It's been a while and my baby has suffered the heat in Houston. But she is blooming! although the blooms take it on the chin around 3.
Do Brugs outside tend to get spindly? If so, when do I prune back? Heres a pic.
Still don't know the name but right now she may be called stressed!
Robin
Hi Robin,
Thats a lot of plant and bloom considering the monster heat and humidity you have. I don't think there's too many around here that let the brugs have their bushy ways. A straight main stalk is selected, then suckers and branches removed so it looks like a small tree. This results in a canopy where the blooms hang down. I guess that means the energy is all concentrated into that single growing area as well.
Surely others that can leave brugs in ground like you, will chime in with when and how they do any maintenance pruning.
blaine
I am growing a x candida pink "gone wild" in the ground. I'm looking forward to watching what it will do. A friend of mine has 1 1/2 acres of brugmansia "bushes" of all kinds up to 14 ft tall. They are pruned to help keep them more lush looking.
Robin, she sure is pretty and loves where she is, cos' she looks GREAT! I have one growing in the ground now going on 2 years. It's DonnaB's Monster white brug. She's just starting to get bushy. I believe DonnaB has her's in the ground too and when I saw it I had to do it the same as her's it impressed me so much.
Blaine is correct in that alot of people like the tree/canopy look. I do for sure :-))))
Hugs
Great job!
Julie
So when is the best time to prune off the lower limbs?
I'd wait until Fall if it were me, but that's up to you. :-)
You can do it at any time if you want to make a tree.
Are you leaving this in the ground over winter with no protection? I would do it very soon then so the new growth has a chance to harden some in case you get a early winter frost.
I am not sure if I have ever seen a Frosty type as a standard. We have lots of them around here. They seem to love being a bush. Has anyone trained one into a standard?
When I have a bush, and I want a standard, I wait for a sucker to come forth to make into a standard so you get a nice straight trunk. Sometimes from the bottom of the bush on a bottom trunk a nice straight shoot will spring up fast and this is as good as a sucker from the ground. I cut it off at the base and root that.
When I trim my bushes, I just take some off the end each limb so the side shoots will take off, making it fuller. How much I take depends on how much smaller I want it. Leave enough nodes though so you still get lots of flowers.
For all your terrible heat, yours is sure looking good!
9b should be a pretty safe zone to cut at any time shouldn't it? Frost and freezes are so rare in FL z9b. Is it different out west?
I so agree about the tips. That is how my friend keeps his so beautiful. I can't wait to try it on my own. I've always grown them as trees and in containers. Florida is another world and I'm dreaming of lots of brug bushes in the ground.
I always grew my container FP as a single trunk. I don't know if you remember or ever knew these people Kell but D. Hodgins in Canada has an impressive FP standard and R. Brown in West Palm Beach has a beautiful woody FP tree. I guess it's a personal choice thing.
