Fleming Island Rachel

All I can say about this brug is WOW! The color on her is just amazing. She loves the hot weather, not pestered by bugs and she is a grower and bloomer. I wanted to wait until she has more blooms as she is dropping skirts all over the place but we are having such severe winds and she is sooooo tall I'm afraid there won't be much to photograph after the storm. I'm going out to home depot today to buy a ladder so i can pollinate her and retrieve pollen. This brug is registered but not released. The hybridizer is Ludger Schneider and the seedling parent is John Scott.
The cross is Kleine Lady x Everlasting Ruby.
What a great job these guys have done in producing this gorgeous cultivar!

more

And another

Full Tree. Look closely at the 8' stakes holding her up...she is towering over them!!

She is wonderful.. everything looks lush... and popping.. more zone envy here.. good luck useing her for developing the lines...

She is gorgeous Gary !

Wow, it's beautiful, Gary.

I am told that FI Rachel is now released.I believe it was Delisa who told me John had decided to release her.

That's news to me.......I'll talk to Delisa

Yes, The seedling parent Johnny told me she is released.

Delisa

Ok then..released it is!! Yipppeeee!!!

YIIPPPPEEE!!!
Very Nice to see you around Mz. Delisa!!!!
Beautiful!!!! One for the wish list ... and my wish list is very small...LOL
Kylie

WOW it looks so dark. I think I have one of these. I better figure out which one it is and give it some extra TLC.

I do not know how you fit all your brugs in to your yard, Gary. It really must be jungle. You always share such great shots.

Delisa, so good to see you here! WAVING!

Kell my yard is tiny...the trick is to grow them all as standards. I can fit more than twice the amount of brugs than if I let them get bushy. The downside is that when you grow as standard you have less to cut on unless you get a great wide canopy....The taller standard trees also provide much needed shade for the little ones below. I have a system that has evolved over the 4 or 5 years that I have been growing brugs in the yard here. As far as I can tell it seems to be working for me...

This message was edited Nov 22, 2008 6:27 PM

I so agree Gary. I do standards too for that exact reason plus they look neater too. Bushes can get so messy. Though I think you have me beat on numbers of big brugs. LOL. Of course I grow so many other things. I learned to do standards years ago with so many other kinds of plants. When you have a small space but great needs you need to do vertical gardening. I have more air rom than ground room. You get to have a huge canopy and also get to underplant with even more plants. LOL

I have over 60 rose bushes, some 72 inch standards that allow me to plant rose bushes under them. They still get enough sun for the standards start their top growth at the top of the 72 inches. Plus 10 huge crape myrtle standards, 6 tibouchina pruned to be trees that are a really good size, assorted fruit trees, many standard oleanders and so much more. I keep taking off the lowest branches as my standards grow up every year to allow more sun to shine under to all the first story plants.

My basic problem is life is I flit from one plant obsession to the next but I keep all the plants in each one as I go on my merry way. I rarely fall out of love, but just get new intense crushes that lead me astray.

This summer is the summer of succulents. I have a sea of small succulent pots which are driving me crazy. Next spring I will have many combo succulent BIG pots all over. You hardly can walk anymore in my yard anywhere. And no grass left. Today we are clearing a 12 ft by 15 ft rectangle to put up our winter hoophouse and it is so painful. My illness can't be hidden when confronted with how many plants I really have such as is happening today. My poor husband.

So are brugs your main love or do you grow other things with a similar passion?

Here is my courtyard in August. And these are all in pots except for the purple tibouchina in the back with are actually on the other side of the fence in my front yard.

I'm new to brugs. Are standards one main stem? Do you cut away all other stems? I have a five ft Cherup pink that just y'd. I like the look of the one big stem than the five or six stems or bushy look. But I will take brugs any way I can get them. They are such beautiful plants.

Here I am drooling again........... This one is beautiful.

Yes, the lollipop look. If you have a straight trunk that is tall, sure it will work. Seedlings are natural standards but you can even get one from a bush. Watch for a sucker to be put out from the roots or even low on the trunk you can get a long sucker growth that grows straight up. I would leave mine on my mother tree till it attains the height I want then cut it and root it. They seem to grow faster for me when I leave them attached. So I let it go to 6 to 8 ft and it usually then has Yed. If you leave a node or 2 when you cut you will get more shoots to cut later on.

I have an American Pride yellow that is 2ft tall and has five shoots coming up from the soil. I thought I would let them get a couple of feet tall and thicker and then cut them off and root them. My cherub has one shoot I plan on doing the same thing with. What an easy way to propagate yes?

Good, I can make my cherub and American into standards. Here is a pic of my cherub . She is now a foot taller and has y'd with little buds. I waited all spring and summer for this y-ing to happen.

Kell, how do you keep all those plants watered without over watering some and under watering others — use the same sized pots?

Bettydee that is the problem I face when I go to NY for the summer and leave the garden on automatic sprinklers. Every year i will lose some to root rot due to overwatering. I do have a reliable person who watched over the garden this year so i only lost 2 plants. If i want the luxury of being able to get out of florida during the blazing hot summer then a few lost plants is a small price to pay.......

I purchased a ladder yesterday so now the pollinating has begun. Rachel is looking like a christmas tree with pink wrapped presents!!
I had Rothkirch open today so using fresh pollen from both cultivars I made the cross both ways.

This message was edited Nov 23, 2008 9:41 AM

Beautiful courtyard, Kell. Be careful on that ladder, Gary. I have to have a ladder also to reach some of the blooms on my Brugs.

These are easy to root Texasgrower esp in spring when growth is on their minds. You can even root 10 foot ones so do not be in a hurry to cut them off. Your Cherub looks great.

Veronica, I water my entire yard by hand so I give some more water than others. But usually they are all in the state of being rootbound so they love all the water I can give them. We get no rain at all from May to November so I am it. The worst is all my bamboo. Drives me nuts though I am obsessed with bamboo. I put them in 25 to 30 gallon ceramic pots thinking they would be find for at least 3 days with no water but they want water everyday. They immediately filled the pots. I always thought bamboo was slow to grow which is why it was so expensive. Not true. It grows way too fast. When I have to get my husband's chainsaw out to divide them, he is going to kill me. I am only going to get 2 more bamboo, both with purple culms and then my obsssesion is over! I wonder how many hours I spend watering. Way too many.

Gary, I think it is great you can leave them like that. It is always an ordeal when I go, no one wants to be stuck watering mine. LOL. I even have to bribe my husband to do it. He HATES it. Your cross is going to be great! This is terrible to admit but my Rothkirch is over on the side of my house and the only way I can water it is I put my thumb over the end of the hose and it makes the water reach far. I can't get close to mine. I do not even know if it bloomed this year. But it sure looks good from afar, at least what I can see of it. LOL I have to get more organized here.

Hello Miss Ada. I was just thinking of you yesterday, well I think of you everyday. LOL. But I was thinking of you very fondly yesterday when I was looking at this most precious plant. Do you love it?

OH>>Kell..I didn't realize it was such a lovely varigated leaf... on the vine.. and with the pink flower.. a natural for here.. HAHAHA..and there..

Oh this is a different vine, Gordon. This is a new cultivar Ada found online and together we lusted after it for well over a year. It is from Monrovia, a California nursery. We both breathlessly awaited its release and I had 2 local nurseries who deal with Monrovia primed to order me 2 for us as soon as it was available. Well I could not get my hands on any and one day this one showed up in my mail box along with another special mandevilla from so sweet Ada. Though I was a failure, she located them from NC from Monrovia and had them sent. I still haven't seen one here.

Strawberry Lemonade Mandevilla. Don't you love that name?

Sorry Gary for getting so sidetracked from your gorgeous double PINK brug which truly is a beautiful brug. I remember when Delissa first saw this one in bloom and told me of its WOW factor.

Yes, Kell. I love the Strawberry Lemonade Mandevilla but I love anything that blooms and I really like Gary's Fleming Island Rachel. It's beautiful.

You are in luck Ada, I found mine and it has an extra branch with your name on it. I moved it into the hoophouse Tom just put up to fatten it up!

Wow, how lucky I am. Thanks.

What is that thing sitting next to it with the weird green hair? Kinda looks like some of the guys I work with on Monday mornings......... LOL

really nice colour and shape on that one

LOL Tetleytuna. It is a crested Pachypodium lamerei. I visit one all the time at UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens that is naturally crested. Mine is grafted but still such fun.

Very pretty. This one looks very worth growing.
Brugs here are all grown as standards, also.