Tropicals & Tender Perennials: The Genetic 'Y', 1 by gingerlily

gingerlily wrote:
To each his own about shape. I tend to let mine be natural if they are in the ground and I leave on most leaves. The ones in pots tend to lose their bottom leaves more because they wilt more and dry out more, thus the leaves get puny.

Sherrylike, the not watering when they wilt thing is simply that if you know the plant doesn't need water and it wilts, that doesn't mean it needs more water. Brugs will wilt with extreme heat index on the leaves, but the roots don't need water if you watered them recently. Later in the evening or by the next morning they will usually be perked up. If not by the next morning, you need to water them. Of course your potted ones are going to dry out faster than the ones in the ground.

On sun, I find that here in the deep south (FL/AL line) brugs can use some afternoon shade.

My understanding (hoping I understood right) on the above/below the y cuttings goes like this: if the cutting is above the y, the plant will bloom earlier, while the plant is much shorter. In fact, I thought this plant would not get very tall, but if it was cut back to the root (or died back in winter), that it might be some taller the next year, but not extremely tall because the cutting was taken from the flowering region not the growth region and it would continue to bloom earlier. But if the cutting was taken below the y, it would grow taller and bloom later because it was taken from the vegetative or growth region.



This message was edited Jun 11, 2004 5:42 PM

This message was edited Jun 13, 2004 8:11 PM