Well I finished removing the lower leaves off the brugs. Following my inspiration from Irish. As I was working sitting on a skateboard, I guess I wasn't seeing them from above. Now I know why my kids used to run like the wind when I offered to cut their hair.
I guess I got carried away - pompom brugs LOL. I'll sure be able to see the blooms now.
I have an LBJ hybrid that has 47 buds, and about 10 leaves.
Like a really bad hair day.
Poodle cut
Liz, most of mine need a hair cut badly. Just to hot to go out and do it.
liz... now you should have a lot of cuttings started
liz, the heat stress has taken off lower leaves of a lot of mine in pots the old fashioned way, yellow first then gone. they probably look fine, just a shock.
Jeanne - you sent me lots of LBJ seed last spring - when I couldn't germinate a seed if my life depended on it. This is the only one that survived. Labelled as J-LBJ1. The blooms have broken through the calyx - look yellow tonight, who knows tomorrow.
My pruning technique - take off any leaves with the wormy thing holes, anything with aphids, then the leaves that balance the ones that came off. Voila! you're left with a brug buzz cut.
Liz, I'm going to have to order ladybugs for the conservatory. The aphids arrived in droves when I was gone for the last few days. Gave the brugs a pretty good buzz cut too. And outside there must be something putting holes in the leaves but I can't find any bugs. These plants can test a girl's patience. Luckily the blooms are gorgeous.
See what happens when you go away? In the last 5 days the green wormy things have arrived, the aphids are making a run and the dreaded earwigs have become the bug du jour.
47 buds!!!! at one time??? What is the record and on what brug?
notice how much taller they look after a nice haircut???
Yes I did haircut on my brugs. Now they look funny like a long skinny leg with hairs on top.. LOL.. On Jessie Noel, Long leg with (Y) on top and there are three buds.. I did not notice until this morning.
just how far up should we take off the leaves? I notice that I'm having problems with getting water down to the bottom, but don't want to take off too many.
Kell, Eclipse posted some pictures awhile back taken in San Diego. Hundreds and hundreds of blooms.
Last year I had over 130 big buds and blooms at the same time on Shirley's Peach. That is the most I've ever had on a brug, but it was 7 ft. tall and 8 ft. wide. Lots of trunks too. I don't normally let my brugs grow that way, but it was in the ground and I wanted to see what would happen with it. You should have seen us trying to get it out of the ground. Whew!!
No, actually I stood back and watched my niece dig it up. Once loose, it took both of us to pull it the rest of the way out of the ground. Thought we would end up on our butts. She took it home and kept it over the winter. I was going to let it go and just keep cuttings. Too big for me to handle. Jim has lung problems and one shovel of dirt would have him gasping for air.
It must have been such a glorious site Shirley! It grew that big in just 1 season? How is it doing this year?
Margarette has it in a pot and it isn't as big, but has a lot of time to go yet. I think she is going to put it in the ground because she is having to water it 3-5 times a day now. I told her to set it under one of the air conditioners and let it drip constantly on it. Would save having to water so often. They live in a 4 story older home and have six window air conditioners. I know what I'd be doing with six of the pots.
"I told her to set it under one of the air conditioners and let it drip constantly on it."
You are so clever Shirley!