chuck
Brugs are heavy feeders. Have you fertilized you plants? Fertilizing, at least once a week during active growth, is the best way to get your Brugs to grow. Liquid fertilizer, such as MiracleGro will work. It many seem trite, but it will form buds when it forms buds and does so at its own height There isn't much we can do to change that other than to fertilize and keep them healthy. I haven't read of any way to force them to produce buds before their time. I have had cuttings produce blooms while still small cuttings. I have also had to wait until the plants were over 7' tall before getting a bloom. Fertilize!
Don't cut anything from your plant now. All the nutrients the leaves produce help the plants grow faster. Brugs are more like shrubs that grow the size of a tree so the tendency is to produce multiple branches. Later in the fall if you would like to have a Brug standard, cut one of the tall straight branches that has "Y"ed and root it. Once you have a straight trunk with several ""Y"s up on top, you can rub off all new growth that pops up to force growth at the top and your Brug will keep its tree shape. Because the tendency is to branch out, you will have to keep rubbing off new growth from the trunk as well as growth that pops up out of the ground. I hope this helps.
