So I have 40 some brugs mostly noids, but bought a few of the dollar cuttings from the DG sales. All the noids grow great but my Supper Nova cutting is just starting and will not get bigger... but they are all doing great. So what do you grow by way of Brugs and how do you like and care for them in Texas?
Brugs - do you grow them?
Mitch, I am a brug addict! I have about 30 but the ones that have done the best are the unnamed ones. I leave them out all winter and they die back to the roots but grow fast once it warms up.
I have a couple that don't grow, like Tiara and Knightii, I don't think they like our brutal summers.
My most cherished one was a triple orange I bought on Ebay.....but, it died. I wanted to cry, I had such high hopes for it and it was $30 for a little cutting! I hate to spend that much on a plant no matter how pretty it is. So now I'm making a list of brugs that perform despite the heat.
Which named ones do well for you?
Tequilla Sunrise, Snowdrift, Miss Emily - they are my only named ones from the summer all the others I just bought named this summer. My noids are really really great grower - what about a Noid makes it love to grow?
I have no idea but one of mine gets as big as a small tree and the smell is divine, like honeysuckle sprinkled with baby powder lol
Do you bring yours in for the winter?
It's such a pain to keep them watered in the summer I just put them in the ground and hope for the best.
I have 20 or so in ground and 20 or so in the house.
I have to water - and water a lot to keep them going.
Move it up to a bigger pot! Then when spring comes after the last frost for sure plant out in part shade at least. Mine are on the North side of the house in almost full shade and very moist, mulch is you new friend.
3 NOIDs here. Shared by friends locally. I have a pink, a yellow and a white... all in large pots. No more room at the inn to bring them in. They do take a good deal of water in the pots in summer.
Appropriate fragrance description!
Quoting:
I read that and could smell it. LOL like honeysuckle sprinkled with baby powder
Funny is it not that the Noids love to grow and the named ones, some more then others, can be so hard to get going?
I have about 50 named Brugs, but most are young cuttings since I've had to start over. I had more, but lost most of them this past summer when I couldn't go out and water them. I also received some replacement cuttings from a fellow DGer. Mine are in pots with the roots allowed to grow into the ground outside. When I take them into the greenhouse, I have to prune those roots off. Keeping them in pots allows me to give more of them the afternoon shade they need in this hot Texas summer.
Fly_girl, I can empathize with you on losing expensive Brugs. I love my pink Brugs, both single and double, but I had a lemon yellow small flowering Brug that had the most fantastic fragrance. You could smell it from across the yard. It died in the greenhouse last winter when my DH lowered the thermostat to save propane.
One of my favorites is Creamsickle, a double light peach, which usually blooms a creamy white here. Given what she needs, she'll have wonderful flushes with a few blooms in between. The fragrance is like baby powder.
Betty that is stunning...
ooooo pretty Betty ...
y'all see what happens when I stroll around the posts now I see I have another plant to get and try my hand at growing that I never had before.
DH may try putting me out in the greenhouse one of these days...ROFL
Cocoa_lulu, if you can don't put it into a bigger pot unless it's growing vigorously. They are very susceptible to root rot. I keep my Brugs in the greenhouse during the winter where they stay green, don't go dormant, but are not growing actively. I have to be very careful watering them. I guess you could say they go into a stupor until it warms up.
Another of my favorites is Mountain Magic. I received a small cutting late November of 2006. I took most of winter to root, but she did. She finally bloomed in October. Color is gorgeous! I hope the fragrance improves when she is larger. The few blooms she had weren't very fragrant.
Mibus2, once you get bitten by the Brug bug, there is no going back. LO
L
Well thanks to your pics I think I am bit now and have to go find me one or two to try ...and if they smell that's even better
Phyllis
Are you coming to the Waxahachie swap? I just might have some cuttings for you.
*looks around room* ya talkin to me????????
Oh Betty, Creamsickle is so beautiful! And you're right......once you're bitten there's no going back and you can't just have one either!
When I cut mine back in the fall I just threw away all the pieces, I didn't think anyone would want them because they were unnamed, but maybe there are others that don't really care about their names. Next fall I'll keep them and dmail me if you would like some, I'll gladly share.
Mibus I sure am.
Some times they do that. cocoa lulu - give it time and it will grow
Oh, I love this thread! :)
I'm new to brugs too. I got 5 at the October swap, from Mitch, Kim, and Ted. Kim's are named, Mitch's is a NOID, and Ted's two are his own crosses. Three are cuttings; two are 3' plants. I was under the impression they kinda went dormant during the winter and needed frost protection. But they're all growing, so I'm not sure I'm treating them properly.
Right now they are all in a sunny window inside. One of them let me know it needed more light by just--overnight--making this huge loop over towards the window (LOL!). The bigger ones have y-ed.
What should I be doing? I'm not fertilizing, except that all my indoor plants get a little coffee and beer mixed into their water now & then. Should I be expecting them to bud out this time of year? Should I be giving them more fertilizer? Or should I just let them rest, like I thought, and go for it in the spring?
pbtxlady, The Brug that has "Y"ed may produce a flower or two if it is growing. Mine don't go dormant. Their growth does slow down quite a bit. Once they take off this spring, you will have to feed them more than beer and coffee. Brugs are heavy feeders. They don't need as much phosphate. I give mine hibiscus fertilizer. This type of fertilizer comes closest to what Monika Gottschalk recommends. If you are interested in an organic (mostly) fertilizer go to the Brugmansia Forum and The Recipe thread. I haven't tried it yet because I don't have all the ingredients. Be on the look out for pests that appreciate the low humidity in the house.
Yep I use the recipe now and they are loving it.
Mine never really go dormant.
Patti, here is the link to the forum with the recipe, I saw it and tagged it for reference.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/803019/
Josephine.
My cuttings that I bought from flowerjunkie are growing like crazy. They are in shelves turned upside down so that they will hold water. I keep them in about an inch or so of water and they wick the water up to the roots. I have them in my sunniest windows. My creamsickle has bloomed inside. It is the first brug that I bought. I have always left it outside and let it die down and come back. This year I brought it inside and put it in front of my back door and left the glass storm door closed and opened the wooden door. I keep it watered and put coffee and manure on it. It loves the treatment so far.
I got a very large white noid at the arlington RU and it is growing beside the creamsickle, but no blooms as yet in spite of lots of growth.
I took cuttings from a friends noid yellow and some of them are 3' tall already. I got pink favorite from the Arlington ru as a cutting and it is doing fine, but doesn't have as much growth as the ones from flowerjunkie. Her cuttings had so many white nubbies for starting roots that I think that may be the difference.
My house looks like a nursery, that goodness DH loves me, cuz he isn't too crazy about it, but tolerates it.
I think using the upside down shelves that hold water may be helping with the humidity and so far I haven't had bug problems. The plants don't stay soaked, they just stay moist as they wick up the water as they need it.
Here is my creamsickle blooming inside.
blooming inside - now that is a good plant mama at work.
Beautiful Charlene.
Very pretty Charlene, what are the 'upside down shelves'? Do you have a picture of them, they sound interesting.
Wow, thanks for the recipe. Since I'm organic, that will help a lot!
Edited to say: Okay, this sounds a lot like the "concoction" I make up during the summer to fertilize all my blooming plants. I make up compost & alfalfa tea, and throw in most of these things. Other stuff I might add if I have it on hand: corn meal, corn gluten meal, cottonseed meal, baking soda, milk, coffee. I brew it a couple of days, and pour (not spray) it. I only put the epsom salts in once or twice a year, though.
Mitch, instead of beer, you can use a 39 cent package of dry yeast from the grocery store. .
This message was edited Jan 24, 2008 11:51 AM
If you lived in central Texas with the wonderful alkaline rocky soil, and you wanted to try your first Brug, would you do it in a container? I would love to have something that I can put in the ground and not have to worry about but I can get one in a greenhouse in the winter. So, what would you guys suggest as my first attempt?
Annie
Annie, I think they would do fine in a container, it's just more work to keep them watered. You could also try one in the ground and then dig it up, which is a form of root pruning, in the fall and put in a pot.
That is just what I have been trying and it works wonders - really.
Annie, they do have a vigorous root system. How much top soil do you have? Maybe putting it in a raised bed that you have amended with plenty of compost and maybe a bag of manure, it would probably do much better.
Fly_girl, if you let the roots grow out the pot drain holes, they don't require as much water. Even in the ground, they are water hogs.
Charlenesplants, you will have to designate that beautiful plant as a NOID. This is what Creamsickle looks like:http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/37987/
My first photo is a photo of my Creamsickle plant.
Misnomers have been a topic of discussion on the Brug Forum many times. In the past. I've purchased what I thought was a named Brug only to discover later that it wasn't what it was supposed to be. If I liked it and decided to keep, it took on the NOID name. Those were costly lessons. Now before I bid on a Brug, I do my homework. You do have to be careful with the PlantFiles though. I have seen photos of different Brugs under the same name.
Right - When I really want a brug I only buy from a DGer, nothing on ebay I learned that with daylilies - half my ebay DLs turned out to be old ditch lilies.
Regarding digging up Brugs: Many Brug growers plant their Brugs in those heavy black 5 gallon pots that you can get from nurseries. Before they do so, they use a keyhole drill bit to make holes in several places around the sides of the pot. This allows the roots to grow comfortably out the sides. When you are ready to lift the pot, you cut the roots level with the pot. These pots don't usually have holes out the bottom. So once you've severed the side roots, you are done. The pots are then placed in garbage bags with holes cut out to allow water to drain out. The bags help keep the roots from drying out.
I just place the pot on a bare patch of soil and let the roots grow out the bottom. Just be careful and don't place the pot over Bermuda. I've done that before and ended up having to wash all the soil off the Brug and pick out all the grass stems. It's surprising how quickly Bermuda can take over a pot.
5 gallons, that sounds small - Ted was telling me I needed 10 to 15 with the move and having to bring them inside for the winter. If 5 gallons will really work I cna stop looking for bigger pots at all these work sites.
Mitch, here's a link to some of the discussions on pot size:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/687780/
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=548662
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/489169/
Betty I have all those printed out, guess I just trusted Ted more seeing he is in the Texas forum all the time.
I love the double potting idea - how easy can you get, and 5 gallons all the way.
help, help. Just went to the makeshift greenhouse. The seedling bowl with the brug cuttings has a fuzzy moldy looking stuff growing on top of the soil.