Hi. I live i WI zone 5a. This is my very first season to Brugs and I am really unsure how to winter these oever and at what temp. Can anyone help me?
I ordered last spring 3 brugs 1 each in yellow pink and white. The yellow one bloomed for me this past fall but the other two didn't. When they temp decided to fall around 3 weeks ago I put them in the brand new sun room/green house. The yellow continued to bloom and one of the others got buds but dropped them before maturity. Now the leaves are yellowing and falling off in a rapid speed. Is this normal?? Do I need them to be kept at higher than 45*F? Shouldn't they be ikay for the winter if I keep the room at 45*?
Please help me if you can. I've gone overboard in plants the past 4 years and would love to just keep the ones I've got thriving and survivng instead of buying new every year. Hubby says the pocket book won't be able to surviv another hafta have growing season next year.
Any advice or help would be so greatly appreciated.
Any one tell me how to properly care for these?
It's normal for Brugs to drop their leaves when they are brought inside.
Does your sunroom warm up during the daytime hours or will it stay at 45 degrees all the time?
They should do fine at that temperature as long as you don't overwater them. Too much water in the bottom of the pot causes root rot especially in cooler temps.
Water sparingly and only when they need it.
Keep a watch also for any webbing as that is a sign of spider mites which love to live inside during the winter. With your cooler temperature though they may not be a problem as they prefer warm dry air.
I am hoping that the room will warm up during the day. We will set the heater on a timer for night temps as I think thats when the temp will drop more. The room faces a south exposure and gets the late afternoon sun from the west. Its getting a bit of eastern exposure now also since the tree lost all its leaves.
I know about the spider mites. I've been gardening just a short time outside but have always had house plants and believe me I know spider mites.creepy little things.
I thought that I'd keep checking the soil on my plants out there and when I can put my finger all the way to the knuckle in dry soil I would water. Does that sound about right?
Thank you so much for the advice Least I know they'll survive 45*. That makes me feel good. DH won't keep it any higher. I had to bargain my life away for that Its 39* outside right now and 53* in the sun room. So I don't know.
Do I cut these back after the leaves drop or do I wait til spring or do I not cut them back at all?
Do they do better in-ground or in containers?
I have no idea what I'm doing with these. But they're so cool looking!!!!!!
If they are not too big for your sunroom I would not cut them back. They flower from above the Y so whatever you cut off will be less flowers next year.
If you need to cut them back leave at least 6 to 8 leaf nodes above the Y as that is where your flowers will come from next summer.
There are many that keep their Brugs in pots and they do very well and then there are some that grow them in the ground and they also do well.
I've tried it both ways and found that here they grow better if put in the ground. In the heat of summer the pots need to be watered everyday and since I go camping often in the summer I'm not always here to water them.
I was given 3 big brugs at the beginning of the summer..........they may be beautiful but the foliage stays eaten by some bug all the time..............they are nice and big......and I feed them.......but never have even seen a bloom.............the big green bugs never let the leaves get very big..............
Oh, gessiegail, no blooms? I'd try to get rid of the bugs so the foliage comes back, it needs the leaves to absorb the sun and nutrients to be able to bloom.. It's probably a tomato worm, does it just strip the leaves? Please don't give up on them.. I have them mostly in pots but have used a drilled pot in the ground and I put one directly in the ground last spring. My growing season is over here, so it's all inside except the in ground one and I'm trying to protect the rootball and see if it comes back next spring... cece be very stingy with watering until you see some growth, and then don't saturate it... I've had them grow back from the roots in a pot under a table in the basement that only got water 2 or 3 times during it's rest, but the easiest way I've lost brugs inside during winter is over-watering.
Okay see if I understand this. If I cut them back I shouldn't really cut the "y" part off. That is where the blooms will be. Maybe thats one of them never bloomed.....no "y" part. I have plenty of room to leave them alone and not cut back so I won't. Thanks for the info.
I haven't had any pest problem eating the leaves. They are just turning yellow and falling off. So if understand this right......that is normal and not to really cut back if not necessary so I will have bare "stalks" all winter? If won't mean I've killed them? When I a plant dies my DH claims me as his"plant killer"
I have an old exsisting garden that the previous people who lived here used as a vegetable garden. We covered it with plastic to kill off the weeds and stuff. Its been covered two years now. DH is going to go a couple feet in on all sides and build a second tier and considering how big that is a third tier as well. I'm kinda playing around with putting my EE's of each end and the brugs down one long side in the bottom tier and vining plants of some kind from the 2nd tier and canna's in the 3rd tier (if there is one).
As long as I know brugs may do "well" in- ground I think that is what I may do.
Thanks for your word of encouragement...............my brother is a farmer and knew exactly what is eating them............a great big green thing............he told me to get malthion.......I need to spray them once and for all...........................I will do that..........
I usually watch for them, if I find large hunks gone from leaves or just the leaf "skeleton", I start looking close. It's usually toward the top at the newer, more tender leaves... then I just pick off and dispose or I'll take them to my neighbors yard and release... (just kidding, I usually just fling them out into the yard). But if you're experiencing an infest, I'd probably resort to chemicals, too.
thanks........I did notice that when the first norther blew through on Monday..........I moved them to a sunny south side of the house up against it............nothing is eating on them at this moment........yea for the cold weather..........(I guess?_
My brugs survive a garage that gets down to about 35 through most of the winter. I average one or two losses each winter out of about 25 or 30 potted brugs and each time, they have been weaker plants. If you do decide to cut away some of the top, leave several nodes on/above the Y so new branching can start there. It sounds like you have a good plan for planting. Good luck.