I'm glad you got some nice plants from them. What color were the blooms? I remember someone posted a photo of a double they got from my seed. I never heard whether the Brugs continued to throw doubles or not.
bubble wrapping for winter
A yellow that went through several changes as it matured. Really pretty. If I'm lucky the pieces I gave my friends when I moved will come back to me later this year.
MollyD
I'm afraid to leave my brugs out in the winter. I haul them into the basement. A pain in the back - they are big and heavy. Maybe next year I will try one outside with the bubble wrap and lots of mulch. The problem is it gets VERY wet around here for about 5 months and I'm a little leary of wrapping them with bubble wrap. Guess I won't know till I try. Plant it in April and let it get a good root system going and see what happens. I really hate experimenting on my babies.
Maybe if I built a wood frame that I can slip over the plants and fasten the bubble wrap to that instead of wrapping it on the plant itself? Would have to find a way to anchor it so winds didn't pull it off. Would make a private greenhouse for each plant. Would need some ventilation so the plants didn't cook in the sunlight too. Food for thought.
MollyD
That's a great idea. A tomato cage might work. You know one of the tall rounded ones.
Now how to fasten the cage down so it didn't tip or go flying?
MollyD
Molly try driving some stakes into the ground near the cage and tie a strap or two over the cage and secure them to the stakes.
I use landcape pins to hold my soaker hoes in place. Don't know what they are really called. They look like a giant staple, u shaped, about six inches long.
A wrapped cage would offer a lot of wind resistance. Unless it is well anchored, it will be knocked over. Your major obstacle will be to find a way to keep the plastic in place. I've used packaging tape, duct tape, and twine. They all failed. Right now I'm trying a tape called Gorilla tape. So far, it has withstood winds of 25 mph and temperatures down to 26ºF.
I've used duct tape to hold parts of a greenhouse in place so I may try that since it only has to last a couple of months here. I like the idea of stakes and straps to hold the cage in place. I'm getting excited to think I might be able to have my brugs and not have to haul them inside every year! I have back problems and no one to help me hoist them around.
MollyD
Clem... well..to help the SaintsCelebration here... the night blooming cereus I had mentioned started blooming again...only one flower opened tonight.. but there's 5 or 6 buds in waiting also so there will be more
It's going to freeze again tonight, but I had to peek (will be 60 today). We've had so much rain, none of which was able to get by the rocks holding the plastic down. The ground inside is pretty dry. Most of the moisture is from accumulation on the inside of the hoop. I want to water the ground because some plants are in-ground, but am also wondering about "feeding" those brugs. Some bloomed thru the freezes and I see some with tiny buds. There's only a small oil radiator to keep everything in there above freezing. I think the worst of our weather is over...still a few random light freezes left maybe. I plan to leave the hoop on at least another month. Just want to give the brugs a boost for spring. Is it too early to fertilize with a foliar spray?
BTW...except for hoop looking extremely ugly...this sure beats bubble-wrapping! I'm going to uncover one of the insulated pipe wrappers later. I did lose palms around my pond that had been there for 6 yrs. Not going to try to replace them.
Hoping it all looks like this again in spring.......
bb do you get strong winter winds? If so how did you keep them from pulling the covering off the hoops?
MollyD
We use black batten tape and fasten it to the ground with tent anchors....otherwise the hoops would be in neighbor's yard. We do get a lot of wind up on this hill when the fronts blow thru.
Thanks BB that might be an alternative once I have multiple brugs here.
MollyD
....and sometimes you're inside when the front comes in, and the wind gets under the rolled up plastic, and blows it into the neighbors' yard.....like 10 minutes ago.....but don't worry, we can pull it back down when the wind dies.....after midnight..... I had to peek, I just had to peek!
edited to add: gusts of 30 to 40 mph currently being reported.....wine to follow
This message was edited Feb 14, 2010 4:13 PM
The front hit about 15 minutes ago. Temperatures fell from 68º to 55ºF. Gusts up to 30MPH
all better now.....DD and SIL came and helped us pull it down, but it took half an hour. postponing Valentine's dinner. it's going to be pizza and wine instead....oh happy day.....
note to self...check weather report before opening side of gh....ever...
This message was edited Feb 14, 2010 5:33 PM
is anyone else able to see enlargements of pictures when they click on the small ones? All I get is the text of the message when I do that.
MollyD
I can see the enlarged photo without a problem. Couldn't a day or two ago.
Thanks BV. Last night I couldn't but this morning I can so maybe they were doing more work on the servers when I was trying to see it.
BB thanks for posting that cause it gives me more perspective on the size of those tunnels. It's bigger than I thought till I could see it next to a person. It looks almost like a mini greenhouse!
MollyD
Molly, it is like a mini greenhouse. If you go up to the first post on this thread and click on the highlighted link, you can see how it goes up. We can't have a permanent gh, so these have to do. Doesn't look pretty for a few months, but lets me over winter plants that I otherwise would lose. You can make them as small or large as needed. I had one that was only 3ft tall over some hibiscus last year.
Thanks BB!
MollyD
Great thread!