Hi Jen,
I have better luck rooting cuttings in the early fall because the more mature stems don't rot as easily as in the spring. There are a lot of old threads here with details on rooting and overwintering and I have attached one for you. In your zone you can do this now as long as you keep the cuttings inside. I just started a few last week to cut back my stems a bit. If you take a number of cuttings you increase your chance of success. I just use a mix of peat, perlite and light potting soil and pretty much ignore them unless they look dry.

The roots on my brugs grow so fast in the summer that they are almost always rootbound in their pots. They grow well either way but rootbound brugs need to be watered twice a day in the heat. I also have one planted in the garden that grows well with no pot.

Your rooted cutting might have had too much water for this time of year. They should be dormant or nearly so in the winter unless you are just starting them.

With the fire ants, I would just wash all the soil off the root ball and pot it up in new soil, water it and set it aside to recover. Brugs usually take to repotting quite well and are not nearly as fussy as the beauty of their flowers might make them seem.

Shirley

Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting thread

Jen, I think if it's a nice wooded cutting can root any time. Some people say the cuttings root better in the summer but do not want to cut them at that time because the brugs are in full bloom. Keep your cuttings in water till they get nubbies (white spots) and then plant them. Brugs love water but when they are rooting too much water is not good.

I do not know to answer your second question.

Third question....yes, brugs can be root bounded in their pots. Repot them when you see roots coming out of the bottom holes.

Pat

Something killed your plant but I don't think it was repotting. Are you using a well draining potting mix? If you have root rot, especially during the warm months when a plant had been doing well it sounds more likely that it suffered from "wet feet". Make sure you don't use a potting mix that is moisture retentive and unless you are using something like Fafard or a similar mix ammend it with perlite, sharp sand or something similar to promote good drainage. A cutting that had been growing since the summer would be considered an established plant and brugs are surprisingly hardy. They'll establish a strong root system pretty fast during warm weather. It doesn't take long for a brug to outgrow a small container. They won't die from being rootbound but they won't thrive either. My mature container brugs are in mainly 25-30" diameter pots and even then they need to have the rootball reduced periodically because I refuse to use larger containers. It's easier to grow them directly inground or to sink a smaller pot with holes cut into the sides. You can use a sharp spade to sever the roots that have grown outside the container if you want to lift them. As for rooting cuttings I think you get the best results if they are put directly into soil but that also takes up the most space which many of us don't have. Just make sure the soil is barely moistened. Don't allow it to dry out completely but make sure it's not wet either. Water rooting is very easy and works best with mature (slightly woody) cuttings.

Fire Ants......run! I have no idea. Thankfully that's one pest that hasn't reached this area. Hope you have better luck with new cuttings and getting rid of the fire ants.

Thank you all so much for the tips, and especially Shirley for posting the link! I took a new cutting (poor plant is a little sparse for being 4' tall) and put it in water in a sunny window. I'll pot it when I see nubs, and use the same soil as for plumeria.

I think my last cutting died either from the fire ants themselves (it was soil-rooted under the mother) or from the drenchings I used to get rid of the fire ants. I unpotted both, severely root-pruned the big one and put it into a much smaller pot for winter storage, and drenched both with water liberally diluted with hydrogen peroxide. Then I sprinkled talcum powder all over the top of the soil for good measure. Took about a week for the ants to die (they move really slowly in the cold) but as of now they are all gone. Thank goodness! My usual course of action with fire ants is boiling water, but that wasn't going to fly in this case.

I thought for sure all the new buds would fall off, but even with all that trauma the big brug is happily blooming away in the garage! My friend said it smells like a very high-end perfume when she visited and got a whiff the other night.

And, Shirley--do you keep yours in-ground in the winter? I've seen them in-ground in Houston but not in Austin. They are--blessedly!--one of the few plants that the deer absolutely will not graze, and that is a rare thing around here.

Jen-
This is the first year I am letting one stay in the ground. It got too big to manage in a pot and I did take cuttings as insurance. I am on the north side of San Antonio and slightly colder here than in town. I was inspired by a neighbor's brugs that not only made it through last year's record cold but grew and bloomed as well as before the deep freeze. I have mulched it several inches just in case. It's doing well despite several light freezes with no die back and even has some new leaves. So far so good.

I love seeing the brugs in Houston where they have practically naturalized in some yards. Many of them survived the snow last year too.

Your solution to the fire ants sounds good. I'm glad it looks like they are all gone. You do have to take drastic action on them. They once wiped out a row of established yaupons by the roots here in our yard. Our neighbor takes a scoop of ants from one hill and puts them on another. He says they go to war and wipe each other out! We haven't had a chance to try it ourselves, but if it works it would eliminate the need for Amdro.

The deer do not graze my brugs, but I did plant it next to an oak tree to keep them from rubbing antlers on it. A buck wiped out my best esperanza that way this year. The one next to the fence was untouched probably because he couldn't get to all sides of it.

Shirley

Hey Jen.. Your Brugs will do fine in the ground I leave a few out every yr that are duplicates and they have always come back.. Even with days of temps in the teens and single digits.. I do mulch . The only draw back of not digging them is they take much longer to bloom... Easier on the old back tho..LOL
Good Luck with yours!!

Kylie

Just checked and the outside brug has nine buds on it! If the buds can make it through this weekend we'll have a few more days of warm weather for them to develop.

Almost all the brugs on the deck have buds too. I'm only covering them when it gets cold and they are doing great. Of course we just hit 71o today with near 80o predicted tomorrow.

If it gets as cold as last year I will certainly bring them in.

More good info--you all have been so nice!

Kylie, I hear you about the back; I'm not gettin' any younger! If I ever manage to make duplicates I will try planting one in the ground on the south side of the house which still has not frozen though the north side has. I always just watched my neighbor, who gave me the original cutting, and when she took hers in I did, too.

This morning I drove by a house that always has large plumerias out front (they're my first love) and just noticed that behind the spot where they keep a large plumie most of the year there are two big brugs sitting out still. Must never have seen them before because I was too busy admiring their plumeria!

Shirley, I'm so glad to hear your neighbor's made it after that awful wet winter last year; they must be tougher than I thought. I keep the bucks off the trunk of mine by just putting it behind a very large lantana, though for other small trees I use heavy-gauge wire tubes--really ugly but necessary. I tried that expensive repellant spray from Sweden and had only mixed success, plus it made my yard smell like a fish-processing plant! I stick with the structural barriers now, LOL.

I guess the dogs and the wheat field really pay off.. The deer don't come up to the house but they are wearing out the wheat field there were 11 out there a couple of days ago.. The ground looks like that's their party spot..LOL

Kylie