I know very little except what I have read on here about brugs... I would absolutely love trying to grow one, in memeory of my MIL (seeing as how she was and is an angel) Can anyone tell me if there are any that are hardier than others? I have looked on PDB, but my word there are so many, and I didnt see any with a hardiness below 7. I also tried a search, but I didnt come up with anything, as far as a hardiness for them on the forums. I have seen a couple people with a zone of 5 and 6, and was hoping someone could suggest if any what would be a good one to try. TIA, and I so respect all you gardeners, and all the hard work you do!
Shelly
Hope I dont offend anyone
Shelly, you won't find one that's hardy to zone 5. If you do... I want one! :) You can grow them and bring them indoors for the winter. I let most of mine go dormant last winter in my basement. In the spring I lugged the pots back outside and they started growing again.
BTW, Welcome to DG!
I have a extra brugmansia called Maya here is a picture of a mature plant. http://brugmansias.com/showpicture/10495/ It has variegated foliage. I also have some small plants that I didn't label when I took cuttings (thought I'd remember what they were) so it's a mystery until they bloom. Your welcome to them for postage if you'd like to try a brug now. I know in the fall everyone offers cuttings for postage as well. Kristi
Here is a link to overwintering brugmanisas inside. http://www.americanbrugmansia-daturasociety.org/brugmansia_winter.htm
Wow Susie! That is a great read! I have a question though. With all these named ones out, how would you know if you have and insignis or versicolor, since it says they do not store well below 54 degrees? I'm still pondering that greenhouse thing and I am wondering what it would cost me to heat 40-50 degrees. I hate to use kerosene so close to the house and I think electric might be pricey. And I am still trying to decide what materials would be best. Back to the original question, is it possible to find out what type of brugs we have?
Michele, the price of kerosene might scare you too. I think it comes graded, but the better stuff is over $3 a gallon here. Versicolor blooms hang straight down and are usually fairly long. Insignis blooms will nod some. Yours from Kyle has Versicolor in it. I think I would be afraid to let that one get very cold.
Here is a chart about brug ID http://www.americanbrugmansia-daturasociety.org/description_and_identification_o.htm
LOL Shirley! And here I am thinking about retiring again. LOL We sign off on the refi this week and all is well in Micheleville!! Thanks much for your answer. You were helpful as usual. :) I wintered my big white one (actually all of them) in the spare bedroom last year, but we are out of those!! I think they would even do fine in the garage if need be, but there is no light-two small windows and two reg light fixtures.
What can you tell me about your greenhouse(s) anyone? I'm most interested in pvc/lumber, plastic/glass/or? and how is it heated, attached/free standing. I will go do some reading on the greenhouse forum too.
Another question...could I put a bunch of the smaller brugs, rootball and all into large rubbermaid totes? I think it was Monika that said she dropped hers (rootball) into large trash bags to store them.
Shelley, I hope you don't mind me jumping on your thread. If people send you brugs, I think you may end up with all these questions yourself as you are a zone cooler than I am.
Shelly, I have a number of brugs rooting and some that have rooted already. I would be happy to send you more than one. They are small and would be easy to overwinter. Just click on my name to email me. I will be gone until Sunday evening but I will get back to you then.
PoppySue- Thank you for the welcome! Thank you for the info! I am glad to know I can grow them in pots at least! Im excited to try.
Very shortly after I joined DG, I was driving home from the middle of downtown Denver mind you, and I see this beautiful brug, next to a building. I got so excited because I KNEW they didnt do well in this zone, and I had already seen so many beautiful pics here on DG. As Im running all this through my mind, and absolutely blown away that one would grow here, I ummm lets say "bumped" into the back of another car. LOL I was so busy looking at the brug, ahem.. I didnt watch the road. :o)
DatDog- I would LOVE to try some! I will email you! Thank you bunches for the offer!
Calalily- Perfect link! Thank you! I printed it out, and plan on using it! I saw the German writing, and was thinking, gosh its a good thing I know German! LOL (too early maybe for a Sat) for me to be up!
Thank you all again!!!
Now I had to go and finally start a Brug folder! LOL Thanks for the info Susie. I saved it.
Shirley, the tendrils are hanging out on my new six flowers. LOL I am so glad for this brug!! They should be open in a day or two. And there are two more buds to replace each of those! :)
I need to get out there and make a list of what I have because I don't even know anymore!
Okay, going to dig grasses for CC before she thinks she will never get them. :O
Chele, my first greenhouse was PVC pipe. The only problem you would have is it colapsing in the winter from snow load. My second gh was lumber and it worked great. Finally we got a "real" greenhouse with a metal frame. I loved the metal framed one. It had double layer plastic with a little fan to inflate it for insulation, a gas fired furnace with a thermostat and heat mats on the floor for the things that needed it warmer.
Gosh badseed NO I absolutely dont mind! I love it! I am learning so so much! I know I will have a zillion questions too... honestly... what a smart great man Dave is! This is the best site!! LOL badseed! I have started a binder for daylilies, and now am working on one for brugs! This info is truely priceless... gosh, could you imagine the books we would have to buy, and the useless info we would have?? Here we can just print up what we each need. ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT!
LOL Shelly! I am glad you are a good sport. If you are gonna grow brugs you are gonna need patience and a sense of humor. ;) Sometimes it is hard to ask the right question and even harder sometimes to find the answer if it was already posted.
Thanks a bunch Susie! Susie, do you mean like conduit or aluminum/steel pipes? That would be doable and probably not ridiculously high. Now the plastic is another story! LOL And the heat and the fan and ..............okay, I am gonna go get a hernia for CC now. LOL
Badseed, it was pipe similar to the framework for chain link fences. There is a place here that will bend them for greenhouses. The jungle house had six foot sidewalls, but the cold frame had just the bows. For the Jungle House, Bill bought coupling thingies to attach the bows for the top to the sides. The sides were just the straight pipes.(does this make sense?) here is a picture that was taken when we were recovering the house.
Wow! Thank you! Say, how many brugs were injured for this production?? LOL I cannot believe the amount of plants sticking out!
Badseed, it was really bad. I had to chop them way back so they could get the cover on. Some I cut below the Y but it didn't seem to hurt them, they came right back out and bloomed as fast as the ones not cut below the Y. The vines were the worst. They had wrapped around everything, especially the thungergia grandiflora and some of the passifloras were a mess.
It was even worse when we sold the ghs and I had to move all my stuff here. They didn't seem to mind, they've recovered nicely and are full of blooms and buds.
Yeah Susie, but you have the touch! LOL
WOW, now that's a greenhouse full. Thanks for all the great information.
datdog, would you happen to have another cutting of Maya? I just love variegated foliage.
My greenhouse is 10x12x18 and is made out of one of the metal frames that you can buy at wal-mart or sams club. They usually are sold with a tarp to cover them. I just assembled the frame and closed it in with opaque fiberglass.
It is going on 2 years old and has served it's purpose very well.
This past winter I used an electric heater which was not very safe at all considering the fact that I had it plugged into an extension cord. But it got me through safely. Knock on wood.
This year will be different. I started looking today at lowes and home depot for propane heaters and found exactly what I was looking for at both places. These heaters are not very expensive and are ventless and thermostatically controlled and also come in natural gas or propane models. Just what I was looking for,so i'll be getting one of those within a few weeks and get it installed.
If you go to the greenhouse forum here on Dave's and look for a thread about GH heating you can find a link to see these heaters. I'd do the hyperlink thing here but don't know how.
Thanks Cat! What kind of fiberglass did you use, what form? How are the prices? I have seen those metal skeletons relatively cheap. To hyperlink, just go to the page you want to copy, right click in the addy bar and choose copy. Then go to wherever you want to post the link and right click in the box and paste.
Badseed,
I don't know a name for it but it was the cheapest that lowes had at the time. Around $8-9 per panel. I know my local home depot no longer stocks that particular color so I need to check with lowes or use another color to do my planned gh expansion
Is it the corrugated stuff like for patio roofs?
That is what I used on mine Michele. It works great and with the bubble insulation for greenhouses, it heats pretty easy too.
"bubble insulation"? Mine sounds the same. Last year I didn't heat it (my electric bill was high enough just for the house) and lost some things in our 10-20 degree weather. That was "before brugs". I have room for some inside, but will it be too warm? I'll try some in the ground but understand that they are later blooming the next year.
Cat, what heater are you looking at?
Bubble Insulation......this is where I got mine.
http://www.charleysgreenhouse.com/catalog/index.cfm?page=_SearchResults
Oh you wanted to know if it was corrugated or not. Yes it is.Corrugated fibrerglass panels like you would cover a patio with. My GH is not insulated but I did buy some of the foam in a can and sealed along the roof and wall joints.
It's not completly air tight but our winters here are not extreme either. We don't get snow and only days sometimes a week or so with temps dipping into the 20's other than that it's not too cold here.
This past winter was my first using this GH and I didn't loose anything and it was an extra cold winter for us this year. I did have minimal damage to a brug that ws snugged up against a wall but it survived with about six inches of tip pruning. Other than that no damage to anything and I had a large asssortment of plants in there including plumeria and hibiscus.
David, what did your frame cost? was it a garage type frame?
Seed, how did you overwinter your brugs in the extra bedroom last year? I think that's probably how I'll have to keep mine.
But, I'm also following this thread with great interest with the remote possibility of considering an affordable and "I" can do/build greenhouse.
Cala, did you have information on building a pvc greenhouse? I laughed when I read Seed's post about starting a new folder ~ was that hard copy or windows folder, Seed? lol...
Anyway, I'm looking for the same info & was just curious if you had a document about the greenhouses, Cala.
Thanks :)
I am seriously thinking about Cats plan. I just don't know if I will do it this year or not. I may just have to let them go dormant in the basement or garage for this year. I have hit the point of fed up where I will probably quit my job. I had wanted to just cut back, but they keep switching our hours and the regular bull. Last year I just kept them in a bedroom that gets a lot of sun through the windows but not enough to really make them put on a lot of new growth. I only gave sparse water when the soil completely dried out. You want to be careful to not over water or feed when they are semi-dormant or dormant. Otherwise you risk them rotting or putting out soft growth which won't hold up once they go back outside.
Thanks, Seed. Sorry 'bout the job ~ it would probably only get worse with the holidays coming. Maybe you could negotiate with them since they certainly will need reliable people with the holidays coming....
Your information about keeping the brugs in a room is very helpful. I wasn't sure if I should take a cutting and start over or try to maintain the plants as they are. It's tough to decide and I wonder how most people do it? Do that many DG people have greenhouses? It's a big stretch if we decide to do it.
One very distant thought is whether or not I can use my son's treeless tree house for this. It's made out of wood and is like a shed on stilts. We could make more windows for light... Just not sure if it would work...
Morph do you have a basement? I can't remember. You could always take cuttings to root upstairs since they would be smaller then stick the big plants in the garage or basement to go dormant. That way you have a bit of insurance.
Mmmm... I like that idea, but where would I cut the plant for cuttings without traumatizing it? Guess I thought it was an all or nothing deal if I decided to get cuttings...
I am definately NOT the expert Deb! LOL I believe you have to cut above the Y to get a plant that is going to flower quicker. What I told you above is just what I have read and been advised to do. My biggest brug Y'd last year and is over 7 feet tall. I'm hoping to bring it in again without cutting it back because it looks nice so big, but I think I may have to for rejuvenation or to get it to look better. Not sure. Hopefully someone wiser than I will be along. :)
tig,
those kits usually run around $139-49 here. I was fortunate enough to have had mine given to me by a neighbor just down the street. All of my wood for the boxing in was also given by another friend,the lighting was given by an uncle so all I had to buy was the fiberglass panels and that cost me around $400.I guess I should feel lucky that I have a greenhouse that size and all it cost me was $400 and a little bit off my time for assembly.
I know wal-mart and Sam's Club sale those kits,not sure if Kmart does or not. My dad is a welder and welded all of my framework together for me so my GH is really sturdy and is also tied down with mobile home tiedowns because of local building regulations.You need a permit here just to build new door steps should your old set break down (serious you do)
Morph, I'd seen someone elses PVC greenhouses and took DH to see them. It was easy construction, he drove rebar into the ground (2'inground 2' out)4' spacing and 12' wide. He bent 20'lengths of PVC pipe so that each end fit over the rebar. Then he framed the bottom in with 1X6 boards and U clamps around the PVC and screwed into the boards. He framed the ends in with 2X4 lumber and hung a door on one end. You then cover with plastic for GHs, be sure it's UV treated or it will shatter into a million pieces in a few months if it's not. He stapled the plastic to the boards.
You make it sound easy, Cala! Thanks for the tip on the plastic! I'm still contemplating possibility of transforming treehouse though it's small and far away from house especially if using house as electrical supply.
Hope I didn't take the thread too far off track ~ I'm sorry if I did. It's just that Seed is asking these questions that I really want to know, too. Seed, you're way ahead of me in the garden! You're an expert and don't know it :) Cutting to have a Y makes sense to me now. Other plants seem to grow stronger & better when pruned. I wonder if the same is true for brugs? We have a basement with no light.
Morph,
I kept a plant of charles grimaldi in my greenhouse over the winter. It was about 6ft tall when I put it in there in November. When we started having real cold temps in December it kind of quite growing as rapidly as it was before,but did no go completly dormant. Sometime during January we got a few nights that dropped down to around 16-17. That hurt the plant tips some but didn't do any major damage. I just cut 6 inches from the tips and by mid february it almost couldn't fit in the gh anymore. I finally moved it outin April and it's now over 11 ft tall. So pruning the brugs does encourage a lot of new growth but i've also been advised not to cut below your Y.
The thought has crossed my mind to donate my CG to a nursery that has a place large enough to accomaodate it for the winter because there is just no way it can go back in my gh with out some major pruning. The only way I could keep it and get it back in there would be to cut it all the way down to the Y.
And as for wintering over my plants,I am going to take cuttings of everything and keep in 1 gallon pots and if room permits i'll air layer some of my favorites just about a foot or so below the Y and keep them going for early bloom in the spring. The remainder of the cuttings will be shared with Dave's and BGI members for postage and the mother plants will all be left in the ground. I just don't have the space for or the time to try and winter over 60 something varieties of brugs during the winter. My poor little gh was packed last year and this year it'll be worse because instead of getting rid of some plants I just went crazy and more
Wow, thanks for all the details, Catsmeow! I think I'll probably do something similar but on a smaller scale. Save some plants, take cuttings of others. For the ones that haven't bloomed in the ground, I'm not sure what I'll do yet. No signs of blooming either. The potted brugs did SO MUCH better. I find that very interesting!
Thanks again for sharing your approach. I need a lot of advice right now!