I don't think the brug would have a chance to survive in your unheated garage. Temperatures below freezing will kill it. Last winter I kept three large plants undre a grow light in my dining room in a bay window. They actually did very well. We have flowers several times, and they looked so beautiful from the outside too.

I kept mine in an unheated garage, but it's attached to the house and we parked the cars in. This provides a little heat. I would mulch heavily and wrap the pot to provide some insulation. If the top part doesn't make it, at least you'll have the root. Mine made it ok. I'm not sure how cold does it get inside your garage. You can monitor it and you can bring it in only if you have to. I have so many now that I will have to do the same again, since they will not all fit in my sunroom.
Good luck! AncaG

Pam, last winter, I kept 7 potted cuttings in my unheated (attached) garage with great success. I didn't think that they would amount to anything...(this was my very first experience with brugs)..I put them out in spring, they started to leaf out and have grown to 3 1/2-4' plants and every single one bloomed beautifully with regular watering and feeding, of course. NOW, I'm really hoping that they will do as well when I pot them up and bring inside this year. Good luck! Margaret

I've had great success with the "Bucket o' Brugs" method. I just used a 5 gal. bucket with several inches of clear water to store my brugs in. They go dormant, but still try to leaf out a bit, and put on tons of new roots. Change the water every few weeks or when it gets cloudy, and when the weather warms up, you'll have blooms much sooner than having to grow a complete plant from the roots. Here's a link to lots of great info (including a neat set-up using an aquarium pump) regarding overwintering brugs in this way. --T

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

Hey Terry-
When you say you used the 5gal. bucket to store your brugs in......did you just dig up the plant and store the whole thing in tact? (entire plant) Or do you mean 'cuttings' in the bucket? Thanks in advance.
And did the roots do alright? I'm trying to find out what is the coolest temp they can stand if I keep them in the garage here in central Illinois.
Thanks in advance-
Pam

I'm going to keep my potted brugs in my attached garage. Even tho I'm in a mild-winter area, it does dip below freezing most winters and once in awhile will go to the mid-20's. I'm going to tent off an area adjacent to the house wall, using plastic sheeting...sort of a room within a room. I'll put a lamp with a low-wattage (40W if I find one)light bulb inside the tented area and turn it on whenever the temps are going to dip to low 30's or less. I'll have a small electric heater at the ready, just in case.

I might add, I'll keep a couple of ends open on the "tent" to allow for air circulation, completely closing it only when I need to hold in heat. If I see any signs of spider mites, etc., I can close things up to spray effectively within the tent.

I would try to make sure your temps in the garage don't go below mid-30's (F). If a set-up like mine would achieve this, you might give it a try. Weigh the cost of maintaining heat in this manner against another storage method. An unheated basement is often recommended..or an unused room in the house where you can reduce the heat. It also sounds like a number of people have been happy with taking cuttings and keeping them over the winter using the Bucket-O-Brugs method.

Good luck!

Patrick

Patrick, I would be leary about using a light as a heat source. What I suspect will happen is that the plant will start to put out leaves, albeit white. I think you would prefer it to have no generation of leaves.

In the past, I have safely used the large bulbed (7 watt) Christmas strings of lights to wind through the bottom and over lower, leafless branches of my plants in an enclosed area John and Patrick, for a heat source. They are not a strong enough light source to stimulate leaf production, yet give off enough warmth to keep the chill at bay if you are close to freezing. Using them low down allows the heat to rise convectively ( is that a word LOL)and wash over the remaining parts of your plant. A set with 20 lights at 7 watts each is only a total of 140 watts and you can spread that out over a length/row of plants much easier than the heat from a 100 watt light bulb, it doesn't cook the plant closest to the heat either as a 100 watt bulb could.

The folks who responded in this thread that they have successfully over wintered their plants in an unheated garage, for the most part are in higher growing zones you should note gardenlady48.... an unheated garage in Zone 7 is a lot warmer than one in Zone 5!

Good point on the light issue, Jroot. If I go with a regular light bulb, I'll find a way to block or minimize the light. I do like the Christmas light idea, Ruth Ann...they could be strung around the interior perimeter of my plastic "tent" and distribute the warmth more evenly. I'm going to take a look at HD and see about some 4"-5" diameter PVC pipe with holes along the side...if I have 1 placed on the floor along each long side (inside) of the "tent", I can run the light strings thru the PVC and the warmth would escape thru the holes...and a lot of the light would be contained.

Patrick

I cut my brugs back to the top of the pot. Put them in my unheated garage (which does not freeze). They did just great. My white brug is about 4' tall and has over 50 blooms on it now. Second flush. I live in SE Minnesota.