First summer with a blossoming brug

Hi I have been following this site drooling over all the beautiful brugs. Last summer '10 I purchased a variegated noid at a local nursery. It grew but didn't produce a 'y' till late Sept. I got 3 blossoms from it in early Oct. and felt so blessed to have it happen before frost. I dug it up and put it in an unheated bedroom upstairs for the winter. We are a 5b--6a zone here and last winter was cold! It lost all its leaves but survived.

I replanted it in the spring and it graced me with about 75 blossoms. I was crazy to think that I grew it. It then produced a side shoot that I didn't know what to do with so I left it.

Come late August it again produced about 150 blossoms!!!!!!!! Oh, my. Even the shoot had 'y'd' so it too blossomed.

Now mid October it is again ready to blossom. Not near as many buds as in August but still getting ready. I am babying it, covering it on cool nights and so hoping that I will get a third set of blossoms.

My question is . . . . . what do I do with it to keep it. Just dig it up and pot it up for the winter? Try to remove the side shoot that is almost as big as the main stem and then have two plants? Or do I cut, trim or ????

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Joy

This is the June blossoming. I picked up every spent blossom just to count how many.

Very pretty Joy you are on your way to wanting more! They are pretty amazing plants

Here is a shot of it in August.

thanks Danasplants, now to know what I am doing.

If the conditions are right they grow like weeds they are heavy feeders and don't like wet feet. And that one likes sun not all do. What ever your doing keep it up!

Joy, you sure do know how to grow 'em! That plant is just lovely. Very pretty variegation - it might be 'Snowbank'.

I don't have to overwinter mine indoors (although I do cover them sometimes) so I'll let one of the northern brug growers advise you on that. But I'd sure want to keep that nice new shoot. If you need to cut the plant down to manage it indoors, I'd cut the older part back. Root those cuttings, too - they're SO easy to propagate. You'll have gift plants for all your friends come next Easter. Just put the cuttings in water until they put out roots, pot them up, and keep them growing slowly with cool temps and good light until it's warm outside.

My mother grew one in Vancouver, Canada (zone 7 or 8?) and she was able to keep leaves on hers all winter, in a cool room with good light. Here in Florida we do have cool winter weather but the brugs don't lose their leaves until it gets down into the 30's for several nights straight. Thankfully that doesn't happen often.

Here's my 'Cherub' grown from a cutting this spring. It's nearly 8ft. tall now and has bloomed at least 5 times. It has a nice big new shoot like yours that's about to bloom now. I want it to make a shrub form to fill up that space next year, so I'm letting it sprout and branch. If you want yours to stay in a standard (tree) form, you need to cultivate one good shoot each year, pruning off the leaves that sprout from the trunk, and new shoots from the bottom. Or start a new plant from a cutting every year or two, to keep a manageable sized plant.

Great growing! Elaine

This message was edited Oct 9, 2011 11:07 AM

Joy, whether you remove the side shoot or not depends on whether you want your variegated Brug to be tree shaped or bushy. Since you have to dig it up to take it indoors, you will also have to prune the top to compensate for the root loss. One of the easiest ways to do this is to remove the side shoot. Then trim back to the first 2 - 3 layers of "Y"s on the remaining mother plant. The large side shoot, rooted over winter, will give you a second plant. Rooting some of the other cuttings will be insurance against losing the bigger ones. If everything survives, then you have a bunch of rooted cuttings to share.

Be sure to spray all the cut surfaces with a fungicide right after you make each cut. The spray has to be applied as soon as possible after the cuts have been made. This helps guard against fungal diseases that could cause the die back of entire branches or in some cases the entire plant. Also, since the plant was in dirt, use some sort of soil drench to kill any soil borne pests you don't want coming in for the winter. They will cause chaos if taken indoors and will be harder to control because your options will be more limited. A systemic will work, but if don't want anything that strong, use a solution of Neem oil which is an organic product. There are other soil drenches on the market.

You have a gorgeous Brug there. Congratulations!

A truly beautiful plant you have there ...congratulations !

Joyous, gorgeous plant, what did you feed it this summer?

Bettydee, how do you recommend doing th soil drench with Neem oil? I have a few brugs to bring in and don't want the bugs.

Oh, I am going to have to make a spread sheet to figure out all the wonderful info on how to keep this baby and it looks like all the babies I will get from it if I do it right.

Thanks for all the kind words, I have been driving friends nuts telling about it and showing pictures if they won't come by and see it. LOL

Dizzy, oh, to be able to grow all year long outside. I have a small 9 x 11 gh but trying to heat it when it gets in the mid 20's is more than my budget allows. I do use it a lot from late March through May, then it gets too hot even with a shade cover. But I sure love it. I use it from now through mid November weather permitting. Thanks for the 'maybe' name.

Here is how I 'fed' it this summer. I planted it in a bed with a lot of mushroom mulch in it and mulched it with a couple 5 gallon pails of bunny poo. I MG it no where near as often as prescribed here on this forum. It really took off after our drought of a July. We had a high temp of 107 in July, unheard of here. Even watering daily hardly keep it going but I dragged hoses sometimes twice a day to keep as much of my gardens going as possible. Then the rains came! What a difference rain makes compared to watering.

My DH has hooked up our rain gutters to 375 gallon tanks that he has built 4ft high bases to so I can gravity water. I drained 2 of them, one 55 gallon drum and a 250 gallon tank from June till early August. That isn't even counting when I just used the hose from our well.

Bettydee, thank you especially for the detail about the cutting of the 'y's'. I think I understand. I am still hoping that these last beautiful days we are having will bring the blossoms out that are there. I hate the thought of cutting them off. I am waiting like Ce9165 to understand the Neem drench better. I should probably do that to all the other plants I bring in for the winter. It has become an obsession.

Joy

Joy, another thing we've learned from Bettydee (thank you!) is that cuttings from above the first Y will create a shrub shaped new plant (see my Monster White below) whereas a stem cutting from below the Y makes a tree or standard form like my Cherub (pic I posted above), and your pretty one. Then they put up shoots from the roots, and start to branch.

They were both started at the same time, fed the same and grew side by side, but the shrub bloomed weeks sooner for me, which might be a consideration for you northern gardeners since your season is short.

With regard to keeping your greenhouse a little warmer, I have a friend in Salt Lake City who warms his greenhouse, and also humidifies (it is killer dry there) by using just a tub (plastic storage tub from Target) of water heated with a waterbed heater. He figures it costs him 10 cents a day and his gh stays in the 50's all winter, and warmer (of course) when the sun shines. A couple of light bulbs will also give a little bit of heat very cheaply, but they don't humidify.

I got the following formula from several sources: Using 100% neem oil, this formula will give you a 0.5% neem oil solution. Double the amount of neem oi to get a 1% solution if you want a stronger solution. At this time of year, you don't need to worry about leaf burn which could be a problem once the temperature goes over 90ºF. One of the things I like about neem oil is that pests don't develop resistance to it and it is safe to use around humans and pets. Just don't spray on beneficial insects because neem will smother them also.

Directions:

Usage rate is one teaspoon neem oil per quart or four teaspoons neem oil per gallon of water. Add 1/4 teaspoon of an ecologically friendly dish detergent to a small portion of the water as an emulsifier. Add the neem oil and mix well. Add remaining water, stir well and use immediately. Use as a foliar spray and soil drench, spraying both the top and underside of the foliage. For most problems, repeat spraying once a week for 5 weeks.

Bettydee, thanks so much for the specific instructions. I was plagued by spider mites, mealy bugs and scale on my plants that were brought into the basement last winter. I'll start the spraying process now, since the plants will have to be brought inside in the next few weeks. Also, Snowbank and Sunset that I got at a local nursery unfortunately came with mealy bugs that I had to eradicate. Those bugs were not the free gift that I was looking for. LOL

Morning, Bettydee thanks for the Neem oil info. I will check our farm supply store today while out.

Dizzy, thanks too for more 'y' info and the heater in a tub of water. I wonder how cold it gets in Utah but will certainly give it some thought. I see that I forgot to give the lows we had last winter, -12 if I remember correctly.

I sure am enjoying the pictures too.

So far we have not had frost so this brug is blossoming for the third time. When cold finally gets here we will dig split and cut. Seems many are wanting a cutting from it. grin. Guess I can't blame them.

I guess this is the end of our flower season. Weather liars are predicting 25* tonight. I know we won't get that cold as we are very close to a large lake. But still too cold.

We, DH, dug the brug and brought it into the garage till we can bed it down in the shop that stays a bit above freezing for the winter. I will decide what to do with it when it is dormant.

The garage smells like a perfume factory. I would like to sleep there tonight but would probably freeze.

Joy

Tellya what, Joy. Sure wish you could put that lovely thing on a truck and send it to Florida for the winter. I would love to babysit it for you.

I would love for you to do that Dyzzy. Years ago we lived in New Smyrna Beach, how I still miss it. I hope you have a much better winter this year.

Been snowing here but not sticking.

well you and your plant look happy! glad to see it

Joyous,
I hope the lake keeps your micro-climate above freezing. We had been having summer like weather until today when a cold front went through bringing cold weather with it. It is supposed to be in the low 40s or maybe upper 30s tonight. It had been in the high 60s. How quickly things can change. I still have a number of Brugs that need to go into the greenhouse so I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping for good weather for the next few days. Given that they are just beginning to recover from a prolonged summer dormancy, I don't think they have the reserved energy to recover from a freeze as well.

It doesn't look like you trimmed the top back to compensate for the root loss. I know it hurts to cut off branches when the plant is in full bloom, but if you don't do some pruning, the entire plant may wilt and drop leaves and flowers. You might even lose some of the branches. You can root the cuttings you take. What remains of the root system won't be able to support that sized top. I've had entire plants die back almost to the ground from the shock.

Hi Betty, I see by your zone that you are much warmer than we are. I hope your cold will be put off for a while so you can get your outside work taken care of.

no we haven't trimmed the plant yet. Last year it did lose all it's leaves because of the temps where we keep it. It is going to a similar place this winter. Not below freezing but some days in the low 40's. We plan to do some of the trimming after it is moved to its winter home. It didn't get as cold as predicted last night it is 31 right now.