I have these huge leaves on the brugs. I was wondering if it will hurt if I cut them back. I started cutting the leaves off and wondered about it, so I quit. We cut them off in the spring when we put them out anyway. I have buds on everything, even a little Jesse Noel that's not more than 6 inches high. Will it take too much "food production ability" away if I cut these leaves off?
I need to get some light to the lower levels of the Jungle House. I don't know if DH noticed today, but I put several flats of passifloras in the fern house, lol. I guess he will see them when he waters in there tomorrow, but it will be too late to fuss about it then.
A leaf question
I've been cutting the leaves off all winter - everything but the top 2 or 3 newest leaves in an effort not to have aphids etc. Even the bazillion CG and FP cuttings packed 6 to a gallon pot. Just about every P+C cutting from last fall has buds. As far as I can see it hasn't harmed them in any way. It's really kind of satisfying removing the leaves and dumping them in the recycle bag. You're going to strip off every leaf when they go outside in spring anyway.
Liz, why do I strip them all off to go outside? this is my first spring with them remember!
~Well, either the wind or the sun will get them. Indoor leaves are no match for the real world. You can leave the big leaves but it'll break your heart when you see what happens when they go outside. Won't hurt the plant - will just make the gardener feel awful.
but they will still have to be hardened off, right??
TiG, it's not a pretty sight. The second year I had brugs and after overwintering this huge pot of Charles Grimaldi in the green house, I set it outside on a lovely spring day. By evening, all the tops were broken out and any leaves that were left were sunburned. It broke my heart and I cried. It did recover, grew to about 8 feet tall and bloomed all summer, but if I'd removed the leaves first, it would have bloomed sooner because the tops wouldn't have been broken by the wind.
Hummmmmmmmmmmmm!
crys
Mar 11, 2002
Your breaking my heart! I have been so careful to not knock off any leaves and now you say they will just fall off anyways. I have a fan in the sunroom blowing down will this help?
Or will the leaves just fall off anyways. I always harden off my plants for two weeks prior to them being outside for summer.
Crys
Oh, I have been just beside myself when a leaf falls off and now I should have been taking them off? When you sit them outside you should take off all the leaves? I may have to have someone else do that because I would feel like a mean Mom doing that.
i has been setting my brugs out during the day. in a protected spot not to bad on the wind mostly. i did loose a small plant i had staked it broke in half. but what about the buds on them will the wind knock them off?
Farmgirl, that's why you take the big leaves off, to give less resistance to the wind and it won't damamge them so badly. It's like a sail boat with the sails up, they catch all the wind, but when you put the sail down, the wind doesn't move the boat. Hope this helps.
I always keep the leaves picked off like Liz does. Beside, if you want to make those trees like Monika has in her alley, you have to do it to get that straight tall trunk. I have some in the front room window that are two ft. tall and only have a couple of leaves at the top. They look funny, but they are straight and healthy.
ok i understand now. lol. i know what i am going to do when i go outside today. thanks
And to think I was so proud of my self because my brugs weren't bare- naked,and now you're telling me to strip them!!!
CC - you don't have to do it in the winter. Mine are in the GH so what they look like doesn't matter. I just do it to keep the bug population down. If you have them in the house as house plants they'll obviously be more attractive with leaves. It's a personal preference thing.
I stripped mine when I brought them in and my family (especially know it all SIL :) thought they weren't doing real well. I wanted to strip them again to keep downt the bugs, but they're just so pretty. Told DH last night and he was disappointed, I think he's getting attached to then y'all!!!
LOL tiG, Funny how when you live in the middle of a mass of Brugs all winter you do tend to get attached.I caught my DH out in the GH yesterday bent over with the magnifying glass looking to see if there was any new buds on the Isabella. Since we put them out in the GH when he comes home from work instead of a "how was your day" I now hear"how are the Brugs doing? Any new buds?
Hey, root those leaves. Water and a Mcdonalds cup and a little warmth and you're in business.
Yes brugcrazy it is great. He's already thinking of taking the 2nd eight foot table out of the GH to make room for the smaller Brugs which will be going into larger pots this week.(I ordered 20 - 7gal. pots from a friend that has a nursery.)I never thought I'd see the day that he would give them more than half the GH and lose the room for his veggies and annuals.
Not the veggies-ahh, that is bad. I don't think I could give up my veggies for my Brugs. Have to keep my other ornamentals as well. Well, maybe for a few Apricot Queens, Esmeralda's, Rosalie's, Ocre's.....Quinde's....hmmm, perhaps. Nope, couldn't kids love the watermelon and cantalope too much and I love the tomatoes too much. Perhaps I could give up the corn though.
my brugs look like sticks now with little leaves little sticking up. but they are all outside on the south side of my gh. waiting to be planted in my new beds. at least this way when i plant them i won't knock off leaves and feel bad.
Every leaf I've tried to root dies,what exactly am I doing wrong???
CC, that was one experiment that even I failed at!! I have gotten the little buds that form above the leaf to root.
I don't know if it would help, but one time a long time ago, someone told me to re-shape the leaf by cutting it down in size so that it won't require as much energy to stay alive. Was just wondering if this might work with a brug leaf. I'm going to go try it tonight. Will know in a couple of days if it will work or not.
S.
Brugie, I tried leaving it whole, cutting it down to a little arrow shape, cuting it in half and just about any other way one could think of. Some stayed green for almost a month, but no roots and all of a sudden even those rotted.
Well, shucks. Maybe tiG should do this. She got the blue sky flower to root from a leaf. I got some coleus leaves to root, but they eventually died too. I think my green thumb has turned black.
Brugie, I've rooted coleus leaves and salvia leaves, achimenes and DH rooted an impatiens leaf and it's making a plant. I think we should assign this job to TiG.
I have rooted a Peaches & Cr. leaf, in water, waxed paper, rubber band, it formed roots, when I planted it, it leaned on the side of the pot, so I propped it up with a toothpick, the sharp end poked a hole in the leaf and it died, so never will waste so much time on a leaf again!
don't give me this job!!! LOL!! I'm sticking to seeds, cuttings and those side sprouts which are doing quite well btw. As long as it took the blue sky leaf to root, it couldn't be worth it!
Well, I guess I can't take it. Have to try. I'm off to my lab. (kitchen) Hope I don't get side tracked at the fridge.
Good luck Brugie. I'll keep my fingers crossed.I don't think a little snack on the way to the lab ever hurt an experiment.LOL
Hee hee, that's how I ended up doing one of my experiments. I spilled my drink on it and decided to use it for the experiment. When you spill coke on brug seeds, it makes this sticky syrupy mess!!
Well, I bypassed the fridge, but after peeling the stem of the leaf and reshaping the leaf with the scissors, potting it up, I headed back to the heat mat and WHOA!!! had to stop by the candy dish. Sticky fingers surely help things grow, especially when it is chocolate based. :-) Today the leaf is still nice and crisp. Crossing my fingers on this one. It is one of Eric's. Not sure which one as I got them from tiG. Tag said Isabella X pink. Eric, do you have any idea what the pink might be? Got these seeds back early last fall. The leaves are very fat and short. Not the pointy jagged type.
probably frosty pink, that's what I had then
Okay tiG, at one time you thought it might be aurea, but weren't sure. Your envelope went out today too......
we're talking seeds? tell me how long ago doll but I can't think of any of his that I have had that were marked pink. some marked Isabella x ?, but that's a long time ago:) I didn't even seal Eric's envelope when I sent it last week, it's getting bad.......
Eric, help here!!
tiG,
They were the ones marked Isabella X ?. I remember asking and you thought they might be a cross with a pink aurea but weren't sure. I would sure like to know what they were. I think you sent me about 10 seeds of his and they did very well. This was a long time ago........sounds like you are getting as bad as me. The brain just doesn't function some days.
S.
hmmmm, then they aren't the FP. those were marked that. If I said pink aurea, it's cause he did:)