Good advice, thanks Brandy!

Good Job Brandy.. As you pointed out .. Not all Brugs are created equal.. NOR are Zones..My Z8 may be completely different than a z8 in a different state..There is no set rules for any of the plants we grow ..especially when you pick plants you have to push the envelope to grow in the first place...Learn Where You Live! You will be a much Happier and Successful Gardener..
Kylie

Great point, Kylie. I'm zone 9, which also includes a good amount of coastal areas in California, Texas and Florida. Obviously I'm going to be drier and hotter than the beach communities.

A point to remember with the USDA zones, they are based on average annual minimum temperature. The zones are really only good for determining WINTER hardiness.

Ok
!!!!Here is my 2 cents worth!!!!!
All brugs i purchase has to go through a survival test upon arrival.
i don't baby no brugs and some i have paid good money for.
this is just for me the way chocolate Brug does things here in my zone-9 here in Florida.Every Brug i have purchase was unpack repotted in the sun they Goes. Here is why, Florida
Weather can be brutal at times, so right out of the box i
want to see how the brug respond to Brutal Wheather unexpectedly even when there Young. I Travel alot so even
with a irrigation system they still need to have there own survival skill if i am not here to attend them. what i have
Found about plants in general they have The Greatest Survival skill to survive even if i dont do anything to Them. by the way i find myself Getting in the way with most of them some-time they just like to be left along without making them drink !!Miracle Grow!!. I have observe that when Nature provides them with the environment they Perfer They Does There Thing. Now i do find i can cause them to thrive somewhat Better by paying attention to there Growth Habit. Now what works for me will not work for another
all the Brugs so far are still doing Great that i have, they know if they don't.!! up-up-away across track they Goes. The Good News i have to give Brugs more credit than they get sometimes. i have Thrown to many plants across
the tracks to look and see 3 or 4 months later they have
caught root laying on top of the ground. Now that's survival skills.

Chocolate Brug

I'm with you, Brug Chocula! Ditto on so many things. I travel, I work a lot and there are things, other than my gardens, that require my attention. For the most part, its survival of the fittest in my yard. You perform, or you're gone. When I get back from a 10-day trip, you'd better look good! ( I'm still talking plants, not Laura!). The Angels are taking up way too much of my time, at the expense of the rest of the gardens. Soon they will be going in the ground, and when that happens, they better be happy about it. I want to see flowers, and I want to see them often. No whining about me working or traveling. Shape up, or ship out!

Anyway, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one! And the softy in me almost always give those discarded plants, that root themselves, a second chance. I love when they do that!

Bob

Chocolate Brug...Although I find humor in your post, it is too dang hot here with extreme temps. to take the hard line approach that you have...and these babies are too precious (not to mention the $$ invested...) to look the other way...

Bob...When I seen your pictures of your Cherry Slush vs. the lack of growth on mine, I knew something wasn't right with my brugs...

And following Brandy's original post:

Brandy posted...
Some like roots wet others seem to like drier feet.
If its dying change what your doing, its not happy.
AND... AGAIN SOIL MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE IN HOW THEY GROW.

This made me think about my newly rooted cuttings that were potted up... and I just discovered why some of my brugs were 'just there'--not the lavish plants I had in mind...

This past winter, I followed Mike's sphagnum moss rooting technique, that works like a charm! (Thanks Mike!!) :) All my cuttings really put out alot of nice healthy roots while surrounded by the long fiber sphagnum moss. A few weeks ago, while getting bit by the 'Spring Fever' bug---bad, I potted up the cuttings and was ready! BUT...what I didn't do, was remove all the 'moisture holding' moss that the cuttings w/the roots were in. Now in looking at the plants, I took one apart, then another, and another, it was all so wet around the base of the cuttings!!! The moss was sopping wet in each pot!! WET!!!(But the surrounding soil was somewhat dry...) :0 One plant was beyond any hope.... So I took each out and took all the wet moss off, and repotted them with fresh soil, perlite, some healthy additives like bone meal and such, and gave them a drink of B-1 & ST. *Note: Mike's rooting method works great...just make sure to take off the moss before putting the rooted cuttings in soil. :)

Thanks so much Brandy...you made me 'rethink' the whole Spring ritual---and hopefully, you helped me save several Beautiful cuttings from Eddie, Mike, and others...

Thanks a million girl!!!!

~Mary Jane

You just never know, Mary Jane. With all the mess that thread stirred up yesterday, and today, something good has come from it! We can all learn something, when we pay attention. Hope all your Angels recover quickly.

Bob

Im glad I helped. I just felt it needed to be said. I am happy everyone is moving on to a happier Spring Tune... Brandy

I never seen the other thread---curiosity got me and I just read it. Too funny...

I had asked the exact question last year on the plumeria forum!!!!

:)

`Mary Jane

All I know is that a brug is not a plant you just stick in the pot and forget about it. Now I try to make em all happy but I am with Chocolate Brug about not treating brugs differently. Got a few Sang seedlings and tried to give them a shady place. But as for the Arborea seedlings, I will not pamper them. There is just to much going on on a normal basis. Like fertilzing, WATERING ...debugging them lol

But I have not had to get rid of any because I did not like there lesser preformance. The railroad tracks are way to far away from my place.

Lucy

Brandy, no additional input on managing brugs here, but just wanted to tell you that your subject line made me want to stand to attention, YES SIR/MADAM, LOL!

Yeah, Hurray for the hardy brug. I wanted them all. I tried at least 50 varieties from all over the US. About 90% died. The other 10% only 3% were excellent so the non performer got mowed down. Now when I want to try a new brug. I look for a breeder at the same latitude along the coast with high humidity. I learned my lesson and now buy even seeds from similar areas. It just saves a lot of wasted time.

JIM

LOL Eloise! I dont baby them past when they arrive. Once they get going in the ground they go. Im not digging all mine up and moving them to the GH. I have way to many. Keeping all the varities seperate will be a nightmare. I was climbing over plants stacked on plants in the GH. Im gonna pick my favorites for the blooming year and only root a few of each of them. That way I have just enough to make a little something before the big plant shows here. I spent to much which reminds me I have to show the pictures. LOL Brandy

Eloise roflmao

Jim makes sense to me to go that way. If you are lucky enought to have hyberdizers in that zone. What if you have no one in a certain climate?

Lucy

LOL, yep. They're NOT the same. and if they're dying, CHANGE the routine. LOL

It took Karyn to very nicely, make no mistake, she was wonderful, but very nicely, in not so many words told me "put the d*mn watering can down!" (grin)

That's what gets people. They ROOT in water, but DON'T like water logged soil. They can TOLERATE SOME soggy as long as it DOES drain, but they do NOT tolerate a "bog" kind of thing.

THEN, you go into the green room, and some of the troughs gather water that gets icky? And you find SOME miscreant brug has stuck a TON of roots right int he water.

And you look at it and go "oh, WTF?" They're all a little different. LOL. . . .

What I have learned is cool, and wet, there is NO faster way to kill a brug in soil. Killed TONS, and having problems with them thriving right now in a cooler than I want green room with wet soil.

They're growing in sib Mike's peat moss recipe. But remember, peat moss has absolutely NOTHING usable in it so you gotta feed them.

I'm waiting for it to get warm so I can move them out into the real sunshine and they can start to take off.

Can't WAIT. . .and then, I should be able to get my deliveries. Shouldn't be too much longer now. . .

Desperately need some warm weather.