She's about to.....#41 Brug Addicts Chat

Welcome to the Brug Addicts chat! We talk about family, friends, pets, and our favorite flower, the beautiful Brugmansia. So sit long and talk much!

We came from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/931012/

Hey ladybugs, anybody here itching for Spring? HAHAHA ☺

We are having nice weather, almost like spring, but you never know when the cold damp weather will arrive again. Just don't feel like getting out and pulling weeds just yet. I do check on my brug with the buds, waiting patiently for a sign that the flower will come bursting out.

So glad Lexi is adjusting to the leash I hate to think of having to get rid of a dog. My friend has new baby mini-schnauzers born on Dec. 23rd. There were 5, but the runt didn't make it. They are gaining weight so should be nice and healthy.

Hi all!

just checking in to let you know that both I, and my brug babies are all surviving. It was awful cold last week. I only lost one branch on one brug that rotted. I cut it off as soon as I noticed it ( I think it was sticking out under the porch and got frost on it) I have now moved all my brugs up against the house on the porch, so they are better sheltered :o)

still recovering from surgery and seems everything just wipes me out! so I havent been on line much lately. just wanted to check in with you all and wish you all a safe and happy new year ^_^


was spring like weather for me today too! kinda eerie! lol!

Hugs to all!

AnjL

I'm sorry to hear of so many people under the weather. It is hard to muster strength when you've been wiped out. Somehow we do manage though to do just what we need to do. Tammie I do pray you will get better and stronger. Don't worry about the plants. The strongest survive. Anjl, I'm glad to hear you are improving. Take it slow.

My family is so sick right now. Grandbaby has lost a pound from diarrhea and vomitting and now a head cold. Mom is with us because she is too weak to care for herself with the same bug. She was in the ER yesterday. Am I repeating myself? I don't know. it's been a lost few days. I've lost 6lbs in four days hurling cookies and diarrhea. Daughter and SIL are sick in the stomach. Only my hubby was spared. Thank God. Somebody had tobe healthy enough to care for us. This is a Christmas none of us will forget.

I want to share my Cherub which finally bloomed this week. Has a beautiful fresh rose smell. This is my first. Thanks to Bonnie for getting me through how to winter her over in my zone way back in Sept.

that chrub is beautiful.. sorry eveyone is feeling ill, it has been spring like during the day here but freezing below at night.. hanging in here with my job and the basement garden.. luvyas. Debra

Very nice bloom texasgrower,,,,,,,,,,,,,James

That cherub is sooo pretty!
Hope that all of you get better real soon.

James how is your new garden doing so far?
Happy New Year everyone!!!!

LK

Thanks, Debra, James and Linda Kay. She was so worth waiting for. But I am just as anxious to see all my new cuttings grow up to be whatever they are too.

Linda Kay, can you give me the recipe for the pickles you brought to the Fall RU? You did bring them right? My hubby and S-I-L loved them all gone.

Baby Maddie is going to the Dr to get IV fluids. She has a fever of °101. She just won't drink and eats very little. I'm glad she's getting fluids, she needs the help right now.

Happy New Year toyou all too. Please stay safe.

Easy sweet hot pickles

Combine all ingredients in large bowl

1 gallon of dill pickles, drained & sliced any way you want
1 4 pound bag of sugar
2 ounces of tabasco sauce, more or less to taste
1 whole garlic bulb, minced
1 bay leaf for each jar (9)
pearl onions

Combine all ingredients, and stir until all sugar is dissolved. Pickles will make enough juice to fill jars. Place pickles in clean sterile pint jars. Seal and place in hot water bath for 10 minutes.
This will make 9 pint jars of pickles.
If you do the hot water bath, they will not have to be placed in the fridge.

Karen, did I get that right. you made some too.


Enjoy.

LK

Thanks Linda Kay. I have saved it, printed it, and given it to my husband.

Evening all ya Brug Buddies!

it almost gettign to be that time that we wil be startign a new year. Incase I asleep want to make sure I wished ya all A Happy New Years and may ya all have the best bloomign season of the new year and may all your troubles and illnes blow away liek grains of sand.

That said, now where's the party? I got the munchie's? Anybody got pringles???? Hope ya all have a good time whether it be goign out or staying home. Hope ya all stay safe! Rocking New Years Eve on tv will be waitign for me. Gonna watch it and ring in the new year wit a cup of coffee.

Karen.. who is that brug in th epic. She sure is pretty!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!!! Love to you all ^_^

May the New Year bring all of you health and happiness. And may I add some beautiful healthy brugs. ^_^

Happy New Year to all of you and I hope we see many many blooms in the coming new year! ( good health as well! )

Happy New Year!! here are some greens for prosperity ^_^
Anyone that has over-indulged the pot likker is glorious!!!
Love to you all!

mmmm nicer with a pic lol!!

enjoy : )

Happy New Year!!!

May the new year bring health and prosperity to all!! ( and NO MORE SURGERIES!!) lol!

{{hugs}}
AnjL

Amen to that Anjl! A watched pot never boils, well I've discovered a watched brug doesn't bloom. I thought I would see the bud starting to open the beginning of the new year, but it wasn't meant to be. Took my daily walk out to the back fence to take a look, did see a tiny bud had fallen off, but the bigger ones are holding on. If this nice weather continues I should see some color soon... I've discovered you need patience with these babies.

Hugs
Pegi

What is that other old saying.. Good things come to thos ewho wait. Yep, they an excersie in patience, but they sure gonna look pretty and be worth the wait when they do.

Ya got me anxious to see yoru baby when it blooms too. Good thign about brugs though at least the blooms last for more than one day if ya happen to not look a day. Nothign worse than waitign for a bloom, havign to be busy and forgetting only to discover ya misse dit and have to wait another whole year for it.

You're right about the blossoms lasting more than a day. I had a MG open while I was sick and I missed it. It only opens for a day. Thank goodness there are more buds so I will get to see the color that another MGer hybridized ? and gave me the seeds.

My Cherub has opened the remaining six buds and now I'm waiting for them to blush. Now I know why I love this plant. It's beautiful and smells so divine.

Maddie and mom are on the mend, finally. God answers prayer. Little Maddie still has pneumonia but at least the lower GI is improving. I have missed my grandbaby something awful. Especially wanting to hold her when she's feeling so rotten. But mom has to come first. Maddie has a mom and dad to care for her. Mom has me. Glad to do it though. I want her around for some time.

HAPPY 2009! I'm yearning for spring. Not too badly, it has been in the 40's during the day and sunny off and on.. freezing at night... but still mild for my area. The holiday decor is coming down and I will be sowing some seeds in a week or two... starting off with the red sang brug seeds from Wolfie and some Easter Egg plant seeds and I'll throw in some passion vine seed just for fun.. I'll probably find some others as I'm searching for these...(ya'll know how it goes..) Debra, so glad to hear you still have your job, thanks for posting those iochroma blooms, I must get some of these this year..(I need more plants to bring in and out ;) I so hope everyone and their loved ones that are ill are on the road to recovery.. Congrats to Jeanne on that GORGEOUS Cherub bloom! So lovely.. I've lost a couple cuttings but overall, the plants are doing okay downstairs. Seed pods are still holding and blooms are still coming.. it's really quite an uplifting feeling when I'm down there fussing. I miss having it all outside. I was able to go outside and pick up a few limbs blown out of the trees, I even had a little fire in the chiminea and had coffee out there (YES, it was morning and I was out there in my terry robe and slippers..lol) ... so, yep I am yearning for spring... but I'm not sick about it.......yet. Cabin fever usually sets in in Feb for me.. lol

Hope everyone is hanging in there for Spring.. I had an accident and am down in my back,, can't hardly move.. good thing DH is on vacation, he is going to water the basement garden for me tommorrow.. cuttings are leafig like crazy, all my winter seeds I have sown are popping up, mgs vining, Iochroma, begonias, mexican petunias and kaloanchos still blooming, so is the cestrum.. weird seeing it bloom down here.. wish my brugs would follow suit! I now have three seedlings from seedsprout up.. cant wait to see those babies.... my passi vines are going crazy, plummies they are putting out leaves, no flowers yet.. my bulbs in the pits are all up down here.. can't wait to see them ( even the allium, Bonnie) the crinium is regrowing as is the banana tree.. wow! Happy New Year may iyt be evergreen for us all!

I have six brug seedlings up from seedsprout. I can't wait to see those babies either.. I have four different types of mgs with buds. My little desert roses are getting barrel chested and are healthy although they are only inches high. My egg tree seedlings (3) are getting taller. I gave one to my S-I-L for Christmas. The Haight Ashbury rooting I got at the RU is taking off. The Texas Star has died back and is putting out new leaf buds. Almost all the brug cuttings are small trees. I moved four outside with the Cherub and Pride. They spend the night in the workshop. There will be about three more joining them in another two weeks or so.

I plan to start some MG tree seeds this month. I will be going through my other seeds like the columbine and indian feather.

Bonnie, did you read my post to you on She's About To # ? Thanks to your generosity with your time and resources I now have a brug bible. Thank you for including me in the mailing. It is a tremendous help. The white NOID cutting you sent me has triple Y'd. Did the parent plant do that? I also guess that there will be no seed pod for me with the cherub since there is no other brug blooming right? So do I just trim off the spent bloom or let it fall off?

Debra, I'm so sorry you hurt your back. Thank God for DHs. He's at his best when he's caring for me. I usually do everything myself then I know it's done right. So I think he likes being able to do for me.

I was thinking of having a fire in our outdoor fireplace tonight but may save that for tomorrow night or Sunday morning since we are still housebound. It is fun to sit in front of the fire with coffee or tea.

So sorry I'm not keeping up with DG, it's just been hectic w/the holidays, the kids have gone home and I'm still getting the decor put away.. you're all very welcome for the short article I wrote on my experience with brugmansia in zone 5... if anyone here wants one and didn't get one, let me know. We can work something out.. I printed off a few extra's.. ;) Dmail me, if you don't get my attention on the thread... Yes, Jeanne, if you don't have another brug blooming to pollinate with, just remove the spent blooms. I thought about trying to cross some blooming downstairs, but I still have my ripening pod from the Antique Lace/Versi cross last summer and Maya has about 7 or 8 pods holding. I probably won't grow out any from Maya and just a few from the cross I made...I have too many brugs already! I do need to "weed" some out next spring, I won't be able to support them all with food and soil. Your fire sounds divine, Jeanne... it's 17 degree here today... burrr Debra I'm so sorry to hear about your accident... so glad DH is taking such good care of you and your babies, hope you're feeling better. Do you have any gingers? I was oogling over Snow Princess and White Swan in the PF.. (chased myself out, I don't NEED any new plant "interests") lol Anybody heard anything from JB?

Hi Bonnie, just hobbled down and had to get on here.. I have some ginger seeds, would love to send you some, I have ot ever grown any out, but after seeing Tropicmans' ginger in bloom decided I wanted to try.. I have a huge yard as you do, but since I have so many irons in the fire decided to wait on the ginger seed grow outs until late march..I went out to feed the squirrell family and the birds and water them and it is sooo cold.. My duke dog has his brown plaid sweater on, looks like an old man LOL ...

Hey all! I've been busy too, had my friends funeral to go to yesterday, and I've planted all my seeds and have em cooking on the heat pad. I planted 8 trays and 8 milkjugs full of them! Deb dear, thank you SO much for the seeds you sent! I appreciate them very much! I hate to hear you had an accident, I sure hope you feel better soon. Gotta take care of yourself so you'll feel like gardening come spring!

Out of all those seeds I planted, you will not believe that on the heat mat, the white hyacinth vine seeds Bonnie gave me sprouted overnight, with no pre-soaking, and are all over 1" high!!!! They must be super seeds! This is my first time ever planting seeds so I am really proud to see results so soon.

Jeanne, I've been meaning to tell you, since I know you have butterfly bushes in pots right now and will plant in-ground in the spring........I planted mine in ground in September and they have grown much bigger throughout the winter and stayed very green despite the freezing temps we've had. Even the 2 that were only 5 inches tall and planted in late October are thriving. I have not covered whatsoever!!!! Or watered, for that matter. I don't water in ground in the winter, and they are thriving! That should make you feel good about yours in our area next winter.

OT, but if any of you want to see an epic movie of a lifetime you must see The Curious Case Of Benjamin Buttons... The best movie I've seen in 5 years, and believe me I'm an avid movie watcher. This one is worth the price of a movie ticket, you won't be disappointed!

Well, I'm taking up Earth Box veggie gardening this year! You can yield 50 lbs. of tomatoes with only TWO PLANTS!!!!!!!! Already have my tomato, squash, collards and corn seed ordered from Parks. I am buying the cheaper $29.00 kit and providing my own soil and fertilizer which makes the complete kit more heavy and costly. I am absolutely thrilled and convinced over this method of veggie gardening for me, and thought some of you might like to see it. You can also make your own Earth box if you don't want to buy.....There is a great self-contained box garden forum here at DG also, here at:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/boxgardens/all/

Here is the link to Earth Box if you want to see it:

http://www.earthbox.com/consumer/grow.html

C'mon, on of you Brug Addicts earth box with me this year! Love you all so much, Karen

Karen... TPlant is the King of Earthboxes. Look him up and search for his posts. Man oh man, what you will learn from him. he always in the Tomatoe forum and the veggie forum.

he using coir now in his eb's . Thread abotu it in the veggie forum.

Debra.. Then ginger seeds gonna need lots and lots of heat to get them to germinate.

Texasgrower. Good for you!!!!! I stil to chicken to start mine from her. LOL But gonan get busy here soo and get massive seed sowign started.

AuntB..Shame on you. Too many brugs?? Ya a bruggie. Ya never supposed to have to many. heheheh : )

All of my butterfly bushes are doing well. I have one in the ground that doesn't look fazed by the weather. The two in pots are green and healthy. I didn't get them covered when I was sick and they folded in a little and then bounced back. I have been adding gypsum to their beds for spring and will add compost so they have a place ready for them in April. Everybody will be in the ground this year.

Cold front has moved in. We started out at 62° at 8am and now it is 49° at 2pm. GH is 57° though. Holding it's heat well. There is a fire in the wood stove again. The palm tree is lit. A taste of Florida brought to Texas. ^_^

This message was edited Jan 4, 2009 2:13 PM

That is a great web site Karen. I had to put it in my favorites so I can watch all the videos. I won't be able to plant like that since I spent so much on putting in a raised bed last year, but looking forward to seeing your earth box produce. This year I want a drip watering system and have a lot of worm castings I'm going to use as my fertilizer. I've talked to a gal who uses it and said it works great. I've been saving my egg shells and I'm crushing them up for the calicum. Think I will need a lot of shells though. LOL Guess I better invest in the dolemite though.

Still no signs of blooms yet on my brug, but got camera handy for when she does start opening.

Ella, yes, it didn't take me long to discover TPlant is the king over in that area, LOL! I will be using coconut coir in my earth boxes too...dirt cheap, easier that dirt, and last years and years with unsurpassed growing abilities they say...

Hello everyone hope you all are feeling better.

Morning everyone.
Hope you all had a wonderful New Year! I had my DIL, and granddaughter all week-end, now I have a quiet house back. We had a great Christmas and New years, and now it is time to put all decorations away.
Karen, that earthbox looks very interesting. I may try to build one and see how it goes.
Hope your all staying warm. It is 38 here, with a little drizzle rain. I can't complain, it is winter I guess.
Be good, and I will be lurking...
LK

RoseGirl! How ya been? Hi, LLK, it was sure a lot more fun decorating, than un-decorating... cold and sunny this a.m... I came to DG to get a job website from a Dmail and I couldn't not stop in here... Deb, I'm sure you are being careful and it's good to know you are up and around.. don't overdo.. I would love to try the ginger seed.. I have a heat mat (full of brug babies, (are some of these yours?)but I'll make room)... I would like to end up with 1 or 2 plants from the seedlings, but I could start (try) some for you, too.. Gosh, ya'll are so busy with plant projects...Karen, so glad about the white HB, it wasn't exactly fresh seed.. ?! I've thought about those EB, but only scratched the surface.. I really want to follow your links... but I'm out of irons to put in my fire. lol I love hearing about yours and who knows, maybe it's a Spring project for me. Jeanne, love your tropical texas image.. I made a palm tree of Christmas lights on a morning glory trellis on my deck.. I like seeing it lit with a blanket of glistening snow around it.. reminds me of a desert oasis.... I still light it up at night... ok, back to reality.. I need to get busy around here.. no more procrastinating.. Pegi, I know.. shameful of me.. but see, I have OTHER plant "interests". I love annuals and my zone hardy plants too, but my passion seems to be the tropical stuff... they all must be hauled 2X/yr.. I'm a small woman.. w/afflictions.. ;) we (they) can get 3 big tubs in the trailer at a time.. it takes a while to get it in and I always have more than the year before..?..... weeks actually, with the prep, but then it pretty much just takes a few hours to get it all out in spring.. oh, I just love all the spring talk.. but I must get some chores done. Then, I can get my seeds out! woohoo ;)

AuntB,i've been good how are you.Just ready for it to warm up again.

Heya Rose Girl! I'm sorry I was so preoccupied yesterday I didn't see you come in!!! Where you been girlie, we've missed you here! {HUGS}

Bonnie, those darn Hyacinth Bean vines, in only TWO DAYS have grown to the top of the seed tray cover and bent back over towards the soil, I swear it is SCARY!!!! I still think it is because you sent me a good luck charm, LOL!

Oh, my bruggie babies can't wait to get out into a little sun! They are living, but not thriving in the greenhouse....leaves are sort of limp, alot of cupped, un-natural looking leaves, and strange colors in them. They get huge amounts of light and heat when needed. Next year a de-humidifier is most definately on the wish list. I don't care if I go a month without a drop of water the pots are still all wet and I have done every remedy under the sun to combat fungus gnats. Only good strong natural sunlight will bring these babies back strong. If we ever get a week of good warm weather I may go ahead and tackle moving them outside for a few days to perk up.

Oh that's ok i understand.I've been here and there.Sorry i have not check in sooner.

Hi all. Had to follow 3 links to try to catch up and I just skimmed. I was off all last week and still sick from whatever this flu stuff is that's going around. I've had it over a month now. It got better for a week and then I overdid again! I am so far behind in everything, it's not even funny! I spent the last 5 days wrapped up in a blanket on the couch.

Hope you all had a good holiday. Anjl, hope things settle down for you. And thanks Bonnie. You're a sweetie.

I think I am loosing my Naughty Nick start. Have cut it back twice and it just keeps shriveling.

Some of the cuttings will shrivel up. That is the natural process. Just keep it in water, until it sprouts. I have one cutting, that looks completely hallow, but I have new shoots coming out of it.
Glad to hear your feeling better. Hope you had a good holiday.
LK

Hi all popping in to hug ya all and I tell ya I have sprouts and vines all over the place here.. auntB your cherokee third generation and red wild mgs are vining, and the shriveled sticks have leaves in the moss let me tell ya if it looks dead it aint!.. LOL going to paulines tonight she isn't doing well and her fingers and toes hurt so am going to massage and cream and manicure them for her.. can't spend the night tonight as I have a dr visit in the am and can't lift her s my DD is meeting me over there in a bit to help with her.. good to see and hear from ya all, Karen you have fun with those seeds and if ya want more I have tons to share.. Debra