Autumn-Winter Brug Care

11 years ago

Evening Brug buddies. Hope everyone's doing well. I have a potted 6ft tall Brugmansia Suaveolens which also has a 4 ft baby Brug growing alongside it in the same pot. Both have bloomed twice this yr. Now that my weather has turned cooler (70's in the daytime with low humidity & 50's at night), I was wondering if any of you could kindly advise me what steps I need to take now in order to prepare my Brugs before the first frost? Last month they put out quite a nice flush of flowers but this month I've only got 4 blooms. There are tons of tiny buds on them but some of them dried up & fell off before they even had a chance to grow. Some emerging leaves have developed an alligator like appearance to them after I gave them their usual dose of fertilizer for the week so I'm guessing it's too much for them now & I should cease giving the Brugs any fertilizer now (?). How should I store these things for winter since the pot itself is way too heavy for me to lift into the house & the Brugs are too big to fit through my doors? I don't have a garage or basement, only a shed. Can I put them in the shed over the winter with heavy mulching in the pot as well as heavy duty frost cloth wrapped around the branches or is it best to try & get it in the house? Also, are there any insecticides/fungicides I can use now to try to thwart any problems that might be lurking before my Brugs go dormant? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks tremendously for your help.

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Comments (5)

ruth_ann
11 years ago
I will give you a link to a tutorial I did in another forum on bringing them in.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bringing them in for dormancy
ruth_ann
11 years ago
MissMudPuppy, near the bottom of each page in this forum is a 'Search' feature. If you enter the words 'Over Wintering Brugs' and tick to have the search done in 'this forum', you will get 300++ matches to look at.
This is just an example of responses that was given in response to my Tutorial......

Here is a link that might be useful: More info
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Charlie, Seems there's ads on every site including GW. I detest sitting, awaiting an entire commercial on YT before watching a vid or listening to a song. Seems like all grammas can grow a plant/s without proper care, and they do wonderful. My grand-mother had an African Violet in a ceramic, non-drainage pot, sitting several feet from a curtained window. Yet, it bloomed like crazy..perfect foliage..she never fertilized, and watered whenever. My friends mother had several plants including TC/Cc in butter containers. lol..Again, no drainage or fertilizer. Her TC/CC bloomed every year. I don't get it. I used to work at a plant store where we bagged plants despite size. We'd packaged w/brown paper called Sleeves. Sleeves were cone-shaped. The bottom of the sleeves had a hole which was set over a metel stand, then the plant was lifted and placed through the top of the sleeve on the stand. The remaining sleeve was rolled up to the top, folded and stapled. Sleeves are still sold, but usually purchased in huge quantities. Or were. You probably have NO idea what I just said..lol Yep, I think most teens want to grow One certain plant. lol At least your son was interested in the Bamboo..That's a start, right??? What type of bamboo is/was it? Have you ever considred growing from seeds/cuttings? If you have room for a plant stand/light, different plants can be grown..Or small plants like AV's, Episcias, etc. LOL, kneeling ovation. Did you save your music? Tossing something so personal would be difficult...comes from the heart. Hey, at least you came in second, even if it was to Crazy Harold and his Trombone..lol We're you embarrassed performing? In the beginning, Jim Morrison feared looking at the crowd. He'd stand towards the band, back to the audience. Well, if your plants don't care for your voice, strum instead..:) Welcome Tiff, Don't be shy, most people here are wonderful and very helpful. What type of plants do you have? Planning on adding? You'll get used to GW. Finding forums and information. After typing in gardenweb dot com, once the page opens, click on GardenWeb Forums. Another page will open listing all forums. Search for the forum you want to enter.. Eg: Houseplants, etc. On the bottom of the page is a Seach Box, and an option to search a plant in a certain forum or all. Check the box, type in the plant; several new and old threads pop up. It's nice meeting you. Hope you enjoy GW. Howdy Mike. Hope everything is settled, and you're well. Like you, autumn which leads into 'winter,' is a tad depressing. I've always enjoyed season changes, (fall leaf color, winter snow for Christmas,) but my feelings changed. Winter is gray, sunless and way too cold. SADS can be a real problem. Toni
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I'm not much of an expert but I will try to help. Don't overwater during the winter. During the summer they drink a lot and need a lot of fertilizer. More than you would normally give another plant. I use Miracle grow blue stuff and timed released fertizer as well as other organic stuff. If you have rooted plants you move them up in the next size or 2 pots as they get root bound until they are in about 5 gallon. A good quality potting soil is fine. Most need a good bit of sun with later afternoon shade if really hot you might want to put under a tree so it gets a little more dappled sunlight. From what I understand the best way is to move them in the pots til you find a spot that they like in your climate. I had my large one in full sun with late afternoon shade and I will be putting some in different places this year so I am still learning with you. I have a bunch of cuttings I am trying to get to make it through til spring. The tricky part for me is winter. Once they are outside they do very well and are fairly easy.
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User
Original Author
11 years ago
THANK YOU ruth_ann for taking the time to reply & for such informative advice! I'm still new to all this so all advice is certainly humbly appreciated. I think I'm going to follow your lead & start creating a little space for my Angels to overwinter in my shed. There's no windows & it offers the best protection against the Nor'Easters we get. I will have to insulate the shed a bit more though just to make sure the temps stay above freezing. What a relief to learn that I can trim mine down so they fit through my door LOL. Not overwatering during the winter months is going to be the tricky part. How did you get your Brugs to spread out in that lovely canopy?
ruth_ann
11 years ago
Mostly I use lots of Mushroom compost and most of those Brugs were ones I started myself from seed and had never been cut back as they were only in their second year of growth. The others that had been cut back go into very enriched soil I just feed the with a balanced (20-20-20) fertilizer about every month.If your soil is healthy and rich you don't need a lot of fertilizer.
I have been growing these for over 15 years I guess and you learn what makes them tick after a while. I have to go at them hard because I plant them out in the ground the first week in June and dig them up the first week in Oct and have them go dormant again. They only get 4 months in the ground to strut their stuff LOL.
User
Original Author
11 years ago
Good morning ruth_ann! Hope your day is starting off well :). Kindest regards for your reply! Congratulations that you were able to have success in getting your Brug seeds to grow & thrive :). Wow, over 15 yrs growing these, eh? My hat's off to you! Since this is my first go with these plants, I'm slowly learning what works for me in my area & what doesn't; I discovered mine could not tolerate being in full sun in the summer & preferred filtered, but now that autumn's here it can handle being in full sun. I was alternating feeding them MG one week & a fish & seaweed emulsion the next & my Brugs seemed to like it at first but recently I noticed certain limbs look a bit leggy & they're more leafy than I care for at the expense of flowers so I'm definitely not going to be using MG with F&SW anymore. Way too much nitrogen! Oops! Since this is the baby Brug's first yr of life, should I cut it back or leave it? I know I need to enrich their soil next yr since they're in a pot & have probably used up what was available but since the weather's turning cooler than usual sooner than usual here I don't think I have time to do anything more with them except let them start going dormant. Yours only get 4 months to put on their show? Either way it must be quite a sight. Which has been your favorite to grow?

Autumn-Winter Brug Care

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