sorry I haven't had a chance to reply to everyone! I haven't forgotten this thread though :P I might have a temporary place for most of my bigger brugs, but the smaller ones still have to go simply because there are too many, and I'll still have a crap ton of cuttings. I'll refer back to this page when it comes time in a few weeks to cut. in the meantime, would anyone be interested in well rooted NOIDs? they're all two to three feet tall. I have one that was given to me as a double white, two pink ones, and one or two that I'm not sure of. shipping's going to be kind of ugly on them, but they're well rooted healthy plants with a good start already. I'll try to remember to check this page frequently :)

Here is what I do here in Sayville. My brugs are in 16 to 20 inch pots. In the spring I heel them into the ground (bury the pots about 1/2 way to prevent tipping/falling over). When frost threatens, usually late October, I cut them back, my 8 to 9 foot tall standards become 4 feet tall.........and into my basement they go. There is a bit of light from the basement windows, not much really. Basement is in the lower 60's temperature wise. I give them a half gallon of water once a month, this seems to be enough to keep them going, but, not to get them growing. There might be shoot or two here and there, and I usually get a bloom or two (boy, does the house smell good!). If the shoots get too wild, I just cut them off. Come April 1 I water every other day in the basement, this gets them awake and it is out the door and on the patio for the summer on May 1. Bloom for the 4th of July. Cuttings, I pot them up into 6 inch pots and grow them slowly on my window sill, I stick the cutting into the mix, water the heck out of it, then I keep them dry, minimal water (they will root and become semi-dormant, I really do not have room for them to grow much inside) and will pot them up in the spring. Potting mix is ProMixBX. Feed is Peters 20-20-20 supplemented with Epsom Salts and Milorganite. I feed the Peters weekly. My wood for cuttings, I am picky here, I use the semi hard wood, it is not completely green, not completely brown. Seems to root well, but not rot. Brugs root very easily. Just take it easy with them. I have rooted parts from just the tips to "instant standards" which is a long straight branch shoved into a pot. Just pinch the leaves off the branch which will allow it to root, takes about 3 weeks and you are off and growing. Think of them like little green people, I do. That 12 inch plant in a 6 inch pot will become a 5 foot tall blooming specimen in a 16 inch pot in about 3 months in my yard.

I have a 2 1/2 year-old son and we also struggle with working in the yard at times. IT is better this year here are some things I have done... Let them water your containers or play with water. Drexler now tells me the flowers are crying because they are thirsty. I then give him the hose and let him have at it...last night he was right. One of my pansies was thirsty! Get excited about things. Right now EVERY DAY when I get home from work my son asks to go pick the strawberries. We go out and usually a new one is ripe (can't wait a few more weeks). He is still working on not picking the green ones, but he'll learn. Teach them what is yummy. Last year we planted carrots in a container and he would go out and pick a carrot out, wipe it off and eat it. Clean soil, no chemicals and hey he was eating carrots. Teach them to love flowers. How does it smell? How does it taste. Have them help you pick out what ones to pick. Drexler and I will do this together, go into the house and put them in vases and then talk about how pretty they are. I have a small vase by my bed that he empties out every day and replaces the water in...and then the flowers. A bit of a pain, but he is learning to appreciate my yard. Don't freak when they step on a plant, but do teach them to be nice to your plants. I have a large yard and Drex has hurt some of my plants, but we talk about how to treat them. Teach them to watch for bugs and to be interested in them. Ants can keep a kid busy for at least fifteen minutes. Tell yourself you will most likely not get a lot accomplished with your helpers so when you do accomplish something it feels good. Make them an area that is all theirs.

I'm about ready to ditch them all and pretend we came from under a cabbage leaf! I just got done with a 12 days visit from my mom and my cousin. My mom is 88 and time is not being kind to her memory. She has decided she is going to divide the pictures a certain way, such as all of the picture of me in one group. That's not how the rest of us want them. We would like a good sampling of everything and make a copy for each of us. I don't want 50 pictures of me and no one else! I've also asked her to label things for at least 20 years. Just like everything else, she's going to get to it. I guess she thinks she'll live to be over a 100 or something. I am frustrated and resentful that she wouldn't take the time to do it while her mind was clear. Really, most of the pictures will just end up thrown away since we have no idea who those people are and I'm not going to lug boxes of unlabeled pictures around for the next 30 years myself. My kids will end up thinking my memory is gone when I never knew who they were in the first place. Generations in my family are frequently 40 years apart, so these people were old when I knew them. I can't recognize what my great aunts looked like as young women. We also just got a load of photos from my MIL's estate since my brother-in-law died. Unlabeled for the most part, although my DH does recognize some people. We have made a date to start sifting through this stuff and get rid of most of it. Our kids don't need pictures of their grandparent's friends. We'll just mail those to the people who are still living. Gloria