I never once called Americans "you people" when I said that I was talking collectively about everyone who posted. I have never been rude at all. I have never called anyone names or put down Americans. I only refuted claims made against me. It's others who have taken my words and twisted them to their own purpose. It seems Canadians are nice people as long as they agree with what was said, but don't dare disagree or you are put down and called names. I've had it with the whole bunch of you. You wouldn't know what being polite was if you fell over it.

I overwinter many tropicals (parrot's feather, papyrus, water poppy, lemon bacopa, umbrella palm, and a few others). What I did was set up a large 100 gallon tub in the basement - purchased at any farm supply store. I then hung two 48 inch shop lights (4 bulbs) over the top of the tub for 14 hours a day which I attached with chains to the basement rafters. I lower them as closely as I can to the plants. I learned last year that I didn't need to submerge the top of the pots in water - that actually caused mold problems. Just keep enough water in the bottom of the tub to keep the soil moist. The exceptions are the water poppy and bacopa - for those plants, I submerge them in their own small tubs and raise them higher on tall overturned pots to get closer to the lights as the papyrus is quite tall. I add very small amounts of fertilizer periodically to the water. Last year my parrot's feather did not survive floating in the cool water so this year I took cuttings of the parrot's feather and potted them in dirt. Make sure the pot has holes in the bottom and keep it in the water so the soil is constantly moist. Parrot's feather and bacopa are hard to come by around here, so I need plants earlier in the season. Everything is doing great and come late May I return them to the pond. This treatment is very similar to growing any plant or starting seed indoors using artificial light. I have left the thalia in the pond this year as it was quite large and took up too much space to move indoors. If it dies, I'll get another. If you want to try this system, it's very easy. It may not work with everything, but I was pleasantly surprised how well most of the plants did.

Barbara, I will try to read or at least skim over that book (have difficulty concentrating for too long now) and next time I'm at the hardware store will get a respirator then, oh with glasses, goggles and that, it is not going to be easy. They are a little more helpful and knowledgeable generally than big box stores. I stuffed a bandanna into the masks, know from reading about other things small particulate especially liquid still can get through, but I'm old and if one thing doesn't get me it's going to be another, none pretty. I feel I'm ok for now, feel sorry for people who do that for a living. I know for fact the young guy who I FINALLY got to come in years ago and spray for cockroaches and fleas got some pneumonia-like affliction, and we both agreed it was probably from his work with chemicals. He used no protection other than pants and long shirt IIRC and did it all day, every day, inside and out, much of the year. I've always hated any sprays in my house for anything, one reason I like to stay independent because you have no choice in almost all community living situations. They spray on a regular basis; it's mandatory, and I'm not real confident they have but minimal concern for the occupants or people who do it, just so things "look" nice. Sometimes there is no other way. But it seems they spray routinely as a preventive. In spite of taking so many precautions and doing my homework as best I could w/new equipment and things I've never attempted before, I ran into several little problems. The spray itself once you get it going is easy enough, but anything can go wrong at any time. It's just faith that the dial actually delivers the correct dilution. I'll only mention a couple of things but there were more, that is nasty stuff to work with and hard to clean. I need some longer rubber gloves as found one unused pair left of surgical gloves, and by the time I was done, my hands felt slimy, could be from sweat, but I think some got in, washed several times with soap and water. The other thing was maybe stupid on my part but the way they tell you to clean the dial container. I could work at the faucet with that because there's bare ground, but you have to unscrew it while the spray part is still on the hose, rinse out as well as you can, on the other side of the two-way diverter I have there, and it takes several rinsings to get it out. NEVER unscrew the dial part from the hose connection until you've got it as clean as you can, why later. Then you screw it back on and clear out the spray part and uptake tube, says two short bursts (and even rinsed those other parts under running water, don't think instructions said. I did five bursts and maybe shouldn't have. But either way, when you finally think you are done, turn off the water, start to unscrew at the hose connection, the pressure left in the hose squirts water. And I noticed in spite of my care, there was still slight evidence of milky liquid in the container, much diluted but still there. Being alone, few people or pets ever come into my yard. I let the cat out for the night, he's back, hope he didn't walk through that area, it can take awhile to dry and for things to develop. So it's a good thing I quit when I did and not attempt anything in the front. Maybe from now on I'll just do those several specific plants I did and probably not as often as necessary because I procrastinate anyway. No way could I have suited up and done that if it had been hotter, so that's a future consideration. I don't know how other people deal with this stuff. It was quite the learning experience. If somebody locally could convince me that organics really work and show evidence of clean roses like I see so much here (this was mostly to save my cherry trees and a few other congregating plants that aren't blooming), it won't seem like as much trouble because spraying is trouble, too. Kelp I don't worry about any of it, practiced with that in my pump sprayer. Well, since I've done another one of my diatribes, I was thinking about writing a blog in our local paper about my experience with iminicloprid. The Bayer product for spraying that has evidently flown off the shelves. Here we are with no honeybees, and we want to keep our pretty blooms and kill bumblebees and other pollinators? At least I thought of them and took off the blooms or targeted things that aren't blooming now. Madness. But I think I'll hold off on that because I don't feel comfortable writing on one of those things, few read them anyway. My neighbor across the street says he has no JB's.

Hi Michael, another zone 5 PA brug lover here, Johnstown, PA! I am not experienced with them like others are here so cannot address the pruning for treelike growth but can share my wintering indoor experiences. Got my first brug 5 years ago and overwintered it in a growing state for 3 of them. After the initial shock of the environment change resulting in a massive leaf loss, we had no problems until Feb or March. Then I would inevitably end up with a whitefly and/or spider mite infestation that I had to battle. This was lessoned somewhat if I ran a humidifier constantly and misted the plant a time or two a week. Unfortunately this resulted in a dampness in the living and dining rooms so I then moved them to a basement bathroom. But this had the problem of no windows so I had to rig up plant lights on timers....and still run the humidifier. You know that old saying out of sight out of mind? It's true, I didn't see the plants all the time and so had a tough time remembering to water them regularly..... So for the past 2 years I have left them go dormant in the garage. My brug was very large, 5 feet tall and probably 4 feet across so it created other problems in the house. The garage also suffers from all the plants coming in for the winter (6 pots of canna, hibiscus, 4 or 5 pots of taro, jasmine and more) but we adjust to it. This year I thought I lost my original brug but lucked out and it came back so I am not sure what I am going to do this year. I have a couple of new ones that I bought, they are still managable from the size standpoint so I think they may overwinter in the bay window this year and I will mist them daily.