The sticks you see in the middle of the green is what is left from my Brug last year. I only had one.
My question is: Is this more than one Brug coming back? Should I separate them and have them all be their own plants? Should I leave them in the pot all together?
What should I do?
Dee
It is still the same plant as last year.
When you cut out the primary growing point (meristem), buds on either side of the stem further down will start to elongate and grow. In this case, you did not cut out the growing tip (the frost did) but the result is the same.
This is a "defense" mechanism. As long as a plant can grow undistrubed, it will put all the energy into one main shot. If forces are put on the plant which prevent it from growing, it will send out two (or more) shots. This is partially to replace the damaged primary growing point, but also a few more to up the odds. This require more energy from the plant but a logical defense mechanism because there clearly is a history of growing points being damaged/dying. The extra growing points are now there as insurance.
You do not "divide" brugmansia the same way you may divide hosta or daylily for example. You can make cuttings, though.
You can cut off one or two of these growing points and root them in a vase of water. Just change the water every 3-4 days and in 2-3 weeks roots will appear. Then pot up these rooted cuttings and you have more plants.
Thank you so much for the info.
So I should just cut off 1 or 2 of the shoots and leave the rest?
Do these shoots need to be a certain size or anything?
Dee
This message was edited May 15, 2006 6:58 AM
If I'm going to mutilate a plant, I would like to do it in some organized manner. :)
Please help me with the question in the above post.
Dee
If the plant were mine, I would leave everything until it got a little bigger and then cut the smallest ones off, cutting them as close to the original trunk as possible, leaving only one or two of the biggest sprouts to grow on. When you see which one of those is going to be the straightest and strongest, you can then cut the last one off, leaving your brug to look like a tree type. Now...if you like brugs to look bushy and full and not necessarily tall and straight, you can leave any or all of them as they are and let them grow. In a pot, this makes it very top heavy and the pots tend to fall over. For bushy type plants, I try to plant them in the ground or into at least 20 gallon pots and stake the pots to the ground so they don't blow over. Like I said..this is how I would do it. You might want to try something different. Have fun!
