Has anyone had luck with this Brug? Easy or hard to grow? I've heard they're slow growing. Any thoughts?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140181805397&ssPageName=STRK:MEBI:IT&ih=004
'Culebra'
I'm not the best at answering this because mine eventually died this summer when all my plants had to go without regular watering for two months due to my being very ill and not being able to go out and water. They had to rely on DH to give them a sprinkle or two after work. Prior to that I kept one alive and growing for two years. For me, it seemed to grow very slowly. I've read that she doesn't like it too wet so when I watered, I gave it water only if the soil was dryish. I kept her in the greenhouse, which has an opaque cover, to avoid the heavy rainfall we can get during the growing season. She didn't seem to mind 70% sun all day. I believe the greenhouse cover allows 70% of the sunlight through. I don't know what here insect resistance is because I have an unusal situation. I live out in the middle of nowhere here in central Texas. Spidermites and broadmites are seldom around and when they are, if I take care of the problem quickly my Brugs bounce back nicely. My biggest enemies are the hoards of grasshoppers that plague Texas. My 'Culebra' received fertilizer at the same time that the other Brugs did. I never gave it Bayer's 2 in 1 because she was in such a small pot and I was afraid to burn her roots.
Not too difficult to grow as long as you keep in on the drier side. It likes a little less water than most brugs. It can be a finicky bloomer, though - it will drop buds in higher humidity.
I grew it this year, watered it twice a day like the other brugs, and it had lots of blooms. We had a lot of heat and humidity this year and I didn't notice bud drop at all, but our temps aren't as bad as TX temps. My plant got to be good size. Biggest problem for me is the dang spider mites. They loved it.
This picture shows the size, but not the blooms.
Here are a few of her blooms. Pictures taken of the whole plant don't show the blooms well. JMO.
Shirley that is the most interesting brug...I think your pictures of it are the best I have ever seen...Judy
Shirley, the size of the plant is fantastic. Now I wish I had watered and fertilized mine more. I'll have to get a replacement, but it will have to wait. My DH is grumbling about my replacement Brug expenditures. I remind him that if he had been willing to water for me while I was ill, they wouldn't have died. Hehehe!
Thanks Judy. Betty, I wasn't very good about fertilizing my brugs this year due to the heat. After the first of August, I'd bet they didn't get fed more than once or twice a month. I wonder what it would have looked like had it been fed well. LOL! Kudzu maybe? Just kidding.
I think one of the problems with our Texas heat isn't so much that we get so hot, it's that we get so hot and stay hot for about 2 months (July & August) before cooling down to what most consider summer temps. Plus, our nights during that time don't cool off to really give them a break. Most plants I have go into a summer heat dormancy once we get to the extended hot period and slower growing ones don't have time to fully come out of it once it ends and before we get cold. So, they really only really good growing period they get is in late winter and spring (February/March thru June or so). I don't think we got back down to the 80's this year until October (maybe late September).
Carter, be honest now. "Hot" starts sometime in May and can last into October even here in zone 8b. But you are right about many plants going into heat dormancy. I was surprised when I first saw spring blooming plants bloom again in the fall.
shirley, those are lovely photos (as per usual :) )
Carter ,
I know exactly what you mean about 'summer dormancy'. It gets so hot here (120's easy) that the nights will stay 100-105. Not only my brugs get the 'dormancy syndrome' here but also other tropicals like bananas, ginger, heliconia etc. They flat out quit growing, don't bloom, and then you really have to watch the watering~just like most people do with thier plants in winter or you get root rot !! I really think the night temps have alot to do with it because once they cool down, they start growing again.
This heat dormancy thing is something a lot of Northerners do not understand. They think that because we in the hot south, have a longer growing season, that we should have blooms earlier then they do. It's just not so. Another thing is that in the north, the days are longer in Summer than it is in the south. More hours of sunlight and less heat and Brugs grown in the north will catch up and pass the ones grown in the south. Big Al always has blooms before we do.
Early this Summer there were temps in the 100 all the way up and into Canada. People were screaming about having to water twice a day and their Brugs still being droopy. That is a typical Summer in Texas. Not typical was the Summer of 1980, over 100 days of over 100 degrees.
kenboy
I wish I would have known about "summer dormancy" before. :( I almost lost MEM and Snowbank, because I overwatered them when the temps were horrible. I never dreamed that could happen! Luckily, I stopped overwatering in time, because they did start to grow back when it got cooler.
For about three years now, I've not had early summer blooms due to heat and drought. Shoot, I haven't even had blooms until late summer or early fall in recent years. Yes, maybe a brug here and a brug there, but when there are a hundred or more plants in the yard, that is a drop in the bucket. Even in a normal summer, I have to water a couple of times a day. This summer was really bad for lack of blooms. You guys in the south are lucky tho. When we have to put our brugs to bed after not having a lot of summer blooms, you get to go on and have late fall blooms. It's very hard to get seed pods to mature here. I think it all evens out in the long run. I'd still like to move south. LOL!
Shirley, Im with you....heading south and gardening is a wonderful thought when you are going to get 6 inches of snow in the next few days..moaning here.....Judy
lol, bettydee. True. I'm a true southerner, though. I don't consider it hot until it get's above at least 95. 80 to 90 is downright pleasant. Below 80, and I get a little chill. lol.
It is nice that we can get in the pool from late March to late October, though. :)
I was born in South Texas, but my comfort zone is between 68 and 74ºF.