Hello everyone. I have a brug that already bloomed this summer; then hurricane Ike came through and defoliated the whole thing; now there is lots of new leaf growth and LOTS of new buds!! I can't believe it. Isn't it a bit late for them to be blooming? I thought it would only bloom once in a season. This is my first brug so I'm really not sure what kind of habits they have.
New to brugs - question
Brugs are voracious eaters. If well fertilized and watered, they will put out a flush of flowers every 4 - 6 weeks. With luck, you get to see it in bloom again. Any liquid fertilizer, such as Miracle Grow, mixed according to directions and applied twice a week will get them growing and blooming.
This is the best time of year for blooms in our zone. Mine will bloom from late spring up the first frost. Just give them good regular feedings and they should bloom every 4-6 weeks. Some plants even get a few blooms between large flushes.
Caren
Wow, I guess I just haven't been giving it enough food and water! Do they need to be wintered indoors in zone 9?
I bring in my trees and special plants but the ones I have in the ground will die back in winter but come right back in spring. Either way yours should do fine with no special care.
Caren
Great! Thanks a bunch guys.
Okay, that was very helpful, and now I have another newbie question. I'm wondering about how to prune these guys. All are new this year and only one has bloomed. The others, though, are putting out LOTS of side branches (instead of Y-ing). Should I prune those off? I still have 6-7 weeks of gardening left and would love to see some more of these guys bloom.
It would depend on what your in to. I like to train mine to trees and keep most of the branches below the Y trimmed off. If you want the plant to Y faster I'm not sure that just keeping the side shoots trimmed would get you there any faster. How close to a Y is your plant or are we talking cuttings here? Feeding may be your best bet. A bloom booster may get you there it its close... You also have time for 2 Messenger treatments if you use it.
I hope you get some more blooms!
Caren
pbtxlady,
First a few questions. Are your plants in the ground? in pots? Whether you prune or not depends on your personal taste as well. Do you like standards (tree like) or shrubby Brugs? It also depends on how you plan to overwinter your Brugs. In your area, Brugs planted in the ground will die down to ground level. Just before the first freeze, prune all branches down to below a foot and heavily mulch what is left. Remove all but a few of the smaller leaves off the cuttings and place them in a bucket filled with a few inches of water + a little hydrogen peroxide. Overwinter the cuttings indoors as backup cuttings in case your mother plant doesn't come back from the roots next spring.
If the Brugs are growing in pots, you will have to overwinter them indoors. You don't have to prune until next spring if you have plenty of room for them inside. Not pruning until spring has the advantage of avoiding die back on pruned branches. If you overwinter in a bright warm place, such as a greenhouse, your Brugs will not go dormant. They will continue to grow although at a much reduced pace. Some of mine even bloom in winter. If you need to crowd them inside to overwinter, pruning helps to save space.
It may sound a little flippant, but Brugs will "Y" when they are good and ready and not before. In other words, each cultivar has its own timetable and height requirement before they turn from vegetative growth to blooming growth. Leaving the side branches on helps to increase the caliper (thickness) of the trunk and increases the amount of food the plant produces. Keep them healthy and well fed. When they are ready, they will "Y".
Okay, well, that is encouraging!
I have a variety in terms of growth stages. A few were tiny cuttings last spring that are just now really getting going. It's the larger ones--3 feet or taller--that I'm wondering about. They were given to me at RU's, and either they had previously Y'ed, or they Y'ed last winter in my living room. But none bloomed this year or made any new Y's. These are the ones that are putting out all the side growth. Don't know if the variety makes any difference, but they are Peace, Dr Seuss, and Ted's two unnamed hybrids.
I do feed them every couple of weeks. Maybe I just need to add more phosphate to the mix.
Another question. If it won't make them bloom sooner--do they HAVE to be pruned at all? I do want to take cuttings, but I'd rather not do hard pruning unless they just really need it. The ones that I know are cold-hardy here are in the ground. The rest will overwinter inside and will probably not go dormant.
Brugs don't require as much phosphate as they do nitrogen and potassium. Phosphates tend to stay where deposited and work best when incorporated into the soil before the Brug is planted. Brugs are heavy feeders and need fertilizer, such as Miracle Grow, twice a week. Any other fertilizer will work also as long as it is water soluble. Slow release fertilizer is too slow.
You don't HAVE to prune the ones you take indoors unless you want cuttings. Those that will overwinter in the ground, will die down to ground level and will need to have the dead branches pruned next spring anyway. Pruning them just before the first freeze will make it easier to cover the remaining stumps with mulch. Live stalks put out new growth faster next spring.
Okay, I will check on the potassium and plan to prune the ones outside. Thanks for your help!
Potassium?
Yes, you said that they need more potassium and nitrogen than phosphate. I'm sure they're getting plenty of nitrogen, but I'm not sure about the potassium content.
I should have made myself clearer. Fertilizers provide enough potassium. What I meant was when you look at the fertilizer numbers normally shown on the fertilizer box, the middle number, which represents phosphate, should be lower than the nitrogen and potassium numbers, for example, 20-10-20. I'm sorry I confused you.
Okay, thanks for the clarification. :)
I am a first time brug owner. This little tree is about 31/2 foot tall and just finishing up an amazing bloom cycle. It is currently in the pot it came home in as I have been having trouble finding the right spot for it. My question is how well do they do in pots? How big of a pot would I need to put this in? Is it a good option, or will it do better in the ground?
This message was edited Sep 28, 2008 7:09 AM
In Arizona, you have the choice of leaving them in pots or putting it in the ground. There are advantages and disadvantages to options.
Brugs planted in the ground don't need watering as often and they get larger than those grown in pots. It looks like you are in zone 9 so the roots would survive winters in the ground although mulching would help to be on the safe side. Since the low temperatures are in the 20º - 30ºF range, the tops would die down to the ground. You might want to experiment with bubble wrap. In another thread, a DGer has successfully overwintered a Brug by wrapping it with 3 layers of bubble wrap. A Brug that dies down to the ground will have to start from the roots or that part of the buried trunk. It would have to go through the vegetative growth cycle before producing a "Y" and thus blooms. If you can protect the trunk and at least the first one or two "Y"s, you'll get a much larger plant by the end of summer.
However, it is too late to plant in the ground this year. According to suggestions by your extension service, tender plants shouldn't be planted in the fall as they won't have enough time to develop a large root system before the first frost. Wait until spring to put it in the ground.
Left in a pot, you have the advantage of being able to move it around the yard when it's in its prime and then move it to another location to recover. In locations where Brugs die down to the ground every winter, you will have to move the pot indoors to a greenhouse, the house, a garage, etc. A chore, I admit, but here the advantage is that you can protect the entire plant, not just the roots, from frost and you get blooms faster next year since the "Y" is still alive. If you still have another 1-1/2 to 2 months months before the first frost, re-pot it into the next size pot — not more than 2" all the way around the original rootball. The disadvantage is that during summer you may end up watering at least once a day, sometimes more.
There are other options. Some folks plant their Brugs in the ground and dig them up in the fall, pot the plant or wrap in plastic ready to go into the greenhouse. Others bury the pot letting the roots grow out the drain holes. In the fall, they dig up the pot, trim the top down to compensate for loss of roots and overwinter the pot indoors. Others still have taken the 5 to 15 gallon black plastic pots that plants come in from the nursery and used a holesaw to cut holes around the sides of the pots. Planted into those pots and in the ground, the Brugs will send out roots through those holes into the ground. The Brugs have all the advantages of being in the ground. In the fall, the pots are dug up, severing the roots even with the pots. The pots are then placed in plastic bags and taken indoors to overwinter. Again the tops would have to be trimmed to compensate for root loss. The last option would be to plant your Brug in the ground. In the fall, just before the first frost, make large cuttings, and overwinter the cuttings in a bucket of water. By spring the cuttings will have a large root system and you can pot it up. Since the cutting still has the "Y" attached, you get blooms almost as fast as the orginal potted plant.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/661617/
Oh you have been beyond helpful! Thank-you thank-you!!!
You're welcome. I hope your Brug continues to thrive.
I went out and bought a suitable pot this afternoon and will repot it when the sun sets a little, and it cools off a bit outside. I hope it thrives too- I just fell in love with this and brought it home without a plan. Now I've got one!
I just wanted to add for rntx22:
I live in Cypress,TX and had my brug in the ground last year and it bloomed well into November! Then to my horror, one day I looked out the window and it was brown and DEAD! I had read others comments about brugs coming back after winter so in early spring I cut it all the way down to the ground and my fiance laughed at me bc he didn't think it would come back. Guess what? It did! Tragedy did strike the poor thing. I was so excited bc it was a couple of feet tall and I was hoping to see some blooms before it got too hot (mine wilts with the hot hot sun). Then one day, despite my pleas to let me weed around it, the fiance whacked it with his weedeater. He felt so bad! He knew how excited I was, so we got another that weekend. After that, everytime it tried to grow either the dogs would trample it or it met an unpleasant whacking again. The moral of the story though, is that in our region I don't think they NEED to be in pots or brought in. Also, this time of year is my favorite bc plants do so much better. Our summers are so hot and my poor plants show it. Once September hits and the humidity is lower, my roses start to grow and bloom like crazy also. Last year I think the Brug got to its tallest in the fall and produced amazing flushes of flowers. Good luck!
Oh and a small note about my latest brug. It took almost all summer to bloom (didn't bloom until about August), but it is pretty hardy. We thought for sure Ike was going to take it way and we'd have to buy yet another next spring. Low and behold though, it survived Ike! Not all my plants did. :(