Witches Broom in Tropical Sunset

In early October I cut off a branch on Tropical Sunset that was coming up out of the ground to mail to a friend. This mess has grown out of what was left of that branch. Will any of these develop into normal branches? Should I remove them all?

This poor Brug has suffered all kinds of indignities. Last summer, I place this potted Brug directly on the ground and Bermuda grass grew up the drain holes. Before I put it back into the greenhouse last winter, I had to remove all the soil in order to remove all the grass roots. Then the grasshoppers ate most of her and now this. Poor baby!

Once it starts it seems to keep going, I would cut it back to nothing as long as you have some healthy growth.

She has some pretty green leaves. She wants to live. Ken mine barely has some roots of that variety that I got from you. she has some leaves too. Thinking of cutting her into small pieces. Almost afraid too. .

ridesredmule,
This is a 4' Brug with 3 trunks. She had a fourth smaller branch that I cut off to give to a friend. I left a small stub. It's from this stub and a few other older cut stubs that all these growths are coming. I've seen examples of witches broom on trees and other shrubs, but never on a Brug. The growths never get very large nor do they look normal, but those looked woody rather than green as on this Brug.

Isn't it amazing the things that go on in nature??
Do you think they will grow into anything useful??
Be interesting to see what she does next spring with
the new growth. Are you going to cut it off or leave it?
I know I haven't seen anything like it. How did the other brug get. that you
were protecting/Did it make it??

Charleen, I think I'll take it off. I'd hate to see it show up on other Brugs. The Brug in the mini-greenhouse? It was fine until a fierce wind destroyed the plastic cover last week and blow the frost cover off the Brug as well. I was surprised that the leaves and flower buds were still green even after several freezes.

That was on December 24th. I'm diabetic and spent most of that afternoon in the hospital trying to stabilize a bout of low blood sugar. Got back home just as the sun was setting. I had just enough time to wrap the frost cover around the top and tape it down and hope for the best. It got down to 32ºF that night. Since then we've had one episode of cold wet weather. The temperatures didn't really go below freezing just got really really close. Since frost cloth is permeable, it would have been just as cold under the cloth. I just checked the Brug. The leaves are crunchy, but the branches still look OK. Still haven't fixed the mini-greenhouse. Am waiting for DH to pitch the roof on it before I use shrink wrap, which arrived yesterday, instead of taping the plastic. Even though the duct tape is supposed to be cold tolerant down to 10ºF, it just couldn't stand up to that horrid wind. So I ordered shrink wrap and a heat gun. If I can get DH to fix the frame, I hope to have the mini-greenhouse up again. The problem is the forecast is for 32ºF weather tonight.

Instead of working on the mini-greenhouse, DH had to spend today fixing the crown molding around the top of one bank of kitchen cabinets. We have two cats, one of them, Winston, loves high places. A few nights ago, we heard a loud bang and a few small ones. By the time I got to the kitchen, Winston was on top of the cabinets, hiding behind a plastic fern. The molding was leaning against the refrigerator and the floor littered with what was left of two ceramic cups I had stored on top of the refrigerator. A small food processor I had placed on top of the cabinets was also on the floor. DH had to use a ladder to get him down. This is a photo of my little climbing fool. LOL.

Winston is beautiful.That is what cats do, climb into places and then forget how to get back down. I need a couple of cats but all I have is dogs, four of them. I like cats, but hubby doesn't.
I have little leaves on some of my brugs. I don't know how many I got but I got bunches of starts here in my computor room. I think it is a dining room, but we have never used it as one. I have them everywhere. Next year should be very interesting. I have three several that I just left outside, that Pink noid I have gave me so much enjoyment and it was a "learning" plANT. i LEARNED MORE FROM IT THAN ANY PLANT i HAVE EVER HAD. i LOVE IT.
Got myfingers on the Cap key, durn it....My DH has diabetic so I know a little about it. i hope that you get much better soon.
Try to enjoy those plants.

Harbor Freight on S Lamar has a heat gun in stock for $8.99!!!!

LOL. Too late. I bought one from Amazon. While I wait for DH to fix the PVC framework, I'm trying to figure out if bubble wrap will adhere to the shrink wrap. I'll have to try to heat a sample of each together. If it doesn't, I may have to tack the bubble wrap on with twine then cover the ends with strips of shrink wrap. I was really disappointed with the cold tolerant duck tape. While it held as long as there was no wind, the first windy day started to tear the panels down.

I looke up "witches broom" very interesting. Did you get it cut back???
We got a few months til it starts warming up. I hope the Brugs make it with all
the hard work you are putting into them.

Sorry to read you were in hospital. Hope you got to enjoy your son's visit. Here's pic of one of the brugs on the side of garage that I used pipe insulation on, and added the shrink-wrap tape to hold it all together. Everything above the wrap died in the freezing winds we had. I did notice the little shoot off the side of the main trunk, that had just finished blooming, still has leaves. I threw a sheet over it the night of the big freeze. January will kill it off if I don't cut it first. Keeping my fingers crossed that I didn't wind the tape too tightly. It sure was easy and I didn't have to heat it....just stuck to itself.
Take care....

I felt tired for a few days, but I wasn't about to let that stop me from enjoying his visit since we see him only a few times a year. The day after he lft, I slept most of the day. LOL.

I haven't cut the witches broom off yet. To do so, I'll have to move some pots to get close enough to cut it it off. I didn't wrap that much tape around the pipe insulation since I was going to have the mini-greenhouse over the whole plant. I guess we'll find out how successful we've been at beating mother nature.

Bubbles, that looks great. That is the kind we use to insulate
waterpipe to keep from freezing. You all are so smart to think of that.

rrm....I can't take credit for it. htop in San Antonio is the one who had the idea. I hope it works....but I had to use two pieces on the big trunks. That's why I wrapped it with the tape....to keep the two pcs water tight.

I'm sure they don't mind as long as your babies survive. Bettydee is having a heck of a time with hers right now. I hope you all
get your plants to do right. Did you used the heatshrink tape?? I was wondering if Beetydee could use Shipping tape , it is pretty tough.

Charleen, shipping tape was the first tape I tried using last year. It didn't work because it loses its adhesive properties below freezing. That's why this summer, I purchased several rolls of mending tape the type used on polypropylene sided greenhouses. When the package arrived I had to put it in the barn. Unfortunately, I don't have my own space in the barn, things get moved around and I lost track of it.

Bless your heart. I know about things getting moved . Also the "I didn't do it!" Oh, well. That is the way it goes. Have you tried plumbers
tape or Electrical tape yet?? I bet you haveI can't think of anything else except wrap it and tie it on with Yarn. I have done that before. Yard is pretty tough. I use it to hold my plant tags on sometimes.

Last year I experimented with this same Brug. The weather in this part of Texas fluxuates quite a bit so I ran out to wrap it just before a freeze was forecast. I used burlap and bubble wrap, several kinds of tape (All lost adhesion below freezing so parts came upwrapped.), and nylon twine. The end result was almost a complete failure. The top died to within a foot from the ground and it took until August before I saw her bloom.

This winter up until the wind blew the plastic and bubble wrap off the frame of the mini-greenhouse, my Brug had all her leaves and a few flower buds. There was no damage during the previous 4 freezes. Now I can feel crunchy leaves through the frost cloth.