Hope Arturo's is still there! Good Mexican food! Sounds like a fun cruise. Don't worry about your plants. They will be fine until you get back.

We usually have a pretty good time. This year we're on a different ship than we usually go on so we'll have to learn the layout. First thing I have to find is the smoking deck I make sure I've got two full propane tanks per greenhouse and light the heaters on low before we leave. Doing it that way the tanks will last about 7 days and we'll only be gone from Fri morning to Thu afternoon.

DH is a smoker too....but not in the house. He uses the hoophouse off the game room in winter. The plants don't seem to mind, and it keeps me happy (sane).
I'm outside slashing stuff to fit into the hoophouse we hope to get up before it rains. The brugs are still blooming or budding, even the ones I cut back. The yard looks like an abandoned jungle.

My wife quit about 2yrs ago after a bout with AFIB. I asked her if she wanted me to smoke outside and she said no. One of my Brugs is fixing to bloom also. Since I'm doing work in the greenhouses I'll leave them out until we get ready to leave especially since I don't want them too close to the heater. I still need to throw a bag of mulch in my cart and go around at add more mulch to the Rose of Sharon and Hibiscus I have in the ground.

Gathering the pots and plants. The rain spoiled my perfect timing to get most of the big stuff into the hoophouse and covered before the chilly weather kicked in. The hoops are up, but we decided to wait until Tuesday when the sun comes out again to cover the hoops with plastic. 'Also didn't finish the plastic on the front of the little greenhouse. We had tree trimmers a couple of weeks ago. Had to move a lot of big pots behind the pond so they didn't get broken. I missed moving them back again, and will have to find room for them Tuesday. Expecting a light freeze later in the week.

I thought I'd just stay in this thread instead of starting a new one. I've got 17 or 18 rooted cuttings (depending if one makes it or not) in 1gal nursery pots. I plan as soon as the temps stabilize, probably early March, to plant them in my front yard on the west side possibly in clumps of six. Sandi, how do yours do in Austin? Are they planted in-ground or potted? If they have to remain potted I'll have no other choice next before next winter but to either buy or build another greenhouse.

This is such a weird coincidence! I was going to post on this thread this afternoon, got busy and postponed.

In answer to your question about best to pot or plant, I'd say it depends on your soil. If you have fairly good soil, they will grow to be trees. If your soil is rocky or clay, put them in pots. If you aren't sure, place most of them in pots the first year. You can always have cuttings for next year, either way.

I was going to post a couple of photos of some homemade, adjustable sprinklers that kept the spider mites in check last summer on the Brugs. Have to go to desk top to pull them up. Back soon.

Here's one of them. DH put it together after seeing one a few years ago when I was co-chairing the first Master Gardener home garden tour (2005). We were wondering how the owner was able to keep everything watered without a sprinkler system. This was his "invention" for a moveable sprinkler.


I can post better close-ups if you're interested, but it's just a tin can filled with concrete, that has a piece of PVC pipe stuck in it, with a connector at the bottom side where the hose connects. We have all kinds of sprayers that easily connect at the top of the pipe for different areas. You can add different height pipes by just screwing them into above the hose connector. This one is nearly 12 years old and the tin can has yet to rot off the concrete base. It honestly kept the spider mites at bay this past summer. I place it under the tallest brug and let it shower the shorther ones. Doesn't take long to make the mites move on.

I'll have to find the other one that was a Rainbird sprinkler in another life. It has an adjustable pipe that gets under the leaves of even my tallest brugs. It has a few different sprinkler heads.


This is a close up of the connection:

Here's the Rainbird sprinkler, the long and the short of it!

Those are some great ideas Sandi! As far as my soil type, I can pull up a soil survey off the web but it's so much gobbley-gook I have no idea what it says. I just sent an email to the cities Public Information Officer, he should know or be able to tell me who I can contact, hopefully. The only drawback from leaving them in pots would be that I'd have no place to put them in the winter. I guess I could always build another greenhouse. DW already pretty much nixed buying another one though I do have room between the two 10x13s for another one of the same size. I'll have to see if comparing the cost of the parts of one made from PVC would be cheaper than a purchased one.

Your hubby is pretty handy, Sandi!

I, too planned on resurrecting this thread. I hope you had a nice cruise, Chris. We have done those same cruises for a nice weekend getaway. We've gotten to that lazy point where we don't even leave the ship!

Anyway. I decided to cut back the in-ground brugs today. Temps will go low but the mulch will protect the roots as always No freeze predited as far as I can see. I am tired of looking at the dead tree outside my front door. And I am scheduled to be put in a cast from a nail puncture and won't be in the yard or a month or more. Trying to tidy things up a bit in the yard.

We got off this year in Cozumel but not in Progresso. There's not a thing to do there if you don't drink yourself stupid or go downtown. All my wife was looking for in Cozumel was some wind chimes. She spent a few dollars on those and we bought two bottles of water in the duty free shop, big spenders we are. We've decided not to go this year but go in '18 for our 48th and then 20 for our 50th (if we're still around).

It's not very warm at all here, 45, feels like 43 but I've managed to keep it in the mid 60s in both greenhouses with the heaters set on low. I'm waiting for the Coryell County Extension Agent to get back to me with my soil type so I know whether I can put my Brugs in the ground or I have to put them in pots.

Sandi, here's the reply I got from the County Extension Agent about our soil. He had me give him my address so I guess it's pretty accurate as to what's at our house

I read it the above twice and I'm still not sure what I read! I think I'd keep the brugs in pots this year. You could always sink a couple in pots and see if they do well. The roots would be able to get out the bottom of the pot. You'd know soon enough if they didn't like the soil. Then yank 'em up, cut the roots coming out the bottom, and leave them in the pots.
I lost some brugs because my neighbors used river fill sand to fill in behind a wall. Their grass died, they decided not to replace it, and every time it rains, that wet sand jumps the wall and smothers our grass. Took me a few years to figure it out. Very frustrating. I have no grass on one side of the yard and looks like it will be a dead zone on the other side soon.

Don't feel bad Sandi, I have no clue either. I even told him what plants I wanted to plant, I guess he had no idea what Brugs are (I spelled out the whole word) he's really only concerned in crops I guess. That sounds like a good idea. They'll still fairly small anyway and only in 1gal nursery pots so the hole won't be that large.

Maybe dig a trench and set them all in a row. The ambient heat from the ground should take care of them unless there's a freak freeze. They grow so quickly. I cut back most of mine. Took some plastic containers with a couple of inches of water in them and those cuttings all have roots.

Sounds like a good idea Sandi. I'll do that sometime next month when it warms up.

After the winter in the garage, Eternity is now out and planted in a nursery tree pot. It shed most of the leaves after it got moved outside, but the buds kept growing and the two pods left from a flush of blooms late last summer are still hard and green. With the wind I have, if these were bells instead of soft tissue blooms, the clanging would deafen me :). Adora and Isabella are also blooming, but they are much stingier with the blooms. I think I'm going to cut Isabella down to the soil level and see what happens. It seems much more prone to mites than the other three varieties. Eternity and Tequila Sunrise are forming new buds galore, but the other two or not. So Adora and Isabella may not get to stay beyond this summer based on behavior. I think this will look better for a later round of bloom when it grows a few more leaves.

Beautiful Donald, mine are coming back up from the roots all except one. I cut them down to almost level with the soil in the pot. They'll not bloom until next year though as they're not going to be mature enough.

@needrain Adora and Isabella are prolific bloomers. You might give them a month to show off for you.