I am tossing the towel in the ring and got rid of my potted brugs. Anyone want the one remaining one (absolutely free, pot included)? It's a Herrenhauser Garten in a large pot that is about 6 feet tall, has 3 stalks, numerous small leaves all over it, and has only bloomed once in 3 years. I'm in San Diego and the first person that wants it can come and pick it up this weekend. I tell ya, I'm tired of the pests, the falling leaves, the watering, fertilizing, and everything else involved with these plants! I had one mutant one that I FINALLY was able to kill after a lot of work and now I only have 2 Frosty Pinks, 1 double white, and a Charles Grimaldi in the ground. If they don't improve soon, they're getting sprayed with Bayer 4 in 1 Brush Killer.
If I don't get a taker, I'll cut the Herrenhauser up in whatever lengths you desire and ship them to someone, anyone, everyone, as long as you pay the postage. First come, first served.
I'm throwing in the towel....
As my husband would say "Operator Fatigue" I think there's no cure either...
Pax
Lizzy
steph-gem is in Rancho Penasquitos and would probably take it away for you. She has just been bitten by the brug bug. Drop her a d-mail.
I cant seem to grow them in pots either. They require too much of everything in the land of bugs and dry weather. I have one more going in the ground and have already found homes for the others. (I did get a sang cutting from DrDon. There is no hope for me lol)
Herrenhauser Garten is a very difficult one to grow. I have heard many people say how they can hardly get it to bloom. I had one last year as well, and it simply didn't want to do anything, had tiny leaves that were not as green as my other brugs. I had to throw in the towel when I moved and am now in an apartment so am thinking about growing just one - but I am most likely going to grow a cross that is known for simplicity (not alot of work involved) of a white or pink color that has a nice scent.
Yes - they can be alot of work - especially if you get one that is notorious for it. The two that I found the easiest that I had last year were Whiskers and Creamsickle. My friend Dee has one of the Whiskers and I hear it is still doing really well - and apparently she doesn't even hardly fertilize it (it's at her work and indoors).
For such weedy plants they sure can be a lot of work. I can't stand all the mites. Here when in the gound I really do not have to do much for them. Not even water much. But they get too big and too messy with all their blooms dropping along with their older leaves.
Kell, messy or no messy, I've finally got about 15 buds on a couple of cuttings I babysat all winter and I sure hope I get some blooms to clean up after !!!
This message was edited Jul 11, 2006 3:57 PM
So do I, Txwillie!
Good Luck! I bet you get plenty!
Boy Chunx, go to the thread "the last straw". Think it is Kareoke. Talk about everybody quitting at once!! Several of us. LOL
Jeanette
I am so sorry to hear your giving up. Sometimes brugs take a while to bloom, how long have you had them. I know the HG will take a long time I have one I have had for about 3 years and it has never bloomed, it will be gone this year. I wish you would give them all a little more time before you"Throw in the Towel". You just may get a buncha blooms and they are worth the wait.
Dee
did get taker ? if not i will what is postage.?
oh to pick up i see sorry if cut up i'd love some cuttings of it..
I said this would be the last yr I'd do these.. Most of the cuttings I bought died... The leaves keep falling off the ones in the ground no matter how much I water...Then this morning my 2 yr. old unknown white actually put on a flush of blooms... My first flush....So I am draggin out the hoses, mixing up the messenger and going back to ebay....Next year has to be better...
Texas can't stay in a drought forever...can it...
Ronda
Let me clarify a couple of things. I have several planted in the ground and one Frosty Pink is doing fantastic, however, the others aren't doing so well. I think part of the reason is that it has been hot here, much hotter than usual by about 10 degrees every day. Add the fact that we are basically in a desert and don't have a lot of water to waste so they charge an arm and a leg for water AND add a bunch of fees to the bill. Then I go out in the morning and see that some little worms have chewed holes all through the leaves overnight. On my Charles Grimaldi which has always done well, I sprayed it with Mighty Plant and Messenger and it now looks deformed and the blooms are even weird. I spend more time on these brugs than with all of my other plants combined. Spray with insect killer, spray them with iron, spray them with Epsom salts, fertilize them, spread snail and slug killer around them, and pick up the darn leaves that fall off every day. Are they worth it? NO! Well, not to me anyway.
As for the HG, I've had it for over 3 years. I got rid of all of my other potted brugs about 3 weeks ago. I just asked neighbors and friends if they wanted them and had several takers. All that is left in a pot is the HG. No one wants it because I won't lie to them about how seldom it blooms. If someone doesn't come forward soon and take this monster, I'm going to set it on the sidewalk with a FREE sign on it. There is always some sap out there that will take anything I set out. If that doesn't work, then it's going to become cuttings. And if that doesn't happen, you'll locate it at the local landfill (but I'll keep the pot). The only brug I hated more than this HG was a shredded white. I couldn't stand the smell and the blooms were ugly.
Chunx, you are so funny!! I loved the Shredded White. The leaves were like velvet. And, the blooms were so unique. I just thought it was one of the best. LOL I sent Sherry a cutting and she loves it too.
So sorry about your Harry. I lost mine to aphids over the winter, just like my SW, and if I lived close enough I would try it. I threatened mine and beat him with newspapers and I am sure that if our season was longer he would have bloomed.
Lightning storm, gotta go. Jeanette
I feel your pain, Chunx! It has been hotter than he-- here, hasn't it. As for water bills, you'd think the pipes were lined with gold or something. I'm paying more now than when we had a pool. Somebody call the men in the white coats, because I have no intention of stoping now. LOL
Our weather is a lot hotter this year also. Do you all think it could be Global Warming?
Thankfully we are cool here again!
If I had to water them all the time I too would toss them out the door. I think the problem is too that few of us just have 1 or 2. We want too many and that becomes a full time job. I notice too that the more you have of 1 particular kind of plant (I have a history of plant addictions) the more trouble you have and the more bugs you attract.
I keep saying when I find that perfect single pink that is in my dreams, I will be done with them too.
chunx. I know exactly how you feel, last summer I had great blooms, but all winter, in the house I fought BUGS of every kind, and since they have been outside I have spent a fortune on this remedy, and that remedy trying to keep them alive, and healthy but I give up, now with this new little black bug that is eating holes in all the leaves I have decided to let them go, if they survive I will keep a couple over winter again, if not I am done with them, my lilies are just as lovely and I don't have to keep them babied all winter. I have 30 Brugs in pots, and ten in the ground that will need to be dug up in the fall.
Jnette it has more to do with water than anything else. So I can certainly understand chunx's frustration considering her water situation.
At least 8 of my sandy soil ground brugs are in full sun until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Temps in the 90's and high humidity is common in my part of the world. I water them 1 or 2 times a week and they do fine. But they really take off and grow and flower their best in our rainy season from June til November.
ps ... the more stressed a brug is the more suceptible to bugs it is. Lack of water creates one type of stress.
This message was edited Jul 13, 2006 9:32 AM
So V8, this is something I have been wanting to ask someone for a long time. Glad you brought it up. My brugs only get about 2 or 3 hours of full sun a day and they wilt down no matter how much water I give them. Then when the sun goes away they spring back up. Do yours do that? OR, is it because we have practically zero humidity? I think the weather lady said 11%.
Is that why I have such a hard time getting them to bloom? Sometimes I think if they were in full shade they would do better but I don't have any place like that.
Jeanette
Are they in the ground or in a pot? Whenever my brugs in pots wilt it is for one of these reasons ...
1. too much water that causes Root rot. They wilt as soon as the slightest bit of sun hits them. They perk up when the sun goes down. I am queen of root rot. I've murdered more than my share of seedlings ... hee!
2. not enough water
3. not enough water due to being horribly potbound
In the winter months our humidity is nothing compared to how high it gets in the spring and summer. The brugs don't wilt due to low humidity and they still flower.
Sometimes it takes brugs several months to get established. They can be a pain in the behind until they are established. This is hard for the growers that have to deal with cooler climates. By the time the brugs are settled it's time to worry about wintering them.
It also depends on the brug you are growing. What your next door neighbor thinks is wonderful and performs great for him might not be such a great brug for you. It's called "holding your mouth right" lol!
Some of the brugs that are of European bloodlines do not tolerate heat. Some brugs such as arborea and sanguinea and aurea Rothkirch were never created to handle high heat. In reality it is a matter of getting rid of any variety that does not grow well for you personally. Replace the problem plants until your collection is made up of plants that you don't have to fuss over. I personally have no patience for persnickety brugs. I'd rather grow 50 Frosty Pinks than to bother with stuff I gotta worry about. Just my opinion for what it's worth. :)
If there is any way you can build something like a little lean-to or shelter of some kind that provides enough shade for even just one brug it would be a nice experiment for you to try. There is nothing that compares to your own first hand learning experiences.
You know, I thought I'd probably get attacked and hanged from the nearest Brug tree when I posted this, so I'm really glad to know that I'm not alone here. When I first discovered these plants, I thought they were so unusual that I had to have a bunch of different ones. Little did I know that I would basically grow to hate them more than I hate canned peas. I take part of that back, I love my Frosty Pink and my double white, but you can have the rest of them. I had this yellow one that I swear smelled like the perfume aisle at the Dollar Store. So I thought I'd just cut it to the ground and it would be gone. Wrong! It got some brush killer sprayed on it twice and that worked, much unlike my Jezebel, the devil's spawn one that took me over a year to kill. I still think her roots probably went through the sewer system and will invade some lake or something and kill everything nearby. At least it hasn't appeared in my yard this year.
Jeanette - You think yours wilt? I've had some of mine wilt so badly that the branches were lying on the ground with the leaves all shriveled up. I would squirt them with water and they would rebound faster than a crooked politician.
Anyway, this H.G. thing has until Sunday to get claimed and then out it goes to the curb. I can see it now.....the pot will be gone and they'll leave the plant. I get no respect I tell ya, no respect at all (Rodney Dangerfield, RIP).
P.S. Chunx is not a "she." Wait a sec, let me check on that. Yup, it's still there....I'm a male.
Chunx...........you are just toooooo funny......
Dee
ROFL! Sorry Mr. Chunx! Chunx ... Hunks! I should have known you had more than just brains and a pretty face. ... hee ha heehee!
"I can see it now.....the pot will be gone and they'll leave the plant."
What a hoot! I laughed right out loud. Thank you for that!
Erick
Chunx, for your sake I'm glad it's still there, and best wishes for a speedy giveaway of the brug.
Tussee
i would like some for postage if you dont get an offer. i am still trying my luck at some even though the ones i have have only put one or two blooms out. i want one that does really well but
i am a softy for the exiled ones. hehe
LOL, I thought she/he (guess you can't tell anymore) was going to say "Best wishes for a speedy recovery) from female to male or vice versa. Now I have to go back and read all of your posts in a different light.
Now Jeanette, don't make me hike up my muumuu and prove it to you!
You guys are so naughty! LOL.
And do not worry Chunx, we do not hang people here over brugs. They are just plants!! Though too bad you hate them! Here they grow literally like weeds all over so a lot of people think they are trashy looking with their yellowing leaves and spent blooms all over the ground. I can't give them away except to my Dave friends.
All I can say about Brugs is that you have to be a trooper and a serious plant lover to deal with them. That's why I just want ONE - no more! ;-)
Karrie, which one did you pick? Jeanette
GONE!!! I put an ad on Craigslist and I got 4 calls this afternoon. The first person that called wanted it, so out to the driveway it went. She must have picked it up within an hour because when I came back, it was gone - not just the pot but even the plant. I just hope I don't find it tossed in the front yard come Autumn. Maybe I should change my house numbers?
I know how you feel, three years and I am giving up also with all this heat breaking records here and hardly no rain for three months. Watering everything does take up a lot of time and money. Taking all mine to the Dallas plant swap in Oct if anyone wants them. Poor things are little poles in the ground with small leaves on the top.
Even the four in pots are having a hard time of it with plenty of shade and water. Going native now. LOL
Thanks for this post. I just tried Datura and Brugs for the first time this year. Someone sent me some seed so I tried it indoors over the winter and was surprised when they germinated. I got them outside potted up in large containers, and I have been shocked that the insects are making a mess of it. Nothing else in my yard is looking as bad as they are. I even have pole beans without any beetle holes in them. Every morning I come out to more holes in the leaves and I finally started seeing buds on the datura, and now something is chewing on the buds even before opening. On top of which is the only plant in the yard that I have to think twice about when I get near it and feel I have to go in and wash my hands good if I pull a dead leaf off of it. I just don't get it, they are poisonous and yet to some bugs evidently they aren't! lol I keep waiting for one bud to open so I can at least see what the flower looks like and see what the scent is like. So far, they are so badly damaged, I don't know if they will open. I am definitely not going to grow again, or try wintering over or allowing it to form seeds at all. Glad mine are in containers too.
Very happy to read I am not alone in not finding them worth the trouble.
Thanks :-)
Boy Chunx, look what you started!!! You all are so funny and you know what? I don't blame you at all. It was 100 degrees today and I misted my brugs, watered, fertilized, and still one of them has a top so wilted that I am sure it won't come back.
We have a very short growing season here so they just barely get buds on them when it gets so cold they quit doing anything. Last year I had one brug bloom. I don't know why it did what it did, but it had a lot of blooms all summer. I guess it was far enough away from the other brugs that they didn't get the word to it that it wasn't suppose to do that.
You all will have a much lower blood pressure season if you do not grow them. I have about 30 of them. Not one of them have a bud and this is almost the end of July.
Good luck with with your roses etc. Jeanette
ROFLOL Chunx, about that with changing your house number. You will probably have to do that ;)´ 'Herrenhaüser Garten' was mighty popular here in Europe in its first years. A little of a sensation for some, but as you mentioned about its flowering capabillities (or lack of the same) people slowly stopped to grow it. Still, some people grows it. I think it is for the sport of it. Some Brugs are really annoying, besides for the few non-flowering. That is the mite magnet Brugs. Imagine a plant, that looks great from May to July and just when ready to bloom, the mites halfways destroys it. I have sprayed with insect poison for a couple of years now to prevent such things from happening, but its not a good long term solution. I try to go the other way around and prefer Brugs, that are easyflowering and pest resistant.
This is a terrible year in Oklahoma. Record highs and the worst draught since they started keeping records. The Brugs are just not making it. Even the Daturas are looking like a slow death. The red buds have lost their leaves. Even my day lilies did not bloom.
We cannot keep up with the watering due to the high cost.
So next year it is all going back to native plants.
Watching the weather nation wide, it looks like a lot of us are having our downs.
I just don't know what to think of this weather. We are hot but wet and I don't think the rain will stop anytime soon. We have some nice Gulf Breezes coming in and bringing in the moisture and a bit of cooler temps. Cooler than almost all the rest of the country and surprised to have the cooler temps at this time of the year. I am thankful for that and I am thankful this year is not as dry for us as last year. I lost alot of plants last year due to dry weather, and not being able to water them, so hopefully we will be better off this year. I just feel sorry for all you going throught this and I do know what your dealing with. .... Hang in there folks..........falls a coming.
Dee :o(
Lol chunx. I have a lady that "collects" from my front gardens frequently. She does it even when someone is out there. Amazing. I can certainly spare it but sheez. If half of my KBS disppeared it would still be "the Monster."
Tonny, is there a pest free brug and how much do I have to pay for it? (Just kidding. A girl can dream though.)
Between bugs and possums, it has been a challenging year. My poor Golden Lady. I feed sorry for her. My froggies just cannot keep up. They are trying though. Some evenings there are so many frogs that the brugs have eyes lol.
Janice