Actually I think the roots do continue to nourish the pups after the mother is gone. I was waundering around in a friends hoop house awhile back and saw a pot with a couple of stumps Neo. punctissima it it surrounded by pups. The mother plants had obviously been gone quite awhile since most of the pups had pups

Welcome to the forum S M we need more from NZ considering the number of 'brom addicts' here we have a low representation, where abouts do you live?. I agree with above if you want to keep the original roots but have found the pups do better operating off there own root system for nice healthy plants but by leaving the pup on towards the end of the mother plants live you tend to get a more stessed but often nicer color as we think it works in the opposite as the old roots give gradually less nutrient and finally will rot out and of course you will end up with less pups. even a old root will give up some new pups. Happy gardening

Thanks b too & jaga. I have only been growing broms for a couple of years and have much to learn! Jaga, I am in Mellons Bay, near Howick in Auckland, about a km from the ocean. We don't tend to suffer too much frost where we are but a few of my plants took a battering from the hail this winter.