Anyone from PNW on this forum who could offer advice about growing brugmansia in our climate? I really really want to succeed this time!

When you find out how....tell me. I live in NYC-7b, and just ordered my first plant. My "growing season".... lasts from June thru October....maybe.

It probably will arrive just in time for the onset of the dormancy period -that will last until next April. Who said, "timing" doesn't count? I figure I'm already half way towards killing this plant.

Impulse buying..... ain't a good thing, especially if you don't have a heated greenhouse.

Good luck.

Well, let's not start off with the expectation of killing the plant. Brugmansias for the most part are tropical, However, there are Brugmansias that thrive in colder climates. You will just have to get used to cutting them back and storing them in the house until the frost comes. That is a good time to drench them as well with Forbid to kill any spider mites that may live in the soil. I would remove enough soil to fit in a 2-gallon pot. Come spring, move the plant into a 5-gallon pot after it has gotten about 2 weeks of outside sun. Don't want to put it into shock but moving it too quickly to the larger pot.



sorry... I had to look these up (PNW is an acronym for Pacific Northwest, which includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia in Canada. Some consider parts of California, Montana, and southeastern Alaska part of the Pacific Northwest, too)

Kept a Brugmansia for approx 3 years in the upper Midwest, Z4b.

Beautiful fragrant plants, finally grew tired of putting them up for the winter

I have not seen any Brugmansia that have survived PNW winters without being brought in. However, I do have anecdotal evidence that it might be possible, even if extremely marginal.

For one, I left out my yellow flowering Brugmansia (probably Brugmansia suaveolens) during that brief snow we got last winter. Note that it didn't stay outside the entire winter, but I left it out some nights after watering. It died back to the base, however the roots survived. I up-potted it in the spring, applied fertilizer and put it in a greenhouse, where it will stay this winter. It grew about six feet, responding well to heat, ample moisture and fertilizer. See the photo below!

Lance Wright (@gardenriots) mentions growing Brugmansia sanguinea, although he doesn't say if he leaves it out over the winter. Apparently it is hardy to zone 9a, so it could work as a marginal perennial for most of Portland. However, it is unclear if the growers are referring to the ease of overwintering it in a particular zone or its actual cold hardiness. For example, Missouri Botanical Garden rates Brugmansia suaveolens at zones 8-10, while Cal Poly rates the same species at zones 10-12.

According to University of Washington, "Some Brugmansias will overwinter in the Seattle area and are semi-evergreen or evergreen. Others may die back to the ground and come back in the spring." This is plausible given some of Seattle's very mild microclimates that might not exist in Portland. However, I have yet to see any examples myself.

Thanks for inspiring this rabbit hole to go down!

John

Sources
I will add in a few days. The website won't let me right now.

i had a Brugmansia sanguinea "monica" that the roots went thru the bottom of the pot and survived and grew for several years protected under a Redwood tree
but 2 or 3 years ago we had snow for 3 days for the first time in 20 years i have been here and it didn't make it
i have another sanguinea in bloom as i type in the same location
and the 3 other brugs i have outside elsewhere have all lost there leaves
and are due to be cut and stored in the GH which has run out of room
all of my brugs are over 15 years old

karmahappytoes here in the PNW, SW WA State and I have been growing them for over 20 years. B. Frosty Pink
is the only one that will survive the winters but with that stated with Climate change one needs to take some
some care to help it survive. Marty, we grow our in 5 gallon pickle buckets so that they can be moved in the
Brug House during the winter months. They are totally addictive once you get the hang of them. I'll admit to
digging up my back yard in the early 2000s to plant our collection of well over 120 varieties. I love to play with
with tissue culture as I have found that they are the best Brugmansia plants to grow. Scream if you have any
questions or need pointers. How close are you to Vancouver, WA??