Where do you live that you got a flower this early? If you are in a cold cliamte, then I know what I must do to encourage flowers..Thank you

Good question by the way)

Zone 7 in virginia. :) This plant was most likely in a greenhouse before I got it. I will be fine not having a lot of flowers this year if it will help create a taller/fuller plant.

Thanks you for your note!

nova-gardener, in my experience, most of the plants sold at garden centers won't grow to be very tall, maybe 5-6 feet. You can still train them into trees, but watch carefully for what's called a "root shoot" which comes up alongside the original plant and grows very straight and fast. These are the shoots that can grow up to 10 feet tall and make the best tree-form brugs. I don't know what it is about these shoots, but when I first started growing brugs, I asked how to get mine to grow taller and was told I had to wait for a "root shoot."

You may have to stake the root shoot at first to keep it from being broken off in the wind, and you need to remove all the side shoots as it grows, but it usually doesn't put out many. If you leave it in the ground over the winter, it will die back and put out several root shoots in the spring. Pick the strongest and fastest growing, and cut the rest off and root them for more plants once they are about a foot tall.

I'll second what dirtygardener said, and add that the reason you'll never get that existing structure to grow into a tree form is that almost all nursery plants are from cuttings taken above the "Y", and so the genetic switch has already been flipped and now this plant and all cuttings taken from it will always be shorter and spreading instead of in the upright tree-trunk form.

the only way to unflip the switch is to use one of those new fast-growing shoots that come up from below the surface. They are still in the tree-phase and can be trained into a tree next year. All cuttings taken from one of these shoots will retain the upright tree-trunk growth pattern until they produce a "Y", and can then start blooming above there.

Thanks for backing me up, Tom. I have a beautiful Frosty Pink in the courtyard that was a root shoot and is now over 7 feet tall and still growing. It just sent out a water sprout that is growing like a root shoot, and an additional shoot from the very bottom of the trunk that is already almost as tall as the original plant. It's amazing how that works. The FP I have out in the yard was a root shoot, but it started Ying very young, so it didn't get as tall as I thought it would.

Let the leaves fall of naturally due to the cold, letting no frost hit it. Once it's bare, stick into a room with very cold temps, just above freezing and no higher than 50, and it will stay that way until the temps rise again. I love them for the ease of storing away. And that is a beauty!! Must smell awesome at night)

I'll bet if you left that window open, it would fill the entire house with fragrance.

Thank you! It’s too big for the basement. Should I prune it aggressively before storing it?

there‘s a reason why the glass pane on the storm door is pulled down :)

Nice!! I see. Ha.

I usually cut mine way back and then bring them inside. All mine take a hard cutting and then they grow back huge every spring once again

I used to live in 7a. I always cut mine back to about 2 feet tall, piled about 3 feet of pine straw or hay on them, and they came back every year. I'd stick the cuttings into buckets on the back screened porch and they rooted over the winter. Here I cut them way back and pile leaves around the bottom.

People on the Brugmansia exchange forum here look forward to fall when they can get our cuttings for postage.

Hi. Interesting! Was it planted in ground? I have two one foot tall babies i may use your method for.

Hi nova_gardener! I'm running into a similar issue that you had with your brug and it looks like from your photo you were able to get it to grow taller even with the Y at a low height.

Can you share what you did to shape it? Your picture is my brugmansia goal!

Hi Hannah. The brugmanisa continues to grow taller even after it forms the Y. I didn’t have to do anything special (except feeding it liquid fertilizer (sometimes twice a week) and watering it like there’s no tomorrow). It just did its thing.

Did/do you continuously prune the branches and leaves lower than the Y?

I'm aiming for a standard shape but there's lots of differing advice on when and how to prune the lower branches to get that straight stem

Yes i did. Remove lower leaves and branches if you have enough growth above that for the plant to sustain.

Thank you Nova! Hopefully I can grow mine to be just as stunning as yours