BTW. Here are my 2 brug plants. Took this picture about 2 weeks ago. They are larger now and are actually finally catching up to the monster pots I put them into. I will need to get a more recent picture if anyone is interested.

My only goal is to get some good flowering before winter. Do you think I can do it? How big do you think these could get before October?

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Hi there,
I definitely think you can get blossoms before fall. I live in CT and already have blossoms on 3 varieties. I don't have a greenhouse and store them dormant for the winter. Your plants look great! I'll try to post some pics once I figure out how to do that here.

Donna

I am in 6b, here are my only two brugs.

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The first has already thrown out 4-5 blooms, the second has nothing. They both were overwintered dormant and repotted in early April. I only go up one pot size at a time as I think overpotted plants concentrate too much on root growth to the exclusion of foliage and blooms.

The blooming season here is plenty long but I do try and get a jump start as early as I can and this year it was plenty early. Even if I can only get them outside a couple of hours a day in the cool, early spring I try and do so even though it is a pain dragging them in and out twice a day.

Just give them lots of food and water- I alternate days feeding weakly one day and using the garden hose the next. I also alternate foods between Foliage Pro, Miracle Grow, and fish emulsion.

You have younger plants and they will get there- just have patience.
If it was fast and easy everyone would have them!

MY Brugs are about same size as Rubby's.

cearbhaill, nice pictures. Very healthy looking trees. I see the flowers on your plants. I hope mine can bloom this year.
If you don't mind share how you overwinter your Brugs, Did you just let the trees go dormant or let it continue grow indoor?

Finally figured this out. Here are some of my brugs in Connecticut. These pictures were from last week. The blossoming double is New Orleans Lady. The pair by my back door are Painted Lady. Neither has any buds yet but I keep checking! We remodeled extensively a couple of years ago and hope to put a stone patio on the back of the house, hence the temporary stairs and mess, please ignore. ;^) To this point my New Orleans Lady, Inca Sun and Angel's Blushing Beauty have all put out blossoms. New Orleans having the fewest but hey, I'll take what I can get!

Donna

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Here's Angel's Blushing Beauty, should put out a decent early flush in a week or so.

Donna

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"If you don't mind share how you overwinter your Brugs, Did you just let the trees go dormant or let it continue grow indoor? "

I've done it both ways- I have both HPS and MH lighting indoors and in the past I crammed the brugs under the lights to overwinter with my orchids. They've gotten so big that it's increasingly difficult to do, plus no matter how well I prep them the brugs are spider mite magnets.

So this year I let them dry out and brought them into my garage for the winter. They completely defoliated and I spritzed the soil with some water every month or so. As it got closer to spring I dragged them to the south facing garage windows and started increasing their water. When days were over about 45F I would drag them outdoors for some sun them back in at night.
I sawed off about half the rootballs and repotted them in April and they've been outside ever since. They get sun from dawn until about 1pm.

I will definitely let them go dormant from now on- it was a thousand times easier and IMO they did benefit from the rest. They look better this year than they have ever looked and that is the only thing I did differently.
Of course time will tell bloom wise. I am getting one or two blooms a day now on the pink but nothing so far on the NOID.

Wow. Thank You everyone for replying. I was beginning to think there was nobody growing them in the "colder" climates.

So cearbhaill, you did not cut them back. You just brought them in, let them go dormant, then brought back out again?

The picture of my 2 at the top do my plants no justice. In the last 3 weeks, they have at least doubled in size.

My plants (about a dozen) are anywhere between a foot and six feet in height and have been growing outdoors since late April. I expect the first blooms by next month.

All plants overwintered as dormant plants in a warm (65-70F) basement. I've tried keeping them dormant in a crawl space or garage but it gets too cold (near freezing on occasion) and I had significant losses. With basement storage survival is 95% or so. Keeping them semi-dormant under lights only encourages whitefly overgrowth.

Great pictures! cearbhaill and Eric, Thanks for sharing your expeiences of grwoing Brug. cearbhaill, dragged them in and out in early Spring defintely pays off. Look at how nice and healthy the plants are . They start flowering already, you have many months to enjoy the sweet scent.

I am planning on letting them go dormant during winter months. I think it is much easier. My past experiences of growing other plants indoor during winter under light always seems that the stems grow leggy, not realy stong healthy looking.

I'm trying to grow some seeds and have a already started one coming tomorrow (I hope!).

I grew one last year that did well.

I started a brug from seed this spring, this is my first experience with a brug, call me crazy. I will be watching this thread in MA to follow your footsteps.

ohsillyme, where are you in MA?

Wakefield, you?

Fall River