Welcome Jockewing, You are one of the lucky ones. I can't winter mine over outside no matter how much protection I give them. Brugs are surprisingly hardy plants and very easy to care for. They like to be kept on the moist side but don't want wet feet. Make sure they are in a well draining area. During the growing season they are fertilizer hogs. I feed mine once a week and stop fertilizing about 4 weeks before they go dormant. For mature brugs I use a balanced fertilizer for the first few weeks then switch to a bloom booster. I also give them epsom salts, kelp extract and a foliar feeding once a month and use Superthrive and B1 at the beginning and end of the season. I also use both of those when I transplant. It helps reduce shock. Different brugs can tolerate different exposures. You'll have to see what works best for yours. I have some that take full sun and others that can only take a few hours of morning sun. I don't prune my brugs and just allow them to grow whatever way they want. Some are tree form and over 8' while others are more like bushes. I'm sure you'll get plenty of help from everyone here. Ask away and good luck with your brugs. Karyn

That's a brug. You should plant it in a 5 gallon container. During the growing season I water mine everyday and fertilize 2x/wk. You might not need that much water, it's very hot here. You need to allow it to go dormant during the winter. Stop fertilizing the end of this month and when it gets cool bring it into an unheated basement or garage, somewhere that's cold but above freezing. Don't water it much at all during it's dormant cycle. The leaves will all drop and you'll have a big stick. You can take cuttings and root them indoors. When it starts getting warm next spring take it back outside, start watering and fertilizing and you should get blooms. If you've taken any cuttings and rooted them over the winter pot them up and water and fertilize them also. Karyn

I have visited with Steve at his nursery (it's just down the road from me - dangerous!) and learned a lot. He showed me how he propagates them, as well as his set-up (greenhouse) for the winter. He is very careful with his plants. If one doesn't appear to be what he purchased/traded when blooming, he considers it a NOID and will assign an ID for his tracking. He always sends out the best plants with a mail order, and he steered me away from ones that might not perform for me. Lin

Kaye, I saw your hay bale cold frame..think you posted a picture of it once. I made one for starting garden plants once in Oklahoma...didn't have anything else to work with and couldn't find some of the plant varieties I wanted down there. Don't remember how I elevated the flats under the glass, but it worked fine with a couple of old windows. If Ron keeps that up, you may have to expand the hay bale cold frame for this winter. Is this mist system working better for him than the one in the greenhouse...or is it just to expand the season? beerhog, thanks for the reassurance. I do worry about out-of-sight-out-of-mind with those cuttings. I don't seem to stay on top of things as well any more. We shall see how it goes. It will really be hard to cut it back if it is full of buds. I had one round of 20 blooms on it at one time...pretty impressive.