I promised Brugie pics as this thing started blooming. It is impossible to get a good one though as the leaves are huge and the flowers go every which way.
Counting Butterflies
You can see the lawn chair holding her off of the ground. Classy huh?
Going around.
and around.
oops
She looks great and healthy. And as far as the lawn chair, whatever works. LOL
Oh for pity sake. Trying to listen to DD and do this too.
Poor little species says "me too!"
Great pictures. Don't you just love Butterfly? She never fails to put a smile on my face. Thanks for posting you pictures.
They're all beauties. I love the next to last picture. It's beautiful.
What a healthy plant & such nice blooms. I guess I better add that one to my list.
Most of mine look like big sticks with a pom pom of leaves on top. That plant is so full & lush! Love it!
Bj
I will add more as the flowers open. There are 100's of them hiding in the huge leaves. She is fun with the flowers sticking up everywhere. I am going to try to get her to go UP as she is overpowering the way she is. Time to start some standards I guess.
Edited to say: so how does one GET a stick with pompoms? LOL!
This message was edited Oct 8, 2005 8:43 AM
Geeze.. I'm just not sure how I get the pom pom look, I guess the lower leaves just fall off. Most of mine are over 6' tall & most of the leaves are bunched up on top. I only have a few that actually look like bushes, the rest are trees. Maybe that's not a bad thing? :o
The first shot was at about 7:30 this am. Here is the same side of the brug at 4 pm. (sorry bout the glare-facing west)
Bud starting to pink up.
PS. DH was looking over my shoulder and says,"That's a pretty one. Why don't you trade for one of those?" Anybody got a pink they want to trade? LOL!
Frogs, the pictures look great. Thanks so much for posting them.
Healthy and gorgeous!
That is a HUGE bush of blooms. Your Species is great too!!
This is the way I get my lollipop standards:
First water plant well so the sucker you are going to cut is well hydrated. Look at the bottom for a sucker. I even get suckers above the ground on the lower limbs. All of a sudden a fat, tall one will grow up fast and straight. These are perfect for standards, that lollipop look. I wait till it is about the height I want and then I cut it off at the base. If I want more suckering, leave an intact node or 2 behind.
Just pick off all the big leaves. If it has a lot of Ys cut them back to just a couple and stick it in a 5 gallon pot of dirt. Water once then only again if it dries out. Make sure it is in the shade. Takes about 3 weeks to a month and it will start putting out new growth.
GOOD LUCK!!
Are the big woody stems ok too. Treat them the same way? This butterfly really needs to have its wngs clipped as does monster.
I think the woody stems are easier, less chance of rot!! Do you have some big suckers??
I had to go crawl under butterfly and look. I gave one big sucker (5 ft+) to Mary. Most of the others are woody stems that are growing every which way from the main stems. They are 4 'to 6'. I want to keep only the ones that are headed skyward. Main stems are 7' to 8' give or take. There is also a smallish sucker that is going up so I will leave it for now. She is beautiful but she is just TOO big.
Monster has some stupendous suckers. It does nothing in a small way lol. I want to top it down to about 6 or 7 feet? and take the rest of the low growth and suckers away. Will that be ok? I am afraid that at 15 feet and counting, a windstorm would trim it where I do not want it to be. The hummer that has taken up residence is going to be tweaked though Lol.
While I am asking advice......... Can (should) I take a 1 gal plant and put it directly into the ground or should I wait for 5 gal size?
thanks for all the advice. Janice
On Monster, sure. Though if you want a true standard with a pretty trunk all the way down, you may want to cut 1 tall sucker that has Yed at about the height you want, and root that for you lollipop tree.
You can pretty much cut it back as much as you want all over. Just remember if you cut down below the 1st Y, it may grow even taller before it Ys again to start flowering. Which again may make more sense to cut off a tall sucker. And then trim the extra length off the base, leaving the top Ys intact so you have a shorter tree. Remember when you cut a sucker off, always trim off all the big leaves and take off the top Ys if the canopy is big, leaving just a few going up.
Janice, I prefer to direct plant my red cups size (comparable to a 4 inch deep pot) into the ground. Just make sure no snails are around to eat them up over night. I have even planted 6 pack size direct into the garden in the spring.
Good Luck!
"Red cup size" lol. I use them too. Much cheaper that nursery pots.
Okay. As soon as the beasts finish this flush (and before the next one as I have a hard time whacking limbs full of buds) they will get haircuts. I do not have too much trouble with snails but those ittle green caterpilars are a menace.
Thanks for all of your help. I have neighbors with very well mannered brugs but mine seem to want to take over the world. Pretty though.