Hi everyone - new to Dave's and second year with Brugs. I am a professional ornamental gardener living in Montana (brrrr) and have overwintered my brugs in a greenhouse kept at around 40 degrees. I covered them with dark fabric (to encourage dormancy) and kept water to a minimum. They look great at this point - trunks are sturdy and still showing green. My main question is how to keep them in a tall, standard form. They are focal points in substantial pots on a large patio. How should I prune them to keep most of the flowers and foliage at the top? They are currently about 5' tall with some dieback at the very tips, and I would like to keep as much height as possible. Any advice would be appreciated. I enjoy all of your pics and chitchat - thanks everyone!
question for you experienced 'Brugies'
Personally, I have experienced a lot of die back when letting brugs go dormant. If you can keep your greenhouse warmer and keep sunlight on them, you won't have nearly as much die back as you have with dormancy.
Some seem to be more susceptible to die back than others. The thermostat in my greenhouse was set to 45ºF in winter of 2005. My Charles Grimaldi died back quite a bit while others were blooming and setting seed pods. This past year was colder and for longer periods so my DH lowered the thermostat down to 40ºF. My Brugs didn't bloom, but they stayed green and retained most of their leaves. They don't go into dormancy.
All I know about making them standard,( tall not bushy,) is to remove all side shoots, allow the top of the plant to get all the energy, and blooms
Welcome Bamwa1 to the brug forum! I'm really not qualified to tell you how to prune since all my brugs outside froze to the ground... but what I've read before is to leave 4 to 6 nodes after the Y.... the more you trim back, the longer you will have to wait for blooms.
It's also hard to give you advice without a pic.. can you get a picture so we can see what your dealing with? I hope you can post pictures soon, your gonna have to show us your blooms!