Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Surprising success with a cutting, 1 by bettydee

bettydee wrote:
JPlunket,
The cutting looks nice and healthy. Since your cutting will not go dormant, it could do with a bit of morning sunlight. Do you have an east facing window? Mine are in the greenhouse right now and don't go dormant either. Barring a mishap the lowest temperature mine will get this winter is 50ºF, but daytime temperatures can rise into the high 70s and even low 80 on some days. I'm still keeping them on the dry side of barely moist, but this year I'm giving them some dilute fertilizer now and then. Overwatering is your Brug's biggest danger. Spider mites are the next because they love low humidity. So examine the leaves every once in a while. A few are easier to deal with than a bigger infestation that ruins the leaves.

I don't throw a cutting out until it slips out of the pot with ease and the cambium is dead, dead, dead. One of my favorites, Creamsickle who had been in an 18" pot for almost a year, struggled last winter. First with spider mites and then "die back". By early April, it looked completely dead. I left it in the greenhouse meaning to dump the remains later and reuse the pot. Throughout the summer, it sat there as a testament to over watering. I never got around to getting rid of the rootball. It received a bit of water now and then, mostly out of habit. Mid-September, I noticed a small shoot coming out of the soil next to the old trunk. Right now, it's a healthy 1 footer with large green leaves. It will have to go through the vegetative stage before producing its first "Y" and blooming, but I don't care. My Creamsickle is Back! Here she is at her best. All her flushes, except one, have been a wonderfully creamy white. Maybe an occasional touch of apricot at the end just before the bloom falls of. I much prefer her this way.