I have a brug in danger! Help me!
My butterfly is soft at the top and is leaning over. What does this mean? How can I revive her? I don't want to lose her! It's not a cutting but it's a small but well rooted plant.
Emergency!
Don't water her. I had a L'Amour that did the same thing. I just let it die back and it did go back to the Y. Now it is fine and putting up new growth. I would sure like to know why it happens.
Uh oh, I just did. I thought it was b/c it was too dry! Mine is just a little 5" plant, no Y!
So did it revive after you watered it?
Also you can just lift the pot up and see if heavy or light. If light, water. If I am unsure what the problem is, I take mine out of the pot and look the roots. If they are waterlogged, I have even left the plant out of the pot to dry out just leave it in a shady place out of direct sunlight. Then I cut back any rotting roots. I repot it in more porous soil and smaller pot. Then I am so careful and only water when dry.
Can you repot it in drier soil?
I had it in kind of heavy soil but I stuck my finger in before I watered and the soil was on the dry side so I gave it a little water.
I just pulled it up to check on the roots and the roots look pretty good.... it hasn't been exposed to draft, insects or anything. It just up and went limp on me!
You and me both Shirley
Do you have a Cat?
I had a nice healthy cutting go limp and just die on me for no reason.
It was really sudden and just couldnt figure out what went wrong.
I checked out the roots and they seemed fine but upon getting it closer
to my face! I could detect that Oh so kitty spray smell..... Just a thought.
You know Kin, I suspect you are on to something. I have a cat and there are any number of strays around. I'm going to check the cat situation closely this growing season!!
Well, I have never seen this myself and I hope I do not. This is what I would do, but what do I know? LOL
If it looks like you are going to lose it, I would cut it low, way below the limp part, get a good, clean cutting plus still have some stalk on the rootball, and then go from there. But hold off until it looks like you are going to lose it. Maybe it is what Brugie had, and it will stop on its own.
GOOD LUCK!!! But do not get too worried, lots of us have BF and I am sure one if us will share a piece of it if yours takes the low road.
I have caught a few cats spraying on my Brugs during the summer.
I think they dont like the smell of them maybe or they are marking
their territory to warn other cats this is my tree and my bird watching
area. Stay Away!!! LOL
The Brugs were ok (well develped roots). Now the cutting was young
and had tender rooting system and it couldn't handle the Kitty Pee.........
At least that is what I thought and came to that conclusion of the incident.
Oh Gee it sounds as if I'm writing up an incident report for work or
something..LOL
I could see where cat pee could burn the roots. I have 4 cats. So far so good. Though one of mine does sharpen her claws on my brugs. I can get long scratch marks down their trunks. She picks certain ones and does it over and over again!
Nope, no cats. I went to check on it again and the mushy top came right off like it was already torn...? Maybe it'll be ok but if not, it's not like it's not replaceable!
I guess I did the right thing....
I brought a brug back from my daughter's in Chicago and it had been pulled out by it's ears and left on the cellar floor. I found it coughing in December and it looked just like you described. Well, it came home to FL with me in the ambulance, (airplane, I don't want you think I'm entirely nuts) and I started hydrating it a little at a time, meager amount of soil clinging to its frail roots, still in it's saranwrap bandage. The top looked rotted off and there were no leaves. Well, lo and behold, within a few days I could see little growths popping and then the tiny leaves emerged. At this point I planted it in the garden and it's doing great. I have been afraid to cut the droopy thingy off for fear of any more shock to the plant.
So keep heart, the will to live is very strong.
Nancy Lee
Sometimes when a person takes a brug cutting and trims the top they leave a piece of stem with no leaf node at the top. This will always rot down to the first or second leaf node and usually stops. The piece will just "fall off" clean like it was cut.
I'll keep you all updated on the patient!