You can grow most brugs in your climate. Plant them where they'll receive am sun and afternoon shade. Provide ample water and feed often during the growing season. The only brugs that won't do well is the section Sphaerocarpium, the cool temp varieties, sanguinea, arborea and vulcanicola. The others should do quite well.

Thanks so much, that's really helpful!

Even in shade brugs will wilt in the hot afternoons and they perk back up when the evening cools. Mine do this everyday in the summer and it doesn't hurt the plant. Sometimes a few of the buds drop off in the summer heat, but when the weather cools they will bloom great.

Don't be discouraged to grow sphaerocarpium Brugs in So. Cal. I am in zone 10 and was the first one to have a Zunac vulcanicola bloom. My sphaero's grow in full sun until about 2 in the afternoon. Of course sanguinea and vulcanicola won't flower until the winter here. Arborea will flower throughout the year though.

All other Brugs seem to do well here with afternoon shade.

so, if I have it in shade (on my porch) all day, do I really have to water it everyday or twice a day? (really?)

I wouldn't think so unless the soil is bone dry and they are droopy every day.

To me the key is a well draining soil mix(lots of perlite or pumice or lava), water when it's almost dry (3-4 on the moisture meter), and a dose of a complete (5-5-5 or close) organic dry fertilizer once a month.

Some sun is better than full shade, but I have seen full shade done.

Showering the plants every day or so to keep humidity up and the bugs at bay also seems to help.

If you want blooms you need to have some sun. Full am sun is best but even some filtered sun might do. With full shade you'll have vegetative growth but more then likely no blooms.

right now the spot gets afternoon sun from about 1pm till maybe 5pm, I think. But... in the winter, the sun pattern might be different. :\ I could move the pot. but they get pretty big, right?

The bigger the pot the bigger your brug will get. I have seen some that were over 8' tall and they were in huge pots. A friend of mine has quite a few that she grows in the ground (and apparently full shade) and they get over 8' tall and bloom like crazy. Cheryl

How mild are your winters? What are the average day and nighttime highs and lows?

I moved some of my brugmansia cuttings into full sun. I am hot zone 9. I have much better foliage results in morning or afternoon sun, nothing is blooming yet. I wanted to see if the blooms will be larger in full sun, vs morning or afternoon sun. Chocolate Brug has inspired me to try full sun. I have never put anything in full sun, except bird of paradise. I will let you know once I start to see blooms. Barbra

average low in winter is about 34 degrees F, roughly... Summers are usually about 95-110 highs

Aimeekitty, we have the same temps. I am in South coastal Texas. Usually if we have below 32 degrees, it just for 6 minutes. This past winter was diffrent it went down to 26 degrees for over 4 hours. Then 31 degrees for 9 hours. I lost so many plants I had since 1995. I am starting over, and I think I am doing a much better job of selecting plants this time around. They only brugs that survived were the ones that were on the East side next to the house. I'm still not sure which ones survived, I did not have them labeled. Its been fun starting over, I can't wait to see my first blooms. Since our summers are so hot, my best blooming time is in October. I still have blooms in December. Just think, you can post pictures of your blooms to cheer up folks that are snowed in. Barbra

Aimeekitty is your porch enclosed and heated in the winter? If not you are going to have to allow the brugs to go dormant. The foliage will drop with those winter temps. Maybe I am misunderstanding your questions but where you talk about the sun exposure being different in the winter it sounds like you think they'll grow year round outside there. They'll only grow year round in a tropical climate. There's no problem allowing them to go dormant over the winter. As soon as it warms up they'll put out new growth. Now if they are in an enclosed, heated porch over the winter just disregard everything I said. lol

Aimeekitty, Our average low temps. a little west of you are in the mid 30's here in winter. I just leave them outside in the ground. You may get a little die back at the top of the stems, but you can just trim that back in spring, and with plant of fertilizer watch those babies take off.

There are lots of arboretums and other places in So Cal with Brugs in full sun, full shade, frost zones, no frost zones, 3 foot tall plants to 30 foot tall plants, poor soil, good soil, etc.

They are easy to grow here. You should have no problems.

Well draining soil, complete fertilizer once a month, and watering once every couple days should do the trick no matter what kind of Brug you are growing.