CONTEST TIME

In 100 words or less (I'm not really counting) WHY I'M THINKING OF GIVING UP ON BRUGMANSIA AND BUYING PLASTIC FLOWERS INSTEAD.

This has been quite a summer, and it seems like we've all been tempted to throw in the towel once or twice. First it was the battle of the spider mites, then some people got too much rain, some got no rain at all. A few got wind and hail resulting in holes in their brugs. If you didn't get bloom or leave drop you got sprayed in the face with bug spray when the wind changed directions.

The prize is The Shirley Poppy Fairy, from Series VIII. She's about 3 inches tall and comes with a little spike so you can put her in the ground, or you can hang her from a branch. Also included is a pair of the now infamous Wonder Gloves.

Contest will run through Monday night 9 PM Pacific time, and then there will be a new thread opened for voting.

A better picture of the fairy can be found at:

http://www.grtoys.com/product_info.php?products_id=3655

Well...fer one thang, ah don'have ta deel wid dem spider mites...cats, slubs n'such.

...an' wid a bit of garlic, peppers n'grits d'plastic ones won'kill ya!

Carol im souf Hawaee!

Because being an ADDICT is BAD, but being a Brug addict is torture, with plastic flowers you won't want every one you see, you won't run out of money trying to get the best looking ones then protecting them, and neibours will not think you are nuts running outside with camera all hours of the night snapping pictures, and that water bill sure will go down.

(are you sure you want to give all this up)



Doris

Ummm, you don't have to REALLY give it up ... just say why you're thinking of giving it up. LOL

Brugmansia dreams. Verdant foliage, blooms unfurling, tendrils twirling. Sweet scent wafting through night air. Tall trees, showers of flowers, pink yellow or white.
Cuttings shrivel. Seedlings disappear. Strange wilts, revived by water, wilting again. Leaves yellow and fall. The remainder mottle, peppered with tiny red dots. I spray them, I spray myself, they return.
Fertilizing, watering, striving for blue green leaves which are devoured in the night. Rain, hail and wind shreds leaves, topples plants, breaks branches.
Waiting for “Y”s. Buds appear! They fall. Long awaited blooms which are crisped by sunlight. Winter comes.
Time to start over again? ….thud

WHY I'M THINKING OF GIVING UP ON BRUGMANSIA AND BUYING PLASTIC FLOWERS
INSTEAD, well hmmmmmm, there must be so many reasons....

1. Viruses will not ruin the whole crop anymore
2. No more Costly fungicides
3. Spider Mites
3. Ear Wigs
4. Over watering
5. Under watering
6. No more costly fertilizers
7. Mental health worries (nerve medication)
8. No more disinfecting hands & tools
9. Water bill will decrease each month
10. Limited space problems
11. Hauling in for the Winter
12. Backaches
13. Dr. visits to the Chiropractor will lessen
14. Heartaches from no blooms
15. No more anticipation and panic attacks for rains, hail, tornado's,
hurricane's and flooding
16. No more jealousy and envy...cos' it's a sin
17. No more trips to the Ag. Dept. to sample my soil pH
18. Slugs
19. Horn Worms....Sorry Vicki LOL

20. AND I'll ALWAYS HAVE 'Happy Healthy Brugs' :-))))

Now look at all that's stuff....is it really worth the trouble these
beautiful flowers? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS... I think we ALL needa
'Shrink'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugs

P.S. You can find me at the Collec...ly House...it's where you go to collec----yo-self!

Julie @@
-0-

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Did I mention Bugs! Do not get me wrong, those 12' brugs are staying right where they are but the BUGS!

Because silk flowers will bloom all the time and not just while I'm away on the ONLY vacation I've taken all summer. Sigh, I hope I can at least see spent blooms when I get back, been dreaming about coming home to see them all week.... :)

I get up at 6 AM to go out to water before I go to work, I drag big heavy bags of fertilize out so they don't get yellow leaves. I spray nasty sprays to kill spider mites, scale, mealy bugs, aphids, worms.........and don't forget the fungicides, then the iron and liquid sulphur and magnesium that they need to stay lush and green. Finally the leaves are a lush blue green, not a bug in sight, the buds are about to open and we get a hurricane! I look out the window to see my beautiful brug flowers flying across the yard and into the pool which I will have to clean later.
I'm going to plant plastic banana plants in their place and sit by the pool and sip margaritas!

Why I am giving them up.*
1. Spring time battles with the mite monsters that laughed at me.
2.Then had a heat wave and drought, with windstorms that played 'bowling'
with every brug plant that was budded.
2a. The meter reader for the water,rushed to tell my husband we must have a bad leak somewhere.
3.My addiction , ahem, collection went from 7 plants to 30 some in 4 months.
4. I have spent so much on different fertilizers, boosters, aids,more pots and soil for the brugs
that I had to tell hubby it's good for him to eat vegetarian spagetti 3 times a week.
5. I made my oldest 2 sons move out, to have winter quarters for my addiction/collection
6.Now a week of rain is drowning my plants
7.Every yellow tinged leaf brings anxiety attacks: virus, deficency,mites?
8. I have just two pretty flowers to show for all the effort
9. I have all but ignored my orchids
* NOT, only when they pry the Brug cataloges from my cold dead hands

This message was edited Aug 19, 2005 6:48 PM

Why DO we beat ourselves up? Today I saw a brug with beautiful flowers and the leaves were eated, ratty, yellow and disgusting. I saw the flowers. So wy do we worry about the leaves. Anyone OCP here?

Naw...

Carol I am with you on that. I have been stripping the leaves off every day instead of fighting those durned bugs.

I've even quit stripping the leaves. I just leave the ratty things on there. The caterpillars turned into beautiful butterflies, they are flitting around the plants. At least I have some color out there now!

With plastic or silk Brugs (if they made them) would free me up to go on Vacation
Imagine a nice island paradise. The water would be so blue & refreshing & the Cabana boys all hunks, The temps would be so perfect you would not know if you are warm or cool. The food would be scrumptous. Dining out on a veranda looking out at a beautiful sunset. Your suite would be perfect in every aspect. Waking to the morning sun in your room, opening the drapes to see a huge double dark dark pink Brug right outside your balcony.
Ack! there went the perfect dream!
So much for NO Brugs! LOL!
Bj
Hummm, It was just a fleeting thought!

This message was edited Aug 20, 2005 9:11 AM

Last chance. Voting in one hour.

Mary