If kept fed and watered, they will bloom throughout summer until late fall. In fact, mine are usually covered in blooms when I take them in for the winter. Cheryl

Where the heck have you been Norm ? Have you gotten my emails ? I'm jealous, none of my brugs have bloomed yet.

Cheryl

What's a burg?

-Regina

Someone plese spell the complete word for Regina. I missed
spelling class the day I went to school.
Norm

Brugmansia are commonly referred to as "Brugs". I should have a few cuttings at the Seymour Plant Swap if you want one. Cheryl

Cheryl that is one beautiful picture !!!!

Cheryl (the other Cheryl lol )

Thanks Cheryl. We are going to have to start referring to ourselves as Cheryl I and Cheryl II. LOL

Cheryls,
These grow in the ground? Do you overwinter them in the ground?
Mine would never get that big, I keep them in a pot!
Sissy (only one of me!)

Sissy, I know several local gardeners that leave theirs in the ground and mulch heavily with success. However, I want blooms as quickly as possible. And so, I dig mine up (trim them back- but not below the "Y", to make them manageable) and store them dormant in my garage.

I have a variety of brugs planted in the ground and stored in pots. But those in the ground seem to bloom more and don't require as much watering. The picture reflected below is of a first year cutting that was planted in late April (it was perhaps 12 inches tall) and that same brug in late summer.
As you can see, you can achieve significant growth in the first year. 2nd year and older brugs do seem to bloom earlier and more profusely - - so I expect more blooms from this brug this year.

The white brug (Ambrosia) shown in the previous picture is a seedling that I grew out for another hybridizer and last summer was it's second growing season. It has been my experience that seedlings often grow much taller than cuttings.

Wow wow wow! Those are incredible!! I recieved some cuttings from Canahavana (thanks again!!), and do you mean to tell me mine might possibly grow to that?? Wow!! BTW, I love your porch!!!! Is that area full sun? What do you feed your brugs!! I know they are heavy feeders, and drinkers.. I am going to try to attach some pics so you can see mine in my windowsill, but the pic isn't that great! I don't know if I have the Y or not, some though have sent up whole new shoots that are big and green! Thanks for any advice, this is my first year trying them! I am also trying to decide if I will keep them in pots, or put into ground, or maybe do both--? not sure! Those pictures are great though!! Thanks, Jenn

Here is a link that might be useful: my windowsill brugs...

Norm, I hope you don't mind my hijacking your thread (at least we are talking brugs!).

Jenn,
1. My porch is only partially shady -- receiving about 4 hours of sun a day (old house, BIG trees)
2. Feeding Brugs - - I have moved closer to being an organic gardener. My planted brugs receive a generous amount of manure at the time of planting. Followed by twice a month feeding alternating alfafa and manure teas. The potted brugs are planted with an organic fertilizer and a generous amount of earthworm castings added to the soil. They receive weekly feedings of alfafa/manure teas.
3. Not all cuttings will develop a nice shape. Many of mine are more bushlike. And some grow taller than others before they Y. If they Y close to the ground, I usually end up with a stumpy looking shape.

There is a ton of information on the brug forum and in the brug FAQ section that you might want to check out. I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have - - but truly, brug growing is easy. Start out with a few and enjoy!

Wow, Jenn, your brug babies are doing great!

This is my Frosty pink brug in mid May last year from cutting.

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Here it is in mid October. I am 5'5" and the blooms are at eye level. This is the Mama of your cuttings. At one time, I counted around 50 blooms.

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I put a shovel of manure in the hole at planting and fed it when I remembered, LOL! Like Cheryl said, this one Y'd low and turned out bushy. You will know the Y when you see it. :) Get them outside as soon as you can. They seem to sit and hardly do nothing for about a month, then they take off!

I have two in the ground and two in large containers. The ones in the ground far outperformed the ones in the containers. I am planning a brug garden this year if I can get Doug to fire up the ol' tiller.

Cheryl, there is an orange brug taller than a house over near Central Ave. and Callahan. If you take Callahan and cross over Central and continue on, it is on the left across from a little church. You have got to go see it this year!

Where is Joe and Judith? They are the Brug gurus!

Norm, honey, there are no burgs in the south.

Rebecca

Thanks TN Shady Lady!!

Glad to know that they do so good in part shade! I am mostly organic I don't like chemicals with my kids and my dogs (who will eat anything!!), and neighborhood pets, birds and whatnot.. I will check out the brug forum.. thanks for the info!!

Sorry, it wouldn't let me post again for some reason.. had to rename my post?? Rebecca, Wow, that is amazing!!! I can not wait to see if mine will grow like Mama!! Hope so! Good luck on your brug garden! How fun, seems like once you have one.....lol! Thanks again for these great cuttings, I have had alot of fun watching them grow!!
Jenn

Wait a minute...
I have mine in pots and just leave them to die back to the root in the garage. I Cut Them All The Way Down To Soil Level And Throw That Stuff Away.
Those would be cuttings, right? I am throwing away cuttings?

Yep those would be cuttings that you could easily root in water and trade, sell or plant for more beautiful babies. Cheryl, I have pots of brugs in the garage, and then this winter I've purchased and traded for many new varieties.I have extra of some of these ;o) My question is, I know Rebecca pushes the limit with the tropicals and is successful with it. I had no idea you could leave Brugs in the ground , mulch them and they would live . Mel, where are you girl, you know all this stuff !! Cheryl, is that picture of a brug that you left in the ground and it came back that beautiful ? When do you plant your others out ?

Cheryl

Cheryl, I dig all my brugs up and store them for the winter. I have tried leaving a few in the ground and they all lived, but didn't bloom until late summer. By digging mine up, I usually have blooms starting in mid-May.

Once we start having daytime temps around 50 - - usually around mid-March, I will take my brugs outside and roll/drag them back inside if it looks like the evening lows are going to dip below 40. I usually put mine in the ground about the 3rd to 4th week of April. One reason I usually wait a couple of weeks past our last frost is that we have some of our worst storms in April.

Sissy - - not only are you throwing away your cuttings, you are delaying blooms the next year. I leave my trunks intact and they look like big sticks once they drop their leaves- - but they will leaf back out in the spring. By cutting them down, yours have to completely regrow in order to produce blooms. For the brugs that produced multiple trunks, I cut off some of the straight trunks and store them in buckets of water with a aquarium bubbler. There is a thread on this on the brug forum - - GREAT way to store large trunks with a minimum of space.

There is also a great thread from one of the brug folks in middle Tennessee that shows pictures of how he gets his brugs ready to store for the winter (he leaves his in 5 gallon buckets year round - - countersinks the buckets in the ground). I'll look and see if I can find this thread.

Sissy, I couldn't locate TnGreenThumb's original thread, but here is a portion of it. It does show pictures of how he cuts his brugs back and gets them ready for winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Getting brugs ready for winter

SissyZ, you can 'cut all that stuff down', but DON'T throw it away! Root it, even/especially the big trunks. See the FAQs on the Brug forum for tips on how.

rebecca, I don't know where Joe is, but *I've* been too busy playin' in the garden to be on the computer much---got to make some new beds to plant all my brug cuttings into! (*grin*)

Yep, I have been a Brug Mangler for about five years. I bought two Versi Color Peach Brugs for $5 and every spring I cut them down to the top of the soil in their pots. They get so big in the summer that I can't move the pot by myself. So, I cut it down, throw it away and go on like a regular person, not even smart enough to realise I am doing the stupidest thing ever!!!
DUH!!!

Rebecca, I think I've seen that brug on Dante in front of a little farm house, kind of close to the road.

And Sissy, versi peach is one of my favorites! And I have a couple brugs in pots that are so heavy, it took both my husband and I to pick up the pots to move them to the garage. I'm going to have to think about getting a dolly to use to move my heavy stuff.

Has anyone ever broken the Brug's stem when moving them outside? Has anyone ever used old nylons to pull the branches together before they moved them? Can and how do you save the broken stem this time of the year? Is it to late to place in water or pot it up? I will be moving mine from the sunroom to the outside tonight and need to know what to do if I break a stem.

Broken stems can easily be rooted this time of year. I root nearly everything in a couple inches of plain ol' water.

Those are gorgeous plants! I've never, ever seen one. Where can I find one of those? Those must be some old-fashioned garden plant that isn't for sale any more at the stores where I shop.

Katie

You can get them at some good nurseries, but mostly I've seen them available either online or through swaps with other gardeners. Go to the midTN swap -- I know someone will have them there!

Now that I have learned how to spell Brug's will you folks
please let this post die.
Norm

Norm I seem to remember a thread from a couple of years ago where I looked really stupid and it still pops up from time to time. Thankfully Spike pulled several of the posts including mine. It took a while but I think that most everyone in West TN has forgiven me by now.

Anyway, I enjoy seeing "Burg's" !!!

Awww Norm, nobody minds if your fingers or brain slip every once in awhile! Lord knows, mine do often enough. LOL.