I didn't know Isabella had huge flowers. I guess I really didn't notice the flower size before. I was worried about this one because I accidentally girled the trunk when I used the velcro ties and failed to remove one. I'll never use those again. Now I use the green plastic stretchy ties. Anyway, I was worried that I would have to cut below the girled portion, but now it looks like the girled part is filling out again. Has that ever happened to you?
Here she is next to Solid Gold:
So big and beautiful!!! Thanks for taking the time to share with us.
Judy
beautiful.... they are large on it..
And look at the color definition. Amazing. I think this is the best Isabella I have ever seen. I love the huge flat dinner plate look. CC has one I think called First Day that I just fell in love with last year. I need to pot it up and move it to a place of honor this year to get it really going with the blooms.
Your Solid Gold is lovely too Clare!
Thanks all:-) Kell, I agree with you about the color definition. I've never seen one like this either. I'm going to have to start paying more attention to Isabella!
Yes Clare, that happened to me the first year I started using the copper wire around the base. I foolishly though if I just wrapped and did not tie, that the wire would spread, but it didn't. I had a horrible wound, to the point that it was trying to grow over the wire. I removed it & it did not take long before it healed itself to the point of not being able to see where it happened.
Your picture is lovely, I can hardly wait for mine to bloom now that I know what it will look like! :~)
Thanks, Donna, for letting me know that it happened to you too. It is good to know that it will heal itself over time. For a while there, I was thinking that I would have to cut just below the girlded point and start over, but I'm glad now that I don't have to.
I don't think you will have to, as long as no cooties slip in unawares. :~)
I think you are right. It does look like it has puffed out a bit since I removed the velcro tie. I'm going to leave it alone for now. Thanks!
I love those velcro ties, Clare. I use them even on my seedlings. But you are right, they are deadly. This was my huge Rosamond last year. What a wound. But surprisingly, it has all healed up!!
This message was edited May 19, 2005 1:04 PM
Oh, wow, Kell! I didn't know you used those too! That looks exactly like what my Isabella looked like a few weeks ago, but it is starting to fill out now. Were you tempted to cut below it? Did it completely heal back to normal? I just don't want the area to be weak because it will surely break with the winds that we have as the top grows heavier.
I do not think it will be weak esp if it is on the trunk like mine is. It is not a natural break line.
It keloided. LOL. And see the other keloid higher up on the joint? That is where it got so top heavy 2 years ago it broke off just under the Y. Then it grow another 5 ft to Y yet again. This tree is huge. And that did not break off again over last year or the winter. Though I just lost a huge branch above that spot though due the same reason. It grows so fast up and then Ys too tall and can't handle the weight.
Great picture, Kell! I noticed on mine that it sort of puffed out on the opposite side of the girdled portion. Yours recovered nicely, and I bet mine will look the same. That is amazing about your growth and regrowth. These trees are amazing.
When I say they are easy, they really are. They will take lots of abuse. And they come back. I am always amazed at them. Very forgiving!!
Beautiful bloom, Clare. I love this one also. It's a good bloomer for me.
Wow, Kell. Look what you did to that poor Brug. LOL I don't usually find the velcro. You must buy it all. LOL
lovely blooms I just love that yellow, where do you buy the Velcro ties, I have never seen them.
Doris
Thanks Ada and Doris. Home Depot has the Velcro ties, but I won't use them again because they don't give at all if you are not on top of them. I also noticed with them that mealy bugs like to hide between the velcro and the plant. Yuck!
My Isabella survived being used as a litter box last season, but came VERY close to biting the dust and, I have her back in the ground in a different location, but she hasn't perked up since I planted her. I'm gonna try some SuperThrive. They photos are sooooooooo wonderful, I really hope I can save mine...
My cat uses my plants as a litterbox all the time. I never noticed any ill effects and always hoped it made good fertilizer eventually. My fingers are crossed for your Sherry! Like Kell says, these are tough plants, and I bet yours will be fine.
It is still early in the seaon Sherry, she might just perk up.
I agree Clare, they can be lethal. But I am too lazy to use anything else. I use this stuff all the time. I use a big enough piece that as the brug gorws and I repot and restake with bigger, I can use the same piece over again. I also only stick a small part together and I do not push them together so most of mine do give now when needed.
You can get it at HD as Clare said for under $3 though I have seen the same stuff on line for $12. I also use it on my roses to connect to the arbors or stakes.
I use velcro when the bruglets are very small. I use the wooden skewers. Tom and I have been known to fight over them on a Saturday afternoon when he is cooking and I am planting.
Can you make it out? it is sunny today!
LOL, Kell! I see what you mean!
I should have turned that plant around Clare!! LOL DUH to me.
I use the wooden sewers and the velcro too, and i use my velcro over and over too, I used it before brugs. I also grow variegated cane and I save every one for stakes, then I move up to the green rebar from Lowe's, which Monika told me about last year, after I had bought a slew of the rusty, heavy, iron rebar, whew, what a mess, but I'm using it too. I still have old fashioned tomato stakes, some square and some stake cut on the end. I used to fret about different kinds of stakes in the same garden but learned that brugs grow so quickly that they are hidden in no time. The brugs I winter outside are, so far, not staked after their first winter outside, because they send up multiple stalks when they return.
Carol, I received a boat load of mail about cats, the meow variety, damaging brugs. I couldn't believe it either. I understand it is most likely in new beds, which is what I had. They aren't as interested in the brug areas this year, except they take their afternoon naps curled around them and I've learned not to EVER leave fresh dirt without mulch, and I make them fresh dirt in a location away from the brugs and ME - they made me want to commit feline murder...
