Jet, you can do either method.
Here is a post I did for someone in another Brugmansia Forum so will copy and paste it here for you.

Here is what I did with mine that I brought indoors, before I had a green house. I am in Ontario, Zone 5\-6, similar to your growing zone. Leave them outdoors until you know frost is eminent and try to greatly decrease the amount of water they get ( easier to do if you have them in pots). This will start preparing them for dormancy. They will lose leaves, don't worry about it, you want this to happen. once your first frost is predicted, move them into a garage if you have one and leave them there for another couple of weeks, unwatered. If you don't have a garage, bring them in to your basement, don't water them and allow all the leaves to fall off. Only trim them back if they are too large to bring in and store as is. Once all the leaves are off, keep them in a cool and poorly lit part of your basement and only give them a cup of water when you see the soil starting to recede from the pot edges but give it slowly enough that it has time to absorb and not run out the bottom of the pot on you. Over the winter you may see the branch tips shrivel and die but the larger part of the stalks and the rootball will be fine. About the end of March give them a good drink and wait until you see them sprouting before giving them any more. Once they start to sprout, bring them up to a warmer room and better light and they should be on their way for you once again. This is when you can trim back any dead growth and once you see active growth you can start watering only enough to keep the soil slightly damp, not moist or wet as this can cause the roots to rot.This is also a good time to lift the plant, trim the roots by 1/3 and repot it in fresh (ammeneded) soil. ( if you trim the roots you can put it back in the same pot but remember that as it gets bigger this year you may have a problem with it tipping over if you don't stake it.) When you have good growth happening you can water with a 1/2 strength transplant fertilizing solution This stimulates new root growth) about every 3 weeks until you can get the plant outdoors, then switch to weekly regular fertilizer ( IE 20\-20\-20). Here is a URL that gives good info on overwintering your Brugs: \[scroll down the page to get to the english text please\] Here is a link that might be useful: [How to winter your Brugs](http://www.abads.net/brugmansia_winter.htm)

Thank you so much Ruth Ann. I am saving this thread for reference when the time comes.

Hello Jet,

You best bet is to bring you pot and most of the plant inside for the Winter.

Your pot does not look that big, maybe 18" x 18"?

Why would you put the plant in the basement?

Do you have a window you can put it by upstairs? If so, that would be the place to put it. Cut it back to 4 feet tall then bucket root what you cut off.

By the way, when it flowers, please post pictures!

Wildcat

Wildcat,

Here's the plant with flowers. This is a daytime shot done yesterday.
{{gwi:529643}}

Here's one tonight, fully open. It's pale yellow with the area between bands almost white. It doesn't have a strong smell, maybe because I only have a few flowers.I wish I knew it's name.
{{gwi:529645}}

I'm new to Brugs too but I'd swear that's a Charles Grimaldi. It looks just like mine...just a lot bigger and with a lot more blooms. :-)

Beautiful! I hope someone can ID it...would love to know the name. I just grabbed my flashlight and went out to look at my CG...the leaves ARE toothed but not as pronounced as those on your plant, Jet. My CG has just "Y-ed" and is starting to form a few small buds...I haven't seen any CG blooms up close & personal.

Patrick

GREAT JOB..sure wish mine looked like that..
Good luck and am just waiting until next year to see what they are doing..It will be even better..

It looks to me like it might be sunray.
You can see a picture if you click on this link: http://www.abads.net/Gallery/S/brugmansia_s_gallery.htm

bjwsea, I think you are right, I goggled sunray and this is one of the images I found and it looks exactly like what I have, thanks.

Can't link on the picture directly but it's the first one in this page.

Here is a link that might be useful: sunray

Jet....how can your plant get sooooo big and yet grow only in a 18" pot??? Is this typical of how brugs grows if not planted in the ground? This is my first year and mine is in the ground. I take it they don't need much root space to be so prolific with leaves and flowers?
Pam

Pam, I have 1 brug that is in the ground and it has only 1 trunk. The ones in the pot have multiple trunks and they are about the same size as the one in the ground go figure. The ones in the pot do dry out faster though but so far I need to water only once a day. Next year I hope to plant them already big and hopefully they will flower sooner. I have 3 in pots yet that is not y-ing or budding and it is almost fall already.