be prepared for surprises – a purchased mother plant may be a hybrid that does not inherit its characteristics, so your new angel’s trumpet may be a whole new variety.

It is easier to buy a young plant, which you should probably give to a new plant pot immediately after purchase, as the young plants are usually sold in containers that are too small.

The right bucket for the Brugmansia

Angel’s trumpets only feel comfortable in a fairly large plant pot. If this plant pot is really big, she will feel even more comfortable. Especially if you dream of a tree-high angel’s trumpet that you can later put in the garden, the plant needs a lot of space in the root area. Only then will it also get really big in the upper area.

Therefore, an angel’s trumpet usually has to be moved to a more spacious container immediately after purchase, and therefore repotting is usually the order of the day when the roots of the angel’s trumpet pretty much fill the pot. Whenever a root is sticking out of the drainage hole, the Brugmansia should get a larger pot. Before you put the plant in this pot, you can do a little root care. The roots are carefully loosened, tangles can be trimmed so that the tissue appears airy again. You can also cut away a little on the outside of the roots. Here especially root branches that look damaged or somehow misshapen. This pruning encourages vigorous growth in the future.

The plant pots should be made of a heavy material. An angel’s trumpet is a real wind catcher due to its leaf mass and is made to sway by every strong gust of wind. If you cannot give the Brugmansia a completely windless spot, sometimes the only thing that helps is to cut away the largest leaves. Then the impressively large angel’s trumpet cannot be knocked over by the next draft. Since a reservoir is definitely needed in the outer tub to collect the excess irrigation water from the drainage hole of the plant pot, there are of course many possibilities for talented and imaginative do-it-yourselfers. How about a layer of big rocks at the bottom of the bucket on which the plant pot stands and is secured upwards against “blown out” by a kind of latch? Of course, the water between the stones must not stand in the heat for long. So your bucket would either need a drain tap or you would need a small submersible pump.

watering and fertilizing

The large-leaved and large-flowered angel’s trumpet naturally needs a lot of water. However, it is best to always wait until the potting soil in the bucket is fairly dry on the surface. If you then give water replenishment, it is usually just right. However, Brugmansias in tubs need to be watered more often than plants in the garden or in a basket in the garden soil. If it’s really hot outside and the tub isn’t very spacious either, it’s quite possible that your Brugmansia will want to be watered daily (twice in extreme cases). You can recognize the need for water in the angel’s trumpet very well at the latest by the fact that it lets its leaves droop.

Like water, the angel’s trumpet also needs a lot of nutrients. She is said to like natural nettle fertilizer very much. Because you can give twice a week in the time of budding and especially flowering. Of course you can also buy a conventional green or flowering plant fertilizer from the trade and prepare it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It should be given once a week during the peak growth period. In autumn, gradually stop fertilizing so that the new shoots can mature.

Cut angel trumpets

The angel’s trumpet does not have to be pruned, if you are after the tree-sized angel’s trumpet mentioned above, which you then plant in the garden at the latest, it can simply grow. As a rule, however, the angel’s trumpet is kept in the bucket. With this form of cultivation, the available space usually forces you to restrict the beautiful plant. They implemented the cut like this:

• If the trumpet tree fits into its winter quarters as it is, it should be pruned in the spring. It has now gone through a winter hiatus during which it has lost leaves and flowers, so you can see exactly where you are cutting.
• Because when cutting, it is crucial that you take the special growth form of the angel’s trumpet into account: the flowering region only begins above the first branch.
• Only in this flowering area does the normal pruning take place, which can be quite radical, the angel’s trumpet will then only grow bushier and set more flowers.
• At some point summer comes, after which the trumpet tree no longer fits into the winter quarters, then it can be pruned so radically that it fits again for the next few years.
• You can use all of the cut shoots to grow new angel’s trumpets; they are treated like normal head cuttings.

Hibernation and disease care

Here is a detailed guide to overwintering angel’s trumpets . Below is a summary of the key points:

The younger you planted a Brugmansia in the garden, the more carefully you should provide it with good winter protection.

Angel’s trumpets can hibernate almost warm. But then they usually suffer from the lack of light and form overgrown shoots that have to be removed. They fare better when being forcefully forced to take a break over the low light season. So hibernate brightly in a cold house at 5 to 10 degrees, without fertilizer and with reduced watering. If you don’t have a suitable room, it can also be the dark basement. Although it then takes a little longer for the next start of the season, it loses all its leaves quite quickly, which makes it less susceptible to pests.

The Brugmansia likes to be attacked by all sorts of pests, which you will only defeat if you start combating them as quickly as possible. You should regularly check the angel’s trumpet for aphids and other insects and fungi. The necessary control depends on the type of damage, but also on the season. However, the most important thing is that you quickly find out from the specialist shop who is working on your plant and what needs to be done about it.

Conclusion
If you are still looking for a plant with real design talent, the angel’s trumpet is probably just the right plant for you. In mild areas it can eventually stand as a flowering tree in the garden. You can choose whether you want to see posh apricot or bold pink blooms, bashful pink or rich gold. There are many varieties of Brugmansia, even those that flower in two colors!