Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My BEST brug!!, 0 by Kell

Kell wrote:
Frannie, this is truly a Monika tree! 2 summers ago, it grew as a sucker and I let it get very tall. I then cut it off and rooted it in a 5 gallon pot. I made holes all over the sides as Monika instructed. I then planted it in the back of where we used to have a little pond. We had filled it in. Well, it just took off last year!

Remember last June when I went back East? I got a call from Tom telling me a whole side of the first Y had just been found on the ground that morning. I accused him in my mind of major brug abuse. LOL.

Then he called me the next day in a total panic. The rest had broken off. All just below the first Y. I was not happy. I finally realized it was the weight of the top that did it and not Tom. In fact yesterday as my husband looked at this top, it is a monster, he said he wondered how long until it cracked and broke off. The top canopy is almost as tall as the single trunk.

Anyway, when I went to dig it out last fall to put it in the hoophouse, I realized it was too tall even if I cut it way back. The hoophouse had 12 ft ceiling. Too short. So I left it in the pond area and prayed. It lost all its leaves to frost but the stems stayed relatively harmfree.

I cut a couple of feet off each stem last month!