why no replies to my post?????

As this is my first post, I am concerned that I am doing something wrong. Or am I just not "in with the in crowd"yet??
:):):) LOL! Somebody help please! Thanks

Hiya Bamwa, sometimes things are slow here lately, lol.
See if this link aswers your question.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/323963/
As far as the dieback at the top of the plant, you can cut away, but try to keep your cutting above the "Y" in your tree form. See here for illustration.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/579962/
Hope this helps!
Welcome to the brug forum!
Jackie

A few of mine had dieback, but I learned to take advantage of it to make a kind of standart, but with many more flowers, as when you were growing from one Y only. Here come a few examples:

Here is 'Lena'. The top died back one winter, but she grew out four new branches. One the picture, two of the branches is still small, but later that summer they became stronger and more balanced and I got four times as many flowers, than I was supposed to have :)

Also 'Clemente' suffered from a top dieback. She put out a chaos of side branches. I cut back the lower branches and kept those in the upper 1 foot. She carried over a hundred flowers in an early flush. I have started diliberatly to cut off the tops now as I can have both a tree, that have the standart look, but at the same time have a lot more flowers.

Here is also a bit about, how I sometimes trim a standart, that has dissaperared in a lot of suckers. This is 'Mary', but no one would guess, that she was originally formed as a slender tree lol

Here is she after the cutback. She was a lot of suckers poorere, but had a better look, and I was a lot of cutting materials richer, so I could not complaint LOL

Another way that I found lead to a lot of extra flowers was to keep the original Y, but also to let the 3-5 upper branches below the Y develop. These only grow a little while, before bursting into bloom.

Tonny (and Hellobebe) - thanks for the replies. Tonny your brugs are FANTASTIC!!!!! The yellow one is just like my 3 and the way you have pruned it is exactly the way I want mine to look. Thanks for the advice. How much do you fertilize???? I'm also surprised at the size of the pot you have them growing in (first photo). My pots are much larger. How much difference does that make? Are any of yours in the ground without being in pots? Know of anyone who has tried this? I assume one would then just dig them up, pot them for overwintering, and replant in spring?
Your garden is lovely, by the way.

Oops, one more question Tonny - are those varietal names or just your own pet names for your plants?

WELCOME to the Brug Forum Bamwa!! I think you will find brugs are very hardy and will suffer much before they die on you. You can grow them in pots, or in the ground. The general rule is the bigger the pot the bigger they can get. But if you fertilize often the can get huge in a smaller pot too. In ground they are easier for they need less watering and fertilizing but you will need to dig them to overwinter where it freezes.

Tonny, your yellow suav is so pretty! I have never seen a yellow suav in person. I bet it is so cheerful with big yellow open faces.

Thank you Bamwa for the nice words. I have made a small drawing to better illustrate the effect of this kind of standart. Kell is right about the bigger pot the better they grow. I prefer smaller pots as I dig the pots down in the dirt, where they spend the outside season. That way they are able to grow as good as if they were planted without the pots. Several years ago I planted them directly in the ground, but when I dugged them up in the fall the leaves started to dry and drop of the plants. That never happened after I start using the pots. I still need to cut over the large anchoring roots, but there are sufficient of 'drinking' roots left inside the pots for the plants to continue both growth and blooming, after that I dugged them up. About fertilizers I have cut much back on the large amounts that I used to give them. I now use a homemade soil mix, which are pH neutral and it seems to me now that the plants are much more efficient to uptake and make use of the little I am offering them.

Well, I am talking way too much :) Here is the drawing. The plant on the left is 'uncut' with a natural forming Y. On the left the plant has been cut right under the Y and the side branches allowed to grow wild.

Kelley, I wish that it was easier for me to export plants for your Country, because you really needs to see this one. Can you imagine a 42-48 cm long and 30-35 cm broad yellow coffea funnel that smell nice, but not of coffea?

Wow.. look at the number of views for this post! No wonder you felt that way! I'm sorry I looked and did not respond.. I'm ashamed for my part in not responding.. I'm not an expert, but I should have posted something! I'm sorry Bamwa1
I think without a picture, we are just guessing at what your dealing with. I'm guessing that you would get a lot more posts if we could see exactly what your problem is.
Also, if you surf through the old posts, you will find numerous threads on every topic you can imagine for brugs.. that will give you answers to a lot of your question, and give you a "foundation" to start on. Everyone has their own way.. you can surf and surf and read and read.. take what fits your situation and do the "trial and error" thing... cause believe me, you can't avoid it. LOL Brug growing is not all sweetness and beauty.. there is a lot of failures, frustrations, and bugs.... but one bloom will take it all away. Good luck and don't forget pictures!