Karyn, since no one has responded to your posts, I'll share my results with you....zone 8 - SC.

I have several brugs in pots - 15 gallon size. They do ok and most people would say they do great but the ones I have planted in the ground where they get sun until about 1:00 do fantastic! Not nearly as much work keeping them watered as in pots and I find I don't have to feed them nearly as much. you can check them out on my brug page

Here is a link that might be useful: my brugs

Thanks. Your brugs are beautiful! My blooms are nice but the foliage isn't nearly as nice as yours. Quite a few critters seem to enjoy the brug leaves. The ones I put in the ground are getting full afternoon sun now but seem to be adjusting well and setting buds. Because they get such intense sun I've been having to water them on the days that we haven't had significant rain.
Karyn

If you have to dig them up &/or move them around it would be better to keep them in pots. They easily grow into 6-8Â or larger tree size in pots in warm zones. Use an extended release fertilizer when potting and good quality well draining soil. Then fertilize during the growing season.

I am in zone 8 in MS and I have one that is almost 9 ft tall I can't imagine it being that big in a pot ! I don't have to over winter mine so I prefer them in the ground.

I have about 20 brugs and just wanted to see what happens in the ground. I have some large (5-6') potted brugs and sunk some pots of my smaller 2-3' plants in the yard. Unfortunately they will have to be dug up because our winters are cold.

I now plant ALL my brugs in the ground.I'm in north Georgia,Zone 7b,and my brugs come back every year from the roots.Just mulch them good.Every year they grow bigger and faster than the year before.Plants put in the ground grow 2x as fast,and bloom many times more than those in pots.And so much easier to take care of.When I grew them in pots,The rarely got over 4 feet tall.Now all mine get 6 feet,sometimes 8 feet tall.Put those babies in the ground!!

My brugs are all in pots because of our harsh winters. I keep them alive but not thriving in my basement. I have one that I started from seed 2 years ago. It is in a 25 gal. tub and is over 10ft tall. Pink Beauty and Peach versi are right behind it, over 9ft. I did drill a pot and sink the versi in the ground one year, but I was out there in the dark that fall, digging and grunting to get it out before a hard frost. I think a lot to do with size is the age of the plant and the kind of brug it is. These guys are going to be monsters, I'll have to clip their tops just to get them in the basement this fall. If I could, I'd have my more mature brugs in the ground, they wouldn't need the constant attention the potted ones do, but alas, they would freeze so I just keep feeding, watering and spraying the peroxide/water/dish soap concoction... Got a love em'.

Trigger yours come back? You aren't that much warmer than me. Maybe I'll try leaving them in the ground and see what happens next spring. They are all from cuttings anyway. I have enough problems getting everything in the greenhouse when the weather changes as it is. My potted brugs are getting huge. I have a number of them over 6 ft already. The problem is that the pots are so big and heavy and are a major PITA to move.
Karyn

AS you can see, I am in Zone 5 in Canada.
The last three years I have planted all mine ( that is nearly 50 mature Brugmansia) in the ground and dig them up, repot them and cut them wayyyyyyyyyy back to bring in every fall.

This is a 'ready to bring in' picture from the fall of 2004...

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And this is the height they get to once planted back in the ground by the end of the next season.....

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Here am I standing under one of them just before cutting it down, digging it back up to pot and bring in again in the fall of 2005..... (This plant went from a 12 inch stump/rootball to 13 feet tall in this single season)....

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Yes, planting them in the ground makes for a lot of work, I agree but no worse than having to lug in heavy pots with big plants every fall and the Brugs don't need as much daily care nor do they tip over in the wind when they are planted in the ground!

Ruth Ann the size of that brug is amazing! I've never seen one that tall. That must look spectacular when it's blooming. What do you feed them and how often?
Karyn

WoW!!!!!!!!! What kind of brug is it?

That tall one was a second year seedling I grew form a seed and the cross was Jean Pasko X Jessie Noel. The bloom was a suaveolens type white bloom and the plant was culled that fall rather than being kept. It was just too strong a grower for my likeing and situation. It reminded me of the 'Jack in the bean stalk' tale LOL. It grew that year in my Lasagne garden as did these ones I started form seed on May 12th 2005.... theses are pictured in October when they were dug up and potted up for bringing into the GH ( so they would fit, they had to be trimmed down 5'as 4 had grown from a seed to 10-12 feet tall that season...

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Karen,You should try them in the ground-out of about 20 or so I had in the ground last year-all of them except 1 Came back from the roots.Several of them are now about 5 feet tall.They are so much easier than in pots.I Used to grow them in pots-but since growing them in the ground,and watching them do so well,It's the only way to go.Now,I do take tons of cuttings off those.So If a variety I really like doesn't make it,I've got a replacement on hand.Now I noticed you're in zone 7-I'm in zone 7B-slightly coller than you.Yours should do fine.Ruthann-your's are huge!I've got one that I do dig the root ball up-and It's almost As big around as a coke can-but not quite as tall as yours.Amazing.

I put 6 in the ground and will leave them to over-winter, well mulched, and see what happens in the spring. Trigger do you cut yours back to the ground prior to mulching them for the winter? If so I can just imagine how many cuttings I'm going to end up with. For some reason I can't kill a brug this season. Any branches that have broken off or cuttibngs that I've taken root almost immediately, in water. Pieces that broke off that I thought were too small to bother rooting have taken hold where they fell! I hope I'm not jinxing myself. lol
Karyn

I HAVE 2 BURGS ONE IN THE POT ONE IN THE GROUND, THEY HAVE NOT DONE ANYTHING THIS YEAR, NO BLOOMS AND ARE NOT GROWING. WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE WRONG ? HELP PLEASE

I have some that I left in the ground over last winter. They are still just small shoots of green -- they won't be doing any flowering this summer -- maybe late fall. I think they grow best in ground, but overwintering in ground is only for very warm weather areas. I took cuttings from them last autumn so I covered all bases. Unfortunately, I kept some of the cuttings in the barn, which was too warm and they cuttings haven't done as well as they usually do.

Hello, I hope everyone is still here.
I want to put my brug in the ground. Do I have to worry about protetion from the wind?
Thank you,
Lorraine

Unless you have exceptionally strong winds I wouldn't worry about it. My leaves have become tattered during very strong thunder and hail storms but under normal conditions they are fine.
Karyn

Mine have grown about 7 ft tall already this year from stumps less than a foot in the spring, they are in the ground, have huge leaves, dozens of blooms, last fall I just yanked the stems out of the ground and put them into plastic tubs filled with peat moss, stored in my garage, just like my banana plants.

And so far they are laughing at the spider mite debacle I posted about a week ago. These are some of the most vigorous plants I have ever seen, I don't understand why nurseries don't offer these around here, everyone that sees them is amazed, and most visitors never get to enjoy the best part - the nightly fragrance, I can smell them easily from almost 50ft away, outstanding!

I have to say mine brugs grow a whole lot better in the ground, and it is a lot easier to keep them up. May be because the pots I used were not large enough. How can you move around 25 gal pots? Anyway, I put the ones in pots to ground, and they have grown much bigger, stronger and have already bloomed. The ones in pots need to be watered twice a day - too much maintenance.

Xerophyte none of the nurseries around here sell them either and I can't understand why not. There's a small speciality nursery near my house and I've supplied the owner with some of my brugs. He sells out immediately and is always asking me for more. I hear about the HD's and other big stores in the south selling brugs but when I ask about them at the local stores they just look at me like I'm nuts. They really are one of the easiest plants to grow.
Karyn

I am trying the 5 gal bucket with holes drilled in the sides (only). I've got 4 in buckets then in huge pots, and 4 in buckets in the ground. Since I live in zone 3 I have to winter them over and those pots are WAY too big to bring in. This way I can just root prune around the pail and bring the pail in . I read about this method last winter and was very anxious to try it. I really can't compare the growth rate as the brugs in the pots are 4 year old plants and large to begin with, while the ones in the ground were new this year and doubles ( I read doubles grow slower?). We are in the process of winterizing our boathouse just to hold the brugs in the winter, and if this method works....well then I can get MORE BRUGS!!!!!!! I will take cuttings this fall just in case, but I have never had much luck keeping the cuttings viable all winter.
Anybody out there have experience with this method?

Capish:

Regarding your question about 'overwintering' Â youÂve got to see this thread

ItÂs called Bucket-o-Brugs from Georgia on my mind.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/brug/msg1012321123065.html

IÂm planning on trying this with a couple of Brugs, and putting the balance (21) that various sizes and are in pots into storage over the winter. I do not have the room to keep them growing nor the sun.

If my 21 can stay ALIVE. IÂm struggling with a problem right now. Jeep-Jim has suggested about putting some brugs right into compost/vermiculite rather than any regular soil medium. I used a mixture of cow manure compost and mushroom compost.

I thought I had a bug problem and he said it didnÂt look like it. Something bad is going on. IÂve got hours and hours and hours into the web searching for what could be causing this issue.

I repotted a couple (maybe 5) of differing sizes. IÂm soooooo impatient to see if this works  because if it does  I have to go buy A LOT more compost and vermiculite while the store still has it. (So I can do the balance of my brugs.) And then IÂm going to try a couple pots in the ground next year.

Good luck with the reading on that over-wintering thread. It is very detailed about what worked and what didnÂt. IÂm going to try it on a small scale first.

Dweeb

Here is a link that might be useful: Bucket-o-Brugs

I use the BoB method to overwinter cuttings and it works very well. I haven't had a problem with roots adjusting to soil after they have been potted up in the spring. For keeping the cuttings upright in the buckets I make a lattice over the top of the buckets with duct tape. That way I can put one cutting in each square and they will stand up straight. When I'm ready to remove the cuttings I just pull the tape off the bucket. I don't remember if the BoB method utilizes an aquarium heater in addition to the air stones but I didn't find that it made a difference so I don't bother with a heater. I had buckets of brug cuttings all over the house. I use an air stone for rooting any variety of cuttings in water. It makes a huge difference in the success rate.
Karyn