Ok, our brugs are winding down now, but we NEED something to look at, don't we? How about if we dig out our 'tree' shots to help us plan and dream for next year? What form, one trunk or two? How to prune for better shape?
Nat, I know you have some. Let's compare shapes.
This is my Gypsy Queen again, her right trunk is bowed quite a bit. Will it help if I sink her deeper next year?
I have had that same problem with my brugs in containers. It seems that once I plant brugs in the ground, they grow thicker and stronger trunks.
Of course, you may find that as this brug matures, the trunk will grow thicker even if kept in a pot.
I personally prefer the standard shape with one trunk but have several that are bush like. This next year, I plan to keep more of mine shaped as standards.
Here's my favorite tree and brug, Whiskers.
It's not quite straight, but that's because I didn't stake it when it was growing up.
When I root 3 to 4 foot suckers I now tie them to a bamboo stake and make it grow straight.
I have also noticed that if you keep more than one trunk they will push each other side ways to get room for the top growth.
You GQ looks great!
Kris
Now that's a tree!
How badly did you have to cut it back?
Here is my Double Peach. Single trunk. Even tho it did get quite tall this year, it took until October to bloom. I'm hoping for better results next year.
This is what it looks like now.
I had to cut it back twice to get it in the door. I had to take a few branches in and turn it etc.
I like how the Y has 3 branches. Can't wait to see it next summer.
There's another Whiskers and a Jamaican Yellow next to it on the right and Shredded White on the left.
I have some fluorescent shoplights hung over them.
It is great to see the pictures of all your tree shapes. I notice on some of them there are no leaves or branches on the lower stalk. Is that because you remove them to make a better looking tree trunk.
also I just got home today from VA visiting my daughter. The first thing I had to do was go check on my brugs and other plants. The quite tall Pink Beauty still looks quite good. The buds are 5 or 6" long, but when i felt of them they feel hollow, so I guess because of moving the brug inside somehow the buds are not developing correctly and will not produce a bloom, am I right in this assumption. Donna
What a great idea for a thread Vi!
My favorite shape is an alley trees. Then you can underplant. I believe in cramming in all you can. I find my best alley trees are either from seedlings or suckers that I let grow on the mother plant until it is as tall as I want. Then I cut it off. You need to stake them early if you want them straight. They curve fast and then they harden!
Here are 3 new ones on my front porch that I just cut from their mothers last week.
Rutholive, that is the calyx you are feeling. The flower will slowly work it's way down from inside the top of the calyx until it pokes out of the bottom.If you hold a flashlight behind the calyx you should be able to see the flower up towards the top of it.
Here is a picture of my EP tree.
kell, when you say you wait to cut them off, is there a reason for that?
Won't they continue growing no matter what?
I have potted some suckers and even they started to Y at 3'.
I like the look of the alley trees, I just don't want them so tall that I can't smell the flowers!
Gee Vi, I find the ones I cut early do not get that tall. So now I wait till they get as tall as I want them before I cut them! It could be that I have not cut many short ones off to get a good sample.
So you cut alley trees at what, 6 or 7 feet? More?
Snowhermit, thanks for your help on the bud situation, maybe I will get a bloom or two. Your EP is beautiful. When can you plant outside, must be later than me here in zone 5a. Donna
You're welcome Donna. And thank you.
I can't plant outside till the end of May but last year the cold weather lasted longer so I didn't plant out till almost the second week of June.
It makes a very short growing season.:(
Well Vi, I like them as tall as possible. I let them go till they Y then anytime after that I just cut them.
If I am really organized I put moss around the bottom and hold in place with tight silver foil. After about 1 month I cut it off below the silver foil and that makes it wilt much less as the roots have already started. Here is one rootball from one on the porch that you see in pic above. They all have their Y over 6 feet.
Okay guys, where's all y'all's trees?
I don't have many, but that still seems to be more than the rest of you have (yes, sure!).
Here's my big Jamaica Yellow.
Kris
Here is a Dr. Suess from a couple of years ago. I did keep this one over and it was a lot taller the next year, but only because I cut it back to far and it had to do a lot of growing to make another Y. I'm learning.
Here is the same plant a year ago this summer. I gave it away at the end of the season.
Going through this thread is an education! In fact, it stumps me, and I like to think that I have enough basic plant sense to figure new stuff out. Wrong!
I am seeing a whole tree form blooming brug grown in zone 4, maybe 6' tall? Really? Wow. This is from a previous year's cutting rooted over winter, or a young potted plant, or how is it done?????
On the discussion of cutting and wrapping, kell, are you saying that you cut a ring around a trunk, leaving it on, wrap it in moss and foil, and let it form roots before completing the cutting a month or so later?
Excuse my dumb, guys, but this is fascinating. I have a half a dozen brug cuttings a friend very kindly sent me, in water in the garage, and am trying to visualize what to do with these monsters next spring/summer in zone 7a. All help gratefully received!
Peter
Brugie, hope it went to a good home. Peter, yes, there are many teachers here. I just love it.
It did Linda. Kyle took it. When they get taller than my garage ceiling, they have to go or be whacked back. The worst part was that I forgot to take a cutting for myself before I let it go and didn't even miss it until spring. Luckily my good friend Renee had an extra for me.
Peter, for the most part, I start fresh every year with cuttings from the fall before. I don't have a working greenhouse over the winter months up here and I can manage cuttings in the house. Right now I have about 200 cuttings inside and am now getting started with seeds. Needless to say, I'll be anxious for spring and planting weather. The cuttings grow quite a bit, but most don't get over a couple of foot tall before I put them out. I will be cutting back on the numbers once I start potting up rooted cuttings since I only need one of most and a couple of some. I can usually plant out here around the first of May and have to be ready for everything to come inside by the first of October.
Peter, The EP tree was a plant that I held over from the previous year.
This picture was taken on 8/12/03. The two rows on the left are seedlings which sprouted the end of Jan.
The rows on the right are cuttings taken from the previous fall.
WOW, that's a real Brug Farm!
Here is an old pic.still have this tree.
DD Sarah,with Shirleys Pink.
This message was edited Dec 4, 2003 5:46 AM
Rutholive, Here is a 'Brug Sonogram' lol
I loved all you folk's brug trees and it is an inspiration to me to try to grow a few trees next year. Great pictures.
scooterbug. thanks for the sonagram, My buds look good, it's just that they feel hollow. Actually guess I never felt of the buds on CG, so nothing to compare with. Donna
Thanks for the details, Brugie, and for the awesome pictures.
You really do have a beautiful garden, and the plants look wonderfully green, large-leaved and healthy! I continue to be amazed at what you folks in zones 4 and 5 can do with cuttings - and even seedlings! - in one season. Can't wait.
Oh, and the greedy me is here, too, Brugie.......if you have extra rooted cuttings each year when you only want one of a variety, don't throw them away! Is that a subtle hint, or what?!
Peter
Will see what I have later when I start potting. Can let you know what is what, hopefully before Christmas.
Peter,
No, I do not bother with all of that. Sometimes, like 2 weeks ago LOL, I do not even bother rooting the big trees at all. I just cut them off at the base and stick them in a 5 gallon pot of wet dirt. And then I don't water again until I absolutley have to! I also cut off all the big leaves and all the top growth above the Y to about 16 to 24 inches depending on how many growth spurs there are. I them wet the inside of a plastic garbage bag and put it over the top foliage and secure it well and this keeps the foliage left from wilting.
However, if I am a good brug mother, I put wet moss around the base of a brug tree, cover it completely with a piece of silver foil. I use the big heavy kind. I squench it at the top and at the bottom so it is tight. And when I water, I water over the silver foil just in case it is not airtight and it is drying out. After about 1 month or 6 weeks, I peel back the foil and usually there are lots of roots. In the summer it goes even faster. No prep work on the trunk at all!
This tree, Rosamond, was a sucker tree that I cut off at base just like I discuss above and stuck right into a 5 gallon pot.
Scooterbug..............LOL!!
Donna ,notice on the sonogram the flower has descended down to the bottom of the bud, It bloomed 2 days later.
... When it started a couple of weeks earlier it was at the top, inside of the bud.
..... Inside, the unborn flower is attatched by a long thread ,like a umbilical cord....Inside the bud where the cord is attatched at the other end of the bud is where the seed pod will grow if it gets polinated. I'm sure this cord has a name but I don't know what it is.
§
Gee, I can't believe that no one else can find a good tree photo! I love a big canopy, but haven't seen a great one from a single trunk yet.
C'mon and show me!
Mine is not big,this is Doc Suess.About the best I can do.
Pristine. This one is over six foot. That is the best I can do.
Great Root! I needed to see that idea again, wish I had a spot to do that. Which varities hung over?
Was your DS a single trunk?
DS is a single now,I am working on a new type of wallbrug this year.last year I kept them away from the light so they would bend,now I may have one that will lean on it's own.
Root, that is a great looking bed of brugs!
Shirley, I really like the look of Pristine.
And Kell, your's are always great.
Vi, I'm a little offended here, what's not great about my Whiskers? It has one trunk.
Kris, I think your Whiskers is beautiful. She is one of my favorite yellow brugs and the fragrance on her is just about the best.
Holy Smokes!!!I just did a head count down stairs,(Don't ask,so I have a problem,I know it,LOL!)
I don't have a Whiskers,I must have lost the cutting from last fall.(of course every time I go down,I find a different one,I'm at 41 now.I said I have a problem,OK,that's why we are here.)
After seeing yours S,I will have to look for one,thank goodness my have to have list sure got smaller,after writing down what is here.
I can't even make myself write down what I have. I'm afraid it would scare me to death. Just thinking about all the pots I'll have to fill in the spring is scary. At least my seedlings will go in rows in the garden, but the big ones, I want to have so I can move them around for best results when they are blooming. 41 is a pretty good number. You might even have me beat.
