I think I'm going to lose my Brugs! What am I doing wrong?

Ha ha - AuntB!! I love your comments!! We're thinking the same thing! OMG, you know I canNOT wait for these things to flourish!! And yes, what an incredible difference the fertilizer has made! I try to get it about 2-3 times per week and we have well-draining soil so that's not too much for them. I think the one on the right is still a bit too small for blooms but maybe in a few weeks or so ... we'll see. I'd love it if they stagger their blomoing times so that I get continuous blooms between the two, you know?

No, that's not duct tape, it's a shredded blue towel that my husband wrpped around the trunk to protect the trunk when he tied it down with thin rope. I can't get it off without hurting the plant so ... I'm hoping the elements help pry it away for me. It's pretty UGLY! But OMG, how redneck would I be with duct tape on it? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!! That's hilarious!! Even thought it still looks pretty redneckish!!

And I agree with Andy on the "majestic ecstacy." Well said!!

Thanks on the compliments for the purple flowers. I'm trying to hide that ugly utility pole and I don't mind if a city worker tramples on those because they are super hardy so they would bounce right back. They are Ruellia Brittonia 'Katie,' and there appear to be several versions of this plant on here so mine are the ones that grow in little clumps and on very thin, woodish-looking stems that only get about a foot tall max. They seem to bloom profusely throughout the Spring and Summer ... and even more ... basically until it gets cold. Then they just stay green until Springtime again. And they spread pretty easily, although not as hard to remove or seperate as the Blue Liriope is. I never have to fertilize these or anything. They're GREAT!!

I'll send you a D-mail tonight with a pic that I took of the most loaded down one this morning. I've also seen these in white and pink ... although I'm a purple fan myself. :)

Oh......pink? hmmmmmm, I think they would all 3 be pretty together...I need to check em out in PF, bet they aren't hardy in 5b... OMG, Amanda, maybe I'M a redneck!!!!!! Duct tape has a high respect in my tool box... "I don't got no man to do my handy work for me" (said AuntB batting her eyelashes, shyly) I'm ROFLMAO, you are hilarious! Eh Hem,.....so.....
seriously.... I'd try to get the towel off it or it may deform the stem... I'm not sure....could you possibly use a single edge razor blade to get some "give" started? Of course being EVER so careful not to harm the precious greenery beneath... May have to get that "lazy" (LOL) anti-philo-moving husband of yours to lend a hand or two to help stabilize the stem while you operate?

Hee hee hee ... well I know what you mean about the duct tape - I've got a few rolls on hand! but what can I say? I'm from Texas so redneck covers pretty much all of us down here!! Ha ha, and I live in Alvin which OMG, it's not abnormal for people to go to WalMart in overalls with no shirts, their beer bellies hanging out and NO shoes. Although I can tell you, I still chuckle when I see that and say, "Only in Alvin!"

Ok, I didn't know it could harm the stem so I will do as you suggested. YEAH RIGHT - get my hubby to do it?!?!? HA!!! He'd just look at me and say, "Baby, my back hurts and I've been working all day can we wait and do this later?" Then he'd go inside, plop down on the couch and turn on some sort of hot rod car movie, lol!

But not to make fun of him, he really is a BIG help around the house. However, I like doing more things outside and he likes doing more things inside. OMG, the guys loves cleaning the bathroom!!! Who can beat that?? I never have to clean the bathroom, thank God ... so I guess I dno't mind if he doesn't move the Philo for me. But I can tell you what will happen - I will have to get out there and try moving it myself and then he will step in and take over, not wanting me to handle something that large by myself. So he is a gentleman, but that's how I'll have to get it done. AND - this weekend is the PERFECT time for that since it's Labor Day weekend and I have Monday off!!! YAY!!!!! So wil I be posting PHILO MOVED updates this weekend? Let's hope so!!

BTW - do you know if I should remove the stakes these thigns are on now? Or wait until after their blooming period or leave them on?

Amanda- Congratulations to the mom-to-be. I had my very first brug bloom in late July (actually it had two blooms) and now I'm gonna have a "flush"---whenever I check I see more little pods---YEAH!!! Feeding them is the key!!! Do you "rent out" hubby for cleaning jobs? Just kidding...my Honey vacuums, cleans the carpets, cleans windows...but not real good on cleaning the bathroom, but neither am I (LOL!!!). I WON'T allow him to do the laundry---I doubt that he even knows how to turn on the washer but that's "ok" with me! And, at Thanksgiving, he makes the stuffing/dressing for the turkey from SCRATCH, bakes a "mean" Rhubarb Pie...hmmmmm, I intend to keep him forever!!!

Sorry everyone-
I'll stop being O/T now and quit the bragging...

AuntB---looking forward to the cuttings...

Happy Friday!!!!
Jan

Thanks, JanLynn!! Lol _ nooooo, I don't rent him out because I'm not good at cleaning the bathroom, either!! HA HA!! Truly though, we are blessed. With good hubbies AND Brugs!!!

I thought my Brugs weren't going to make it, I didn't have a clue. And this forum really helped me learn how to take care of mine. THANKS to EVERYONE!!!

Sounds like you guys are perfect together! That's right he IS the bathroom cleaner guy (I wondered where that man lived, the only one in the world that cleans bathrooms) haha! I hope to get a lot of cleaning done this weekend and a little repotting. Going to a cookout at my sis's Sat. eve. If I'm a redneck, so be it, but I'll wear a shirt under my overalls and shoes IF I go to Wally world! lol Now, back to your brug: just so I understand, you wrapped the towel piece around the stem and then used a twisty or something to attach it to the stake? And now the stem/trunk has grown and made the towel so tight there is no give? I doubt it would fall over if the stake was removed. I have used stakes before with them, but I don't like to cause mine aren't in a protected area like yours and although the stake keeps my brug upright, it also puts more pressure on the top if it's really windy. I lost part of a Y once to wind. I think if the stake hadn't been there the whole brug would have just blown over pot and all and not broken the limb. I hope you understand what I mean. You probably don't have the wind issue where your's is planted. If not, I think I would remove it.....Maybe we need someone more experience in staking brugs to help you determine what to do about the stake. I just don't want you to allow the brug trunk to grow around and over the edges of the towel and scar your little baby. I planted some new trees a few years back and we stuck 3 long pieces of rebar in the ground around the tree and then had garden hose pieces (to protect the trunk) covering wire to attach from the rebar to the tree. I left them in place for a couple years until the trunk was strong enough to support the canopy in heavy winds. Well, I must of been preoccupied with my flowers, cause the tree start growing over one of the hose pieces without me noticing .. luckly I caught it in time and no harm done, except, it does have a scar. That's why I think you should get the towel off of it and find a new way to connect the stake to the trunk if you want to have it staked... Maybe some of that velcro tape...? That way you can easily loosen from time to time to allow for ALL the GROWTH that is about to occur from the food you've been serving to it. At some point you will be able to determine that it is big and strong enough to support itself. I know how much you love your brugs and if not monitored I'm afraid it would do what my tree did.. (It's NOT an emergency or anything but I'd say it's a an immediate concern). Maybe someone else has an opinion on staking brugs? What do you think about it now, Amanda?

Hey Jan, I'm starting my cuttings list this weekend. I don't send out a lot of them, but I like to trade and share and you new brug mommies are the mostest fun! Congrats on the upcoming "multiple birth"! It's gonna be glorious! We wanna see pics, if you can... So there are 2 men like that???? How's come I can't get one like that? I hope there's another one out there somewhere for me..... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa LOL You can come on here and brag-post anytime you like! Not really bragging, it's sharing the beauty! We have every reason to be proud of our babies. I'm brug bloomless right now :( I kind of got off my 2X week feeding schedule and it was SO hot here. But I'm back on track with the food, now and temps have cooled a bit, so I expect at least one more flush from 4 "kids". I have a baby Alex that may end up living in the diningroom this winter, so I have a new baby to blooms to see yet, myself. You all have a great weekend if I don't get back to DG today! (running out for a sit down lunch and the boss said leave early IF my stuff is done, hope to leave by 3, latest!) WOOO HOOOOOOOO

AuntB - I agree with you, I'll remove it all. The towel stuff is from when we had it tied down to bricks on the ground. That was not very pretty, so I tried removing all of that and replacing it with a green stake from HD (can you see this in the pics - part of the trunk is now twisting around the stake, which is why I think it should be removed). You're right- I don't want any scarring!

Ok, my hubby is gone right now (laying wood floors at my parents' house) and my baby girl is napping but the Philo is coming out this weekend!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...

Here's a pic I took of the whole plant on the left yesterday ... this thing is just super tall ... of course I'll be saying how short it is now a few months from now, I'm sure!!

Yesterday's bloom trying to push out pic

Here's a shot of today's bloom / bud pic.

This thing keeps dropping out further and further - WOW!! How long will it be?! I'm sooooo excited!!

I konw this pic makes my hand look fat ... but who cares, it's just a hand, right? ;)

Boy oh boy! Looking GOOD! I can't wait to see the entire flower!

which cultivar is that?

Oh Gawsh.. this is the best thread ever... You guyz are killin me! Amanda you are making me crack up.. LOL You're the best...

Ha ha ha ha!! Well, I am a newbie to Brugs!!

diehrdsouthrnr - I don't know which cultivar it is. I bought it from a seller on eBay who won't communicate with me since so ... ? It was listed as 36" rooted cuttings of a tellow then orange Brug. No specifics. So I hope to find out when it blooms. I'm hoping someone on here will be able to help me with that. :)

yeah i have a similar problem here. i got mine at a master gardener's plant sale. it had the largest buds, perfect shape and everything, but no name. all the others were named, but not this one, so i got it figuring that i'd find out what it was shortly. then came along a freak freeze ( in october!!!!) that killled it to the ground as expected, just not so early. i tried to root a branch, but was unsuccessful. it came back up as expected the following year, and the next one, but never y'd. last year, i took some cuttings just for the heck of it, and it rooted! finally almost a year later it is about to bloom!!!!
ps the parent in zone 8a/b did not return. we had horrible freezes this year that got kumquats, oleander date palms and washingtonias, and in Lexington (location of original plant), the year's peach crop was completely annihilated! i'm guessing that also got the brug.
So that is the tory of my brug
oh yeah... back to original topic... yall will have to help me w/ identifying mine too!

I hope you didn't think I was making fun of you Amanda... it was just so cute to me to hear the excitement in your post and it didn't even matter what the "scientific" names for the particular parts were... you were just so jazzed... I know that feeling so well. No harm intended in my post whatsoever.. I would never do that. I am a newbie too, even though it's my second year.. I just appreciate the joy in someone's post.
If you didn't know what to expect when the bloom starts to come out, it would be a freaky experience! THAT is what struck me so funny... not you.

Do we have a shot of it today???

I don't think she did ZZ, this is a great fun thread and we all have a good sense of humor... I bet she's outside right now oooogleing over them.. I know that WE understand her excitement here, better than our partners or friends that visit our gardens... some of them look at us like..... (Is she alright???)... sure, my mom thinks they are pretty and doesn't see how I grow them from year to year, but she would never call me to see if a new kind had shown it's first bloom.... She loves flowers, my grandma's loved flowers, but these days with the web, we are able to expand our interests because we can. I like things that are unique and different, not your ordinary pansy or petunia (Well, I like those, too, but they are used to accentuate my plants that are not ordinary in my area).

Thank you AuntB.. I felt terrible thinking I might have hurt someone's feelings! Geez... That was the cutest post I've seen in a LONG time! I would never mean harm... especially to one of "my own kind" LOL Know what I mean? LOL

This is the only place we can be amongst those who understand. I know my neighbors think I'm on drugs or something... Especially when I'm collecting pollen.. that's the best time to see the look on their face! WHHHAAATTT is she dooooiiiing???

I guess we could just think of it as being an entertainer.... (I would have to come across the fence and ask you... not being nosey, just curious.) AND, yes, we do have an addiction, ZZ, but it is a healthy one, right? All of my brugs and hibs are in back of my house and my back yard is pretty private, so I don't have neighbors peeking through the drapes, but I'm sure if my stuff was visible from the street, some of the ladies in this little town would HAVE to stop and ask....a couple years ago one of my neighbors up the street, Carol, planted a new hydrangea right out in the middle of a big side yard, and put annual begonias around it, it was very pretty... I stopped when she was out in the yard to compliment her on it... she'd received it for mothers day. Last year, it bloomed again so pretty, for the whole summer! It was SO funny, cause I have a friend whom I've mentored into a plant nut like myself, and I had been so envious all summer... "Did you notice? Carols hydrangea is STILL blooming, did you see? There's pink and blue and white on it!", all the while, ours produced not one bloom. It was getting into fall time and the darn thing just kept blooming and blooming.......... again, I stopped to chat with her and she shyly confessed "They are artificial Bonnie, I've done everything I know to make it bloom, and no luck, so I found the fake ones and stuck them in there".

Oops, didn't mean to get off topic, wonder how the labor pains are for Amanda today? I think we just need to have her do a "C" section and get us all out of our misery! lol (Bonnie pacing floor in KS)

LOL I manage a Mobile Home Park... I have 85 brugs in full view in the front of the park.. I'm like on stage here... I can do NOTHING without someone seeing! Although it's nice when the place is loaded with blooms.. it can get on my nerves when I'm under a brug in a Yoga position in my PJ's with a flashlight and tweezers.. LOL Got a visual? LOL *dreaming of a 6' redwood fence*

Yes.... I'm in the waiting room here for Amanda and Teresa Both of our "girls" are in waiting.. :) We need an update! It's too hot to go outside..

ZZ - oh please!! I didn't think you were making fun of me for a minute!! And I'm not even the least bit offended! You guys crack me up on here. :) And yeah, AuntB can tell you - I'm ALWAYS cracking jokes about something! :) Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been running like mad today.

Soooooo here's what you've all been waiting for!! AND ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has gorgeous color today and OMG, this thing is HUGE!!!!!!!!! I'm SUPER EXCITED!!! Any ideas on cultivar? It doesn't look like it's going to be a double or triple, just a single. But Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm NICE!!!!

Whew - this is all worth it. And OMG, I can't wait for the others to show their faces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This IS, as was previously put, majestic ecstacy!!!

And here's the whole plant (AuntB - I got lazy yesterday! Left the redneck towel attached! I'll take it off today or tomorrow.)

Well, isn't she just a pretty little dolly wolly! ;-)

WOW! She's beautiful. She's gonna really color up! Congratulations Amanda! I'm so happy for you. Did she put out her fragrance yet? I'm thinking this evening it's gonna smell absolutely divine... Do post more pics as she matures.. she is awesome!

that looks great... you are lucky.

here's mine... i've got a while

another pic

top view... now it has 4 branches

oh yeah i forgot the pic

since i don't have a brug bloom, i thought i'd add a different bloom

Die Hard Southerner, what is that?

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, Such a lovely healthy looking youngin! It is a BEAUTIFUL one. . . we'll watch as it progresses, but I'm going to guess Dr. Seuss, if it turns orange OR Sunray, if it doesn't...but it's only a guess. CONGRATS TO Amanda! It is stunning! Wait till you smell it! Thanks for posting it, we were all "feeling your pain". It looks so pretty! (blue towel isn't even noticeable with such a stunning bloom!) You'll get to it Amanda, you need to rest now and to enjoy your long awaited, well-earned beauty!
diehrd!!! THAT IS Wonderful!!!, It looks like a pin cushion! What is it? Is it on a vine? (you little tease!) Your little buds are cute, too!

its a native to SC. Its called Buttonbush; Cephalanthus occidentalis . i took a cutting this may and it is already this big (picture). they have a honey smell to them here's a link: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1515/ they grow as shrubs, and can become small trees. it should be hardy for all yall. the buds remind me of okra... really small okra

This message was edited Sep 2, 2007 10:37 PM

How cute is that? Smells like Honey? Oh wow! What a treat!

Any progress pics Amanda??

Wow, hardy here??!!! Another addition to my want list! It grew a lot, I like that in a plant. lol I better go check out that link, thx. That's what the buds remind me of, too!

ZZ, Amanda has her nose up that bloom, she's not taking pics right now! lol

maybe we could trade cuttings this fall?