DeviGardener I grow all my brugmansias in big planters I use miracle potting mix that feeds upto 6 months it's the best solid I've used for my brugs and they thrive in it. some are as big as 8 ft tall or 9. I feed them every 2 weeks with miracle grow plant food. Looking at your pictures it seems that your brugs still need to grow but they usually very fast growers. Untill your plants grow they y's they will then start to flower. And when they start to flower and you feed them every 2 weeks you will have blooms most of the year. I live in california and this year my brugs have blooms almost all year long. You might consider taking them out and removing some solid from the rootball and add miracle grow potting mix that feeds upto 6 months and they should grow faster with that new dirt. And don't worry about hurting the plant brugs are very hardy I've done that tons of times removing a lot of the soil and adding new and they will rejuvenate. If you would like you can upgrade to bigger planters aswell. Well good luck on your brugs. Hope you have some blooms soon.

These are prone to scale. When I had one in St. Bernard, I just kept it as airy as possible. In other words, I selectively pruned out branches (thinning, not heading back cuts) so it would have some air. I also removed the scale insects by hand (some are too squeamish for this) and got rid of them. I also gardened organically and invited birds and beneficials into my yard. You can spray with a horticultural oil, you must get the parts with scale, including underside of leaves. This smothers the scale. Make sure you read label directions becoz temperature is a factor. You may have to do a couple or 3 applications, weeks apart, as new ones hatch. Again, read label. Hort. oil is considered to be one of the less toxic products. Laurie

LOL Ron! I have a flowering pomegranate, and though its few flowers are pretty, its a dead loss in winter, being deciduous. I've got it anchoring a corner in the backyard, but that is one empty looking corner in the winter. The bark is boring. The only thing that livens it up are the thorns. And not in a good way. Ouch! It's not my favorite. Perhaps the flowers are worth it for others though.

I have thought about akebia several times. The first time I encountered the smell, I couldn't find the blooms. It was in the shade so it was hard to see the chocolate blooms. Then I saw the off-white bloom in full sun which is more visible....and it does have interesting foliage. For the first few years, it seems to stay reasonable well within bounds.....but I have a friend whose shade garden is full of it at least 50' or more from where it was started originally. It is growing under the porch and house and up trees. She has the chocolate bloom. The white one at UT gardens doesn't seem to have strayed that far yet. Amazondoc: how severe does the winter have to be to damage your confederate jasmine?...or does it always kill it back to the roots? I've wintered mine inside since it was labeled zone 8. Now I wish I had tried it in the ground.