No clue. I just wacked off the top with pruners and took the part in that I cut to set root incase I screwed up. PJ

I usually cut mine back to about 18" tall. That's because the plastic pots I cover them with are about that tall.

Well, I hope I didn't kill the momma. I cut back to 5 inches and covered it completely with mulch. I kept the tall canes and have them rooting in a vase of aerated water, just in case. So many last minute things to do! The tropicals are all clean, coffee ground and sand topped and in the house. My tomatoes are covered with a hoop house with a 60 watt bulb for heat. I guess I can sleep tonight ;-)

Pam

Pam, I would really pile on the mulch and mound up some dried leaves then cover with upside down large heavy pot to ensure your roots don't freeze in zone 7. Good luck and let me know how it does. This is my first year to grow them and that is what everyone told me to do but I was chicken and kept mine in a big pot and am going to put it in the garage for the winter and plant it in the spring to see how big it will get next year. It only got about 3 or 4 feet tall this year but fat stalks. I still have to bring in my lemon tree but everything else is in the garage. Oh my back!

Pam, I cut mine to the ground, mulch and don't worry about them. They are much tougher than suggested by many. I have had them come back from roots left in the ground when some were "dug up" to give away. They are hardy down to 32 degrees, so I mulch only. The only time I would cover them with a container is if we have weather warm enough for them to sprout.

Carrie, are some varieties more tender than others? The reason I ask is because last year I lost my Snowbanks and it was variegated. (sad face)

I cut most of mine back already but the ones I didn't have huge buds about to open.

I googled different varieties of brugs and the Frosted Pink says it's hardy to 7b and the Snowbanks says it's hardy to 8a.

I'm right where 7b meets 8a so that may make a difference.

I feel much better now. The cuttings are already growing roots too, so I should have brugs to share next year!

Pam

Sorry if I gave the wrong info about the upside down pot. Makes sense about the light keeping them from growing green tender stuff while the weather is still iffy. I believe the reason they gave me was to hold the mulch in place but since they said heavy pot I assumed a clay pot with a hole in the bottom.

Yes, Carol Ann, the variegated are the most tender. I am so sorry you lost Snowbank. I have only one variegated - Maya/Sunset, and it seems to be hardier than most.

I had Maya but a friend wanted it so I gave it to her. I still have a variegated peach. They sure are slower growing then the other brugs.

I'm a little south of you, but I just cut mine off as low as I can. The stubs always die back and the new growth next spring comes from below the ground on my plant. Its just a basic yellow variety.

I should tell you the only reason I have one is it was a gift from a friend. It was in a pot for a few years till I got tired of dragging it in and out of the garage. I stuck it in the ground and said "grow or die, I don't care." Just to spite me, it has grown like crazy each year. It will get 6 to 8 feet tall and looks great through the spring. As summer comes it fusses and drops leaves if it does not get watered almost every day, but it just keeps on coming back. Its been in the ground for three years now and unless we get a really bad winter, I guess its here to stay.

Or---------- unless you do not water it. Brugs are water lovers as well as fertilizer if you want them to bloom well for you.

Mine are still outside and doing fine! I lost some sun coleus, globe basil and maybe my ragin cajun ruelia that is a fuzzy leaf beauty and nothing like the others in its family.

Some brugs in ground make it back for me, some don't. I'm impatient and it takes so long to get them up and blooming that I drag them in. What do y'all do to get them to bloom again? I have 2 in ground, the yellow ones. I forgot about them and they only got about thigh high this year.

I have 3 big ones in pots that I'll take in somewhere, but all I did was drag 2 in bloom around to the east side of the house this cold spekk and they are still blooming. The white, that was not in bloom stayed out in the cold wind and icky sleety rain. It's happy, but the basil below it, protected by other plants bit it.

My garage has potted brugs that are blooming. I also have some that I left outside in the ground that are full of buds.

It seems sad to see them blooming so nicely in the garage but they're so big that I didn't want to drag them back out.

Cynthia, I have too many to overwinter all of them in a room with enough light to allow them to keep all their leaves and blooms, so I store about a dozen of the larger ones in the garage, and let them go semi-dormant. They lose their blooms and most of their large leaves, which is fine, as they rebound so readily in the Spring when they can come back outside to play. I water them just enough to keep them alive until Spring. The ones in containers in the plant room with skylights will continue to bloom all winter. I have 4 remaining inground that are still blooming, and I will wait until the first freeze is predicted before I cut them. They will then be trunk cuttings for sharing or planting next Spring.

Carrie,
I expected to lose the plant during the summer of 2006. We were on water restrictions and my beds suffered all through the summer. I kept expecting the Brug to die, but it just dropped leaves and kept on going. It did not bloom much, but nothing did other than my native plants. I lost my Hoja Santa (rootbeer plant) that summer along with several other plants that I thought would make it.

The brug is planted in a heavily mulched bed under the shade of a large Oak tree. The shade and the mulch combined may have helped keep it going.

After 2006 I said I was going to go with all native and not have this problem again, but somehow (thanks to Lowe's)I ended up with a large number of tropical plants and here we go again with the watering...

Your resolve is on the same level as mine ---- I promise NOT to get anything else that cannot take the winters here in North Texas, but then something comes along that I feel I cannot live without, and we're off again. I really think there is no cure for this ailment.

I know, I got all these tropical plants when Lowe's rejected a shipment and the truck just unloaded them by the dumpster. I gathered a bunch of plants that i would never have paid for just to see what they would do. Well with all the rain this spring and early summer they took off. I had said I would just let the frost kill them, but no at first possible frost I'm out dragging these huge plants into the garage. LOL maybe some day I will learn.

Carrie, you are SO right. There is no cure.

We need to start a support program.

TA...Tropicals Anonymous.

Call 1-800-NoMoTrops

maybe we sould take the fist step:

zonal denial.... we think we're down there with you Tally

I love tropicals too! I forget how many I have...until this time of year. I'm about to dig up my lollipops, I'd hate to wait a whole summer for them to get this gorgeous again.

Sorry, Carolann...my fingers are too busy to dial for help

Hey CentralTexan, I am right down the road from you. Let me know next time you see plants by the dumpster, lol.

PLEASE do not tell me about it -----LOL.

When I am able to drive that far I'll deliver them to you Carrie, lol.

My DH usually says words I've never heard before when it's the day to bring them all in.

My poor virgin ears. lol

Cynthia, I say our addiction isn't bad ....it keeps us out of bars.

OH, Kristy, you will come bearing gifts -----LOL. And you know, Carol Ann, you just keep on thinking that way ---- that is a very positive attitude.

I made three trips to Lowe's gathering up plants. I loaded up my pickup truck bed each time. I gave plants to all my neighbors, the ladies at my office and to anybody that slowed down to look. I guess I only kept 15 to 20 plants. That makes it better right????

The one good thing I can say is that I ingored the pallets of roses the store rejected. See I can say no to plants!!
No CHAD therapy necessary. But not to worry there was some other fool there gathering them up. I don't know what he did with 35 rose bushes in 3 gallon pots, and don't even want to think about it.

Fool4flowers, I do have a few in the original pots I'd be glad to pass on to you. Or you are welcome to take cuttings from the ivy plants that tried to take over my yard. If we don't have a real winter, there will be ivy in the backyard this spring, and I won't have to move a pot.

I'm very bad about buying tons of plants just because I can't pass up the great bargains and I have no idea where to plant them so I give them out to friends.

I only want one more tropical (at the moment) LOL.

If anyone has a Lime Zinger EE I will gladly trade any of Carrie's plants for it. hehehe

In that case, it should probably be one of the ones I am rooting for Carol Ann .......hahahahaha!

OH Carrie, I was just joshin'...you know I luvs ya.

What I meant to say was PJ's yard. Cool native plants with little care. Take your pick.

I would be glad to have some. Send me an email central texan. I saved several roses from the dumpster at walmart and saw a bunch more on discount today for $2.50 but I resisted since I NEEDED an automated light up deer to graze in my front yard, lol. I had to get him a friend too. That one turns his head side to side and watches out for him while he eats, lol. What can I say, they were on sale. I did get one really nice rose out of that bunch I saved. It has beautiful yellow and red mixed color blooms.