When you take cuttings of your brugs before the freeze, do you cut all the way to the ground? Last year I pruned right after the freeze. Will brugs ever do like the confederate rose, the older the plant gets, it doesn't freeze the larger limbs (trunks) all the way to the ground? Or do they always freeze totally back? If I cut my Dr. Seuss all the way back I'll have a gazillion cuttings. Got a pretty good size frosty pink too.
when you take cuttings
Pam, i'm gonna try for that next year, if i can get some through this winter, i think i might be borderline enough to have a brug mostly survive through a light winter. you can cut back some stalks, and leave the others bloom until it frosts for sure.
i have a problem with brugs not blooming, don't know if it is because of freezing back or maybe like JT says a micronutrient gone missing. will have to sort that out somehow. it's probably my sand!
Back around hurricane whatever I put some fencing around the Dr. to keep the trunks from breaking off. I think I'm gonna leave it there and pile hay inside (it's about 4 or 5 feet high. Maybe that will keep it from freezing all the way. Then I might go ahead and cutback above that level. Reckon what the good Dr. would look like next year if that works. Bushier I guess. Maybe. Just don't want to lose him. He has been a joy to DH and myself and many other visitors.
A person I know(zone 7B) overwinters banana trees left in the ground and has nanas every yr. His method. He cuts the top 1/3 off and wraps the remaining trunk with several layers of newspaper, then he has a wire cage around this that he puts mulch in(leaves and pinestraw). Do not know if this would work on brugs, but probably would. A couple of things you might want to do: put a plastic covering on the top to keep everything dry, otherwise new roots would form along the trunk and/or root rot may occur if keep to wet, if the brug has a 'Y', I would try to keep it plus 5 or 6 nodes above the 'Y' because this is where next years blooms will develop. Hope this helps.
Unfortunately, the y's are way up there, probably 6-8 feet high. This plant has multiple trunks on a huge rootball. I hadn't thought about it rooting along the trunk. Maybe if I don't pack it real tight it will dry out between rains, but hopefully be enough protection against the cold. Anyone else with experience please speak out.
Hi Pam,
When I cut back my brugs, it is after a freeze and everything looks pretty dead. Then I cut back and since I already have it mulched lots and lots with pine straw, I add a little more to it to help protect it next time around. All of my brugs came back, but that was all of three four brugs. I just cannot cut mine back long as they are blooming - some of them have never bloomed and pods on them now. Course I am not an expert but it works for me in the deep south.
I have for the past 4-5 years cut my Dr. S down to about 6" above the ground. I didn't do this the first year, but after it froze it looked so ugly and depressing, I then cut it back. I had been told that it would come back, so I just didn't worry about it, I don't remember even mulching it. Then to my surprise, several new stalks came up from the roots the following year. I tried for 3 years unsucessfuly to root cuttings from it til I found Daves and learned how to do it. It is a waste just to let them die without taking cuttings before frost.
Hey Roz, Azalea,
I know what you mean Roz, about cutting them while they still look good. I can't stand the thought of it. But I figured if I wait til after they are hit with a freeze, they wouldn't be any good to root. I'll just have to brace myself knowing they are gonna die back anyway. But I want to wait til right before it's gonna freeze. Been keeping an eagle eye on the weather. I've got 3 I know that have never bloomed and have tiny bloom pods right now. One is in a pot, so hopefully it will make it.
That's kinda what I was feeling too, Azalea. I could root a bunch of cuttings and fill up my couple of acres with angels and have plenty of cuttings to share if anyone wanted them. DH has already informed me I don't have enough room for all my plants. No greenhouse yet. He's gonna help me build one sometime, just probably not before this winter hits.
Pam, How about if you just cut off a branch or so to root- mine are so big now that I would not evern miss a branch and golly, you can get lots of rooted cuttings from just a branch - but make sure it is a blooming branch so it will bloom sooner- I think that is right. The plants I got from you last year at the Fla. plant swap have just been great.
Hey Roz,
The banana I got at the swap has grown wonderfully. I think that was from you wasn't it? Everything I got has done well actually.
Guess I might better do what you suggested about just taking a couple of branches or I'll be caught at the last minute with too much to handle. Or I'll be out of town and not get it done at all and then regret it.