I think they do better inground unless you want to keep moving them up in pot sizes that are impossible to move without a hand truck. You can just sink a plastic nursery pot into the ground. You seal the bottom drainage holes and cut new holes in the sides of the container. That makes lifting them in the fall quite easy. You just take a sharp spade and cut away the roots that have grown out the holes and lift the pot.

Thanks for your response. I will try that next year. How big of pots do you use?

Thanks

Linda

If I'm sinking them I usually keep them in a 10" pot. If they are going to remain in pots above ground they are usually in 25-30" pots which can be extremely heavy. When you lift the sunken pots you just need to trim back the branches a bit and strip the foliage or wait for it to drop before storing it. I set the pots that had been sunk into another pot that's just slightly bigger and pour soil around the sides to keep the roots that have been cut protected during dormancy.

I agree with Karyn. They usually do best planted directly in the garden soil once the soil temps have warmed up. Of course location is important. They like a rich, well-drained soil that is kept somewhat moist. I like to give them part shade during the hottest part of the day. I also feed with Milorganite several times in the summer.

Grown this way, they are quite easy to dig in the Fall, and when you dig, you don't have to keep many roots at all. I dig 6 to 8" away from the main trunk. Cram them in as small a pot as you can. For example, my plants are anywhere from 7 to 12 feet high and I will try to get them in an 18" pot or even smaller. Knock a lot of the soil off (or spray off with hose) and use fresh potting soil.

I also cut off leaves and prune the top limbs back like a hat rack. (I usually train mine to have a single trunk). They will be really light-weight and easy to move into storage. Keep them ideally at around 45 - 60 degrees over winter and they should bounce back quickly in Spring.

Thanks for the great information! Wish I had asked earlier so I could have put them in the ground this year, but I will have to wait until next spring. I would love to see them as tall as yours Dave! I do have some milorganite that I give my bananas and hopefully they will get really big.

Thanks again!
Linda

I have 2 noid brugs in very large pots on my porch for 3 years and they are doing great. Every year they grow 8-10 ft tall reaching the second story. I guess they can grow big in the containers too.
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Pat

This is my second year growing brugs. Last year I had three in large pots. This year I planted two in the ground and kept one in a pot. The one in the pot is blooming now but the two in the ground do not even have any buds yet. The two in the ground are nice and green with lots of leaves.

Hi mnwsgal, I also have two planted in pots and the bigger one has had one flower bloom so far. The smaller one is developing buds right now but has not bloomed yet. They both bloomed last year and it seems like they bloomed earlier in the year. But maybe thats because we had a really cool wet spring this year and everything is blooming later than they did last year.

How big of pots do you have yours planted in? And how tall are the ones planted in the ground?

Thanks
Linda:)

The pot with the blooming brug is 17" diameter. 'Frosty Pink' is just over 5ft tall and has many buds. This one has about a foot of new growth on the 4' stalk from last year. It has one large y and several small ys growing out from that one.

The ones in the ground are not in pots. I may use Karyn's method next year. 'Pink Beauty' is just over 5' tall and has many ys but no buds. NOID yellow is just under 4' tall and has many ys but no buds. This one was also very short last year.

All have been fertilized with a slow release fertilizer when planted and milograte and alfalfa tea at different times during the summer. I will fertilize with a bloom buster later this week.

All were grown from cuttings two winters ago. Each bloomed a small amount last year though very late September/early October.

As a new brug grower I appreciate any suggestions from others on growing these and getting the ones in the ground to form buds and blooms.

We had a rain and wind storm when my potted brug was full of buds and open flowers. Many of them were blown off so didn't get to see a full flush. Now it is starting to make new buds.

Also see some buds just beginning to form on those in the ground.

Exciting for me!

I planted some of my brugs in the ground this year. One of them has bloomed its heart out, one has not bloomed, (different exposure), and one was 1' tall, now it's 2.5' tall. The remaining brugs in pots: 1 bloomed a few times, 1 didn't bloom yet, both struggling with spidermite. Next year I will find a place in ground for them all.