Help, i have 2 brugs, both noids that are covered in buds right now, but when the buds try to open, there are no flowers in them. I have never seen this happen before. Is it normal? What is happening? Thanks, Linda
Brugs with empty buds?
Linda, are there any holes in the calx? Split a few of the calces in half. Using a magnifying lens, examine the inside base of the calx. Is the corolla completely missing or does it look like its been eaten off? If chewed off, you'll have to look for the culprits, but chances are the damage has already occurred. If the corolla never formed, you'll have to look at either environmental or genetic problems. Is this the first time those two have bloomed? Are they the same NOID? Do you know if the mother plant had normal blooms?
I've never had that happen to my Brugs so I'm guessing here. If it's not a genetic problem, it has to be environmental problem. What was the weather like late this summer? Did the plant undergo any stress when the buds were forming? How often did you fertilize? Brugs are heavy feeders and can easily handle fertilizer twice a week. Did they go dry as the buds were forming?
Thanks Bettydee, One of these brugs is a yellow noid that had already bloomed twice this year. I bought it at a farmers market in july and it has been gorgeous. The other is a noid that has never bloomed. I have had it for several years, but it was terribly neglected and only this year was it treated like a brug. This is the first time it has had buds.
since I have posted this, some of the buds have opened and will have yellow flowers. The ones that looked empty actually looked as though the flower simply fell out of the calyx. It was weird. They didn't really go dry, we have had a tremendous amount of rain lately. I can't figure out what happened. Linda
The flowers may have spent and the corola felt off the calyx, you may have some seedpods there that were open pollinated by moths at night. Could they have bloomed, and you didn't notice them?
Here is one of my tiny seedpod that was open pollinated. This brug was out of the way, and I had several other brugs blooming in various sites in the garden. Then one day I noticed this calyx -- viola! It was indeed a seepod inside, I tore off the paper-thin calyx cover to show off the 'okra' like seedpod inside:
I've had some mysterious bud drop in recent months as well. I wondered at first if it was nutritional, but after I happened to soon observe an older bud that apparently dropped- it was in fact, chewed off by a caterpillar. However, the calyx and all were chewed off cleanly, so I don't know if this exactly applies to your situation.