"Charles Grimaldi" flowering now in dark basement

I grew brugs for the first time this year. I purchased a small cutting in mid summer and it grew about 6 feet tall during the summer. It started to flower late fall outdoors. I hauled the planter indoors and put it in our heated basement in november and forgot about it. Checked it this weekend, .. the soil was dry, but it had many wonderful flowers. Watered it... can't believe it is so pretty with such neglect (the basement is completely dark and it had no water or anything for a few weeks).

Here are some more pictures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/kdjoergensen/gardening/brugsmania/DSCN9068.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/kdjoergensen/gardening/brugsmania/DSCN9037.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/kdjoergensen/gardening/brugsmania/DSCN9036_1.jpg

I am so excited. I can't wait for next year...

Can someone tell me how to prune the plant ?
Should I cut it back to a place just above "Y" or to nearest branch ?
I expect it to grow some long, thin, skinny branches in the dark basement which I will naturally cut back, but how far back do you usually prune brugs ?

Its sure a super lovely large bloom.. very nice...

Twyla

I'm not sure that I would prune it back at all. It isn't very tall yet...but I would try to tie it to a stake so that it will grow straight up. If that can't be done, next spring when you re-pot, turn the root ball so that it is growing straight up. Just will look better. Nice pictures you posted for us to look at. Don't you love the smell of the brug blooms? I do think they smell better in the summer, but right now, I'd take one that smells less than best.

Wow, look at the size of the bloom!!!
:) Donna

Amazing how tough these plants are. They just want to live! Even in the dark it put out blooms like that. Yours is so pretty.

Yours is going to make a great standard. I would cut the side branch off and root it for a back up. And I would keep all the side growth off.

If you like the lollipop look, in the spring, after the top grows about 4 Ys up, I like to tip them all to get them to bush out more so it will have a dense canopy and not skippy branches sticking way out. I have CG and it responds well to this kind of pruning. I get flowers all the way back thru the entire canopy, not just on the ends. What a sight.

Very pretty blooms and how great to get them this time of year.
In the colder zones the Brugs seem to know when it is time to go to sleep and slow down growing for their winter rest.
I would not trim anything at this time. In the spring I would trim off any weak winter tip growth and cut off the small shoot to root.
You want to keep at least 6-8 leaf nodes on a branch for future blooms when you trim. I keep 8-10 nodes.
Cutting the branches too short will produce less flowers.

Kdjoergensen, I found an old pic of my CG in June after I pruned her like I suggested above less than 2 months earlier. This is the lollipop look. Tipping all the branches makes the side shoots develope and then they all flower too then. What a show esp. if you look up from the bottom!

Have fun!

Here is the same plant a month later. The trouble with pruning like I do and tipping is that you get so much condensed growth, you hardly have room for all the flowers. As you can see, it is almost too much growth and way too many flowers. They do not fit!

what a neat surprise to see something blooming in the basement! congrats, kd!

i was reading this last night, before kell posted photos of the LOLLIPOP look. beautiful, kell.

now i get it, lol.

Some do not like the standard look - lollipop look Annapet. I have always been fascinated by it. If I go to a nursery and they have a plant trained as a standard, you just know I probably will buy it. LOL. Plus it lets you plant under it, so you can squeeze in more plants. Also thru pruning you can keep it in bounds so it does not take over like a bush can.

Kell, by tipping do you mean prunning back the primary growth tip of each branch in the "y" to a strong bud ?? (e.g. what I would call heading back ??)

Yes, but I do each node growth when they get to be a certain length, not just the end tips on the longer branches. You end up with a dense canopy that blooms like crazy. You also get the strong growth all around the trunk so it can support lots of blooms. If you let the branch grow out too long, it can weaken it if it gets lots of blooms and then snap off.

Some brugs have shorter spaces between their nodes and some have long spaces. You have to look at each brug shape to determine where to snip. The side nodes grow so fast when you take the tips off the end stem, then after they grow out a certain amount of nodes, you tip them too. And then they will all grow their side nodes out. So on and so forth till you can't see in the tangle anymore to snip.