Hey....thought I would share some pics before overwintering begins......There is, however, a possibility that I will have some more pics to share in late November or December. The weather is often very unpredictiable and tricky during the fall and winter seasons in the San Francisco Bay Area. One day it can be 75 degrees and the next day it can be in the 50's, then the day after that it might reach 80 degrees. I guess this bodes well for Brug lovers!!!! Enjoy..........
Frank
Here's my Sanguinea......
Here's another shot of my Sanguinea.............
Here's my Mountain Magic
Here's another shot of my Ecuador Pink...........
Very nice, Frank! I love the Sanguineas! Wish they would live here, but it simply gets too hot!
Isn't it amazing the difference in color MM has between summer and fall blooms? It's almost like having two different plants!
It's kinda bittersweet having the last flush of the season, isn't it? On one hand, you get gorgeous flushes, and on the other hand, you know you'll soon be overwintering them.
Lovely!
Frank, what's your lowest temp. during the winter may I ask. Gorguous blooms!!!
Yes Lily.....very much bittersweet during this time of the year.....Also, to the other Lily....temps in the S.F. Bay Area usually don't get to far below 45...however, last year I think we had some record breaking lows....maybe in the high to mid 30's for a couple of days....
Frank
Heavenly weather! I'd love to visit in the near future. Congrats on your garden! Beautiful!!!
Very beautiful pictures Frank! LOL, your San Francisco weather sounds alot like our weather in Louisiana. We never know what to expect. This past week it drops down into the 60's at night, but in the day still in the 90's.
Cannagirl,
Lucky us...huh..LOL....I plan to go to Louisiana in December....Is there any place in particular to go where I can find some brugs?
Frank
Very pretty! Love that MM.
Thanks ZZsBabiez.....what's the weather been like in Lodi????
Frank
It's getting pretty cool at night.. we are just starting to get into the 40's at night.. days are in the 60's and 70's
I have not decided what I'm going to do with my big brugs in the ground.. I wish I would have sunken pots, but I didn't, so there is a lot of work ahead... or heartache who knows?
Frank, I really don't know of a nursery that offers brugs in my area of Louisiana. (Near Lake Charles) The few brugmansias I've seen weren't named. I purchase all mine from trusted Brug growers online, or trades with friends on DG, GW, & the Brugmansia forums.
Have a fun & safe vacation in La. this Dec.
how do you over winter your brugs up there in canada? I am getting ready to dig mine up.
3 of them. I plan to just bring them inside and keep the barely alive by my only window with light. I do not have a basement where I can let them go dormant.
What do you suggest as in am in zone 7 cold as well.
Thank you-:)
Hi Frank and Joyce, It's good to see you posting again.
Frank, I'm jealous of you being able to grow B. sanguinea. I fell in love with it before all other Brugs and I can't grow it here either. Too hot also. Yours looks gorgeous!
I've seen not only a color difference in my MM between seasons making it look, as indiana_lily says, like two difference plants, but also a change in the size of the calx exposing the corolla neck more. This shorter calx appeared in a flush in the dead of winter though and not in the fall. Maybe Joyce can clarify this. I had attributed the shorter calx to the drastic temperature fluxuations we get here in central Texas or to a physical injury. The thing is that the shorter calx didn't appear on other blooms later in the flush. Joyce have you seen this shorter calx on your MM at this time of year? Or is there a possibility that is not MM?
Here's a photo of my MM taken in the greenhouse early in February. The bud in the photo as well as other buds that opened later in the flush produced normal blooms.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/29409/
katrun - the CA is for California.
But i would love to know if anyone that sees lows into the 30's has successfully left them in-ground & mulched heavily with a positive outcome.
Mine are 4.5' & pushing 6' - pretty large to dig up. I was thinking that i would not be able to capture enough of the root system, plus I don't have any pots that big. Hmmm, trash can might work. Any ideas?
Katye, quite a few people, living on the bay side of the protective hills surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area, have some very large Brugs growing in the ground. In general, temperatures don't go much below 32ºF in winter and if they do, it is for a few hours, but there are exceptions. I remember that years ago the temperature went down to 18ºF in Fremont. It killed all kinds of plants and that was an overnight-only incident. How much damage to the Brug plant depends on it age and size. Large Brugs have so many branches and leaves that a short dip below 32ºF only gets the surface leaves and/or branches. Smaller ones don't have that self-protection and may die down to the ground, but usually return from the roots. They will have to go through the vegetative cycle all over again before they "Y" and bloom.
I've seen photos of Brugs stored in large garbage bags. Adding water would be issue if done with abandon. You could just take the tops in and root them in a bucket of water over winter. Mulch the remaining mother plants and see how they do in the ground.
Dear lord! Duh! School work makes me crazy.
I live in Norther VA and I mulched and put a plastic bag over like 5 of my brugs and only 2 came back.
The ones that did, grew very fast and big. ( they took a while to sprout) I thought they did not make it. I think it depends on the type of brug as well. I was given mine in a trade and one is I think Cupids blush and Jamaican Yellow.
I am going to do the same thing this year with the two and see what happens.
I just cut them down and took cutting- which I am trying something new because I lost most of them.- (Going to use peatmoss and wrap them up)
and then dumped a bunch of mulch I saved when they mulch my yard.
Wish me luck.
Much luck & warmer temps for you, katrun. I'd like some, too!
Bettydee - thank you. I used to live in San Francisco, and it was unusual to have the temps go that low, but I know it can happen. I'm not a big risk taker, so I dug up the Brugs today, potted up & plunged them. I will have a heater out in my shed that will come on when the temps go below 40°. I have some nice fuchsias that I'm going to treat the same way. I took many cuttings & will root them: back-up, just in case. I think I'll prepare a special bed for one in the cutting garden for next year & at that time try the mulched-root method. pPlease tell what happens - I'll be curious.
