My growing season is pretty much June, July and August.

Wow, that is a short season. I am thinking you would have to have grow lights on it while indoors.
Your above photos show that it is healthy, I think it just doesn't have enough time to set buds. Try keeping it in a large container. In summer you could sink the pot in the grounds.
While indoors start using a light to give it a head start in early spring.

How long of a season does it need?

Charleen or JT would have to answer that.
Here is some interesting information. http://voices.yahoo.com/growin...

Thank you. That was very informative!

threegardeners said:

What are the chances of it blooming after being dug out of the ground and put in a pot? or should I just give up this year and let it go dormant?

Pot it up and keep it growing.They all bloom sooner or later, and once they do they should bloom regularly.
I keep all mine in pots all year long.

Some of my brugs I keep in pots, then when it warms up enough for them to stay out, I plant the pot... into the soil. the roots will grow out . then it is just a matter of keeping them growing and happy. Plenty of water and Miracle grow....I'll get some pictures of plants in pots. some are way over 6' tall.

New start sent from FB friend. Charles Grimaldi


Versa peach i had left over in pot


Ignore the grass, please See, tall plant in pots, submerged into ground. I'm going to leave these brugs in these pots here this winter and see what happens. Species, Xena, Dream Cycle, and Monsoiur Amour De Muriel..


Pot Some planted in tires but several are in pots in the tires. I think it's a toss up of who is growing best..... O.K. that is our morning walk. I love growing in containers.
Hugs and great growing for everyone......


What is growing out of it....Awww, it smells so nice in afternoon....


Serendipity and Cherub in large pots, these will be brought in and cut back...

Lee Ann, my brugs bloom nearly year-round here in Florida. Sometimes they slow down blooming through January and February if we get a few cold fronts. Most of the year I get a flush of blooms about every month.

So, I agree with the others, if you pot it up, take it indoors and see if you can keep it growing all winter, even if it just keeps its leaves and grows slowly that will give it a head start on blooming next year. Got a sunny window in the house?

Take it outside as soon as the nights are above about 50deg. F Be sure to keep it somewhere really warm when it is outdoors like the south side of a fence or the house to keep it warmer at night and longer into the fall as well. Even the occasional cool night will slow it down. Tropical divas are very temperature sensitive!

Compost is not nearly nutrient-rich enough to grow brugs although they love it as a soil amendment to help hold the nutrients from fertilizer. It releases the small amount of nutrients it has very slowly as well. You need to really feed those puppies to get them to put out all those huge, fleshy flowers! I give mine a sustained release pelleted fertilizer like Nutricote 20-7-10 in March and again at the end of May and also add a soluble fert with high numbers like a 20-20-20 every second week when the weather is hot. The more you feed it . . . the more it will grow and bloom. I've also added a douse of Epsom salts occasionally. I spray it on my orchids, and a couple of my big potted brugs are in the pool cage shading the orchids, so they get sprayed with it too. Extra magnesium really helps with chlorophyll production. Can't hurt!

Add that to abundant water and you will have a big, lusty blooming brug. Here's a tall pink NOID that went straight up to over 7ft. tall before it made a Y and started blooming. Depending upon where the cutting you got came from, (above or below the first Y) they might do this, or they might branch and start blooming when they're quite small.

My 2 brugs are in the ground, they grew like nuts!
From ailing cutting that say in a glass of water for 3 months to 5.5' tall now, no signs of blooms, sub equal leaves or a Y.
I did manage to root a few cuts of both, incase digging the 2 monsters doesn't work out so good...

I worry that the spider mites will take em this winter tho, or harbor so many that I throw them out...I've done it before...ill do it again!
Hateful little things!

Sway, if your brugs make a Y before it's too cold, take a cutting or two from above the Y, spray it down (stem and all) like crazy with soapy water with a touch of Windex in it, and grow it in your greenhouse through the winter. Next year, it will make a shrub-shaped plant and start blooming for you right away. You should get several bloom cycles through the summer. At the very least, they will keep the spider mites off your other plants in the greenhouse! Sacrificial plants?

I usually pot the cuttings up as soon as they have a good bunch of roots, but I've had brug cuttings make buds while they're still making roots in a jar of water!

That pink one in the picture above did what yours are doing. Took a whole season to make a Y and start blooming. Then we were away on a trip in December when it finally made its first flowers so I never saw a thing from it until I think it was February. I don't like the plants when they are tall and gangly like that. I prefer the shrubby form. So I always take cuttings from above the Y (where the sub-equal leaves are) and they bloom right away.

That being said, that plant is now in my pool cage, shading a rack of orchids very nicely, since it is so tall. I had to stake it up, and it blows over into the pool if it gets too windy, but . . . it's serving a purpose and it sure is nice when it blooms.

These are two starts I got in April of 2011. The little one was Monster White, a cutting from above the Y. The other was Cherub, from below the Y. Monster was blooming by the end of July. Cherub never bloomed until the next spring.

I have a Charles Grimaldi planted in the ground, after keeping it in a pot in a sunny window all winter. It has not bloomed and part of the Y has died so only one part has (very few) leaves now.

I have not done all that feeding that you all have done. Should I dig it up now and give it a good dose of ferts, or wait until spring and let it go semi-dormant...or try to keep it (very few) leaves on? I hate to spend good money on this plant and have it do so poorly. I need to learn how to care for it better.

What would you suggest?

Hi Evelyn, I know I answered you on the other thread, but it bears repeating here. They are heavy feeders, very thirsty and grow like crazy when they are happy. If you didn't feed it generously through the summer, that's why it didn't grow or bloom.

I'd definitely keep it growing through the winter if you can. That will give it a big head start in the spring, and a much better chance of blooming several times next summer.

When you get it potted up with nice rich new potting soil, I'd go with 1/2 strength fertilizer to begin with. Be sure to check if the potting soil has some fert in it, you don't want to burn the few leaves you have. Then when it starts to show some new growth, ramp up the fertilizer gradually and really get it going!

Thank you so much, Elaine. I did not realize that all the same people would be on these different threads. I will follow your advice.

we got some frost last week. I figured my bloom time was over. This week has been better. No frost til next week sometime. But I would like you to see my Monster blooms... This is after the frost...
I have also removed some seed pods from Monster where the stem is turning yellow...It has been in ground 3 years and a very tough and beautiful plant....

Here's my Charles Grimaldi putting on some more flowers in mid-November. Sometimes I even get a few flowers in December. The tall pink one has buds coming too, but they take their time when the nights get cool.