I was too tired to kill him!

I am so beat! We took down the hoophouse today and moved 8 trees from the backyard to the front thru a walkway made narrow by big trees and bushes. The brug trees are all in heavy clay pots but I had not watered in several days and they were drooping! My DH put one at a time on a dolly and took off like he was in a race. They got so battered. He acted like he hated them. What a thought! I finally cried UNCLE and decided to leave the rest in the back yard! LOL

I bleached and scrubbed all my 24 inch saucers that I kept under these last summer as well as huge clay pots to pot up my new suckers. Hard work.

I trimmed these way down. Next weekend, I will cut off the suckers, root trim and repot in same pot but in fresh dirt....then done until fall move to the backyard.
Oh, and straighten them a bit! LOL
My driveway, half an alley!

My CG. 4 years old. I bet by June it will be in full bloom!

Wow, you were one busy lady! Don't kill him, just hurt him a little bit. Looking good Kell, it won't be long hopefully and we can all do that. It will be a couple more weeks here, before I feel safe bringing mine out.

I bet he was just in a hurry to get inside to watch the game. They will grow back really fast and be blooming before you know it.

Me too.. I carried all my brugs myself!!!! DH won't help! I kept telling him, buy me a big gardenwagon so I can put all in and pull it.. He looked at me and dont think I need it..

I wish mine looked that good. I've found it is easier to do it all myself than to try to pry anyone away from a ball game or golf. I always got "after the game I will" and that wasn't always the case. Now that Jim can't help due to a medical condition, I have to do it myself and there is no one to yell at but me if something goes wrong, and it has. Kell, your place will again be awesome. Don't worry so much. Stress is too hard on us.

Wow, Kell. Can't wait to see them bloom. Don't your clay pots dry the soil quickly or do you have yours sealed? I have a few big clay pots for other plants but the kept me busy last summer watering them.

In a few weeks Kell it will look so beautiful out there just like it did last year and the year before. It will be okay ... it really will.

I just remembered I am leaving soon to see my Mom so I better retrieve him from my hit list! LOL. I need him more than he needs me!

Ada, yes the clay does dry out faster but I solved this problem last year. I bought the biggest plastic saucers I could find. They are for the giant pots HD carries. Their sides are about 6 inches high. Last summer I would water enough to fill the saucer and the clay pot would wick it u and they would stay wetter! I also put mosquito dunks in each saucer so I did not have to worry about mosquitos laying their eggs in them.

Prebrugs, I had gotten rid of all my plastic pots. I hate the look of plastic. Now i have those black ones all over!

That's what Wave petunias are for. They hide a lot of plastic pots. So do Sweet potato vines and torenia. I've become so used to black plastic that I don't even notice it anymore. It is just part of the landscape decor.

Yeah, what Tracey said, just hurt him a little! In your climate, you HAVE to trim them back often, don't you? It's always nicer to be able to CHOOSE when to trim them back though!

I brought out all of the brugs except for baby seedlings and newly rooted cuttings last week. We had a big thunderstorm Saturday night, but only one plant got knocked over, and it only lost one small branch. Now they're predicting cold temps for a couple of nights, and the closer it gets, the lower the predicted temps are going. I probably should have waited a little bit longer to bring them out, but they were begging to go outside! I'll probably bring in the ones with buds, but not the whole bunch.

Maybe if you covered them with a sheet Ronna? I did that this winter and it sure worked for me.

I prune them all now to very short stems because I root prune severely in spring to be able to repot them in the same pot size and not move up. My problem with Tom's ruthless method of transportation was that some had lots of huge pods on them. My biggest pod on my Creamsickle fell off somewhere on the mad dash from the backyard to the front. I should go back out and look for it now.

That is true Brugie esp. with all the bottom plantings I do! LOL

Kell, did your plants recover? Is your hubby still sleeping in the doghouse?