I have an orange brug, don't know it's name, and it's about 4 ft tall, lots of pretty leaves, healthy, and this is my second year with it.
I have yet to see a bloom, bud, flower, hint, whisper, anything that would indicate a trumpet coming on!!!

Please help.....

lisa

Lisa, What fertilizer do you use and how often?

You should see blooms this year. Feed with fertilizer with a high middle number. Here my brugs bloom mostly in the early spring and late summer/fall. In other words, in cooler weather.

rockskipper said: I have an orange brug, don't know it's name, and it's about 4 ft tall, lots of pretty leaves, healthy, and this is my second year with it.
I have yet to see a bloom, bud, flower, hint, whisper, anything that would indicate a trumpet coming on!!!

Please help.....

lisa

You are in the same zone as I am, I give my plants Miracle Grow plant food once a week from the time they get their leaves till fall, I do not add fertilizer when over wintering them in the house.

Lisa, if there is anything I have learned from these knowledgable ladies & gents here, the Brugs won't usually bloom until their trunks make a Y. And I have read that if the cutting they were started from was taken from below the Y of the mother plant, it takes that plant longer to bloom than if it was started from a cutting taken from above the Y. Now I don't know if this is absolutely correct or not, but I have read some articles to this effect. I don't know from personal experience except that my yellow I have always grown in the ground and it comes back up every year. But it is always late coming up, sometimes it's nearly June before it comes up. Then it has to grow a lot before it blooms, thus it is nearly frost most years befit I see it bloom and then I only have a sweet few days to enjoy it's blooms before the frost claims it. Some years they never get to open. So I guess the Y doesent form fast enough for it to bloom early. Last year I saved a cutting from her which is happily growing in a pot now, and I'm going to keep it going.

Donna you are correct about the Y when I first started, years ago with Brugs I did not know this and I was buying starts on ebay, the chat, anywhere I could, ended up with 102 brugs and no bloom for two years, meanwhile I learned all I could about them, we used to have a great group in here that would talk every day. JT included, and we passed along all we had learned, last year I gave all my plants away, Dr. said I did not need all that work, well she was wrong I do need them to help get me through the day, nothing like a beautiful bloom to make you happy.

Oh no, you did not give all those lovely plants away???? Well I'm sure everyone whom you shared with will share cuttings back with you. For you are truly correct. There is no better medicine to a true Gardner than a. Eautiful bloom

The chat used to keep me going, I really do not know why it suddenly stopped, but I see some of them on Facebook, and I learned a whole lot about plants. I now have a few brugs back, and my Miss Doris is doing great.

Yes Doris, seems everybody wants to go to FB. I'm bit that fond of FB. It takes so much time for one thing. And another thing, for some reason, it burns some serious data, I mean it really eats the data. When I first got my iPhone, I never lighed my FB off, left it signed in 24 x 7 hours a day 7 days a week for 6-9 months and I never used all my data that came with my phone package. Then suddenly, I began to get notices around the 16-18 of the month that I had used 70-80% of my data and my package didn't renew until the '24th. I would just put the brakes on and not get on FB hardly at all till the package renewed it does this all the time. And now I log FB completely off every time I get off of it to stop the data usage from FB. It's a struggle to get through the month. Sometimes I think AT&T is just doing this trying to force us to buy bigger data packages. It really makes me mad. I feel like they are stealing my data back. idk.

Try this with your phone, and IPad if you have one, when you are done with it for the day go to the button you use to turn it on, with the device ON double press the start button fast, if it works all the pages standing by will show on the screen. use your finger on each page in turn slide it up it should disappear do it until none are left, your phone, or IPad will stay dormant until you turn it on again.
I hope it works for you I do this every day, sure saves all that charging.

Yes, I do that. I close all the apps. I shut FB down each time I get out of it, I log it out completely. It just keeps getting worse. Which leads me to believe it's AT&T trying to sell me a bigger data package, because I'm scrimping my usage smaller & smaller and yet every month earlier & earlier they will text me warning me I'm close to using all my data. Then I will really scrunch my usage, would use our WI FI here more here at home. Now the last three months they have told us we are nearly using all our data on it, we have never ever been close to doing that. Last night was the last night before my data renewed on my phone and at 9 PM I got a text saying I had used all my data and they had added more for $10 for me to use by the 24th, TODAY! They charged me $10 for 3 hours, and what of it I don't use they take back???? Not right! I just do not see that all this time, we have not changed our habits any, even cut them down and we are using so much data??? Something seems wrong. I am thinking of reporting them to the FCC

I re-read your post and realize you are using your phone, the most expensive format to use, you would be better off getting an IPad you are not charged for data you do need to buy a WIFI though but in the end it is so much cheaper.

I do have a WIFI, but now they say we are using all of that too. Hubby uses a Kindel Fire HD, we never used to come near to using all our data, now suddenly both of us are getting warnings that we are near the end of our data limit several days before it renews. And every month, the date they start warning us gets a little earlier. Something seems a little fishy. To me anyway.

gone2seed said:You should see blooms this year. Feed with fertilizer with a high middle number. Here my brugs bloom mostly in the early spring and late summer/fall. In other words, in cooler weather.

I was tough that as well, but BGI says a lower phosphorus number like 16-8-24. What are your thoughts on that JT?

Kereoke-

Thanks for your reply about feeding them. I too use Miracle grow just not once a week. I am however, going to start using it once a week, I want these babies to bloom!!!

As for the 'Y' cutting.....my good friend moved all of a sudden and when I went to see her...she was gone. She left me a big brug but by the time I found it, it had fallen over, pot busted, and I picked up the pieces.

The two I have were the two largest keepers but both were from the actual root ball. I purchased some cuttings from another trade sight and they sounded like they had brugs for quite some time. I'm guessing they would be 'y' smart??!!

Hope so, this is the first time I've ever managed to start sticks and get roots and leaves!!!
None were marked with a name, but she was kind enough to make an arrow pointing to show me which end to submerse in water.

Had read enough on this sight to know you have to keep changing the water...DUH. I know have 10-12 nice, 8-26 inch baby brugs!!!

Thanks all.....I love this place!!!

Actually Lisa, you don't need to change the water when you are rooting brug cuttings, and it works better if you don't. They produce their own rooting hormone so if you change the water they lose that.

I've had brug cuttings sit and grow in water for a month, and even bloom! Just added water if it was getting low until I could get around to potting them up.

Lately, I add Perlite to the water as it seems to cause the new roots to be more sturdy.

As far as blooming, I move mine to a spot where they get morning and late afternoon sun, but are shaded through the middle of the day. They bloom great there, and as the season gets more mellow, they can take more sun. They're in full sun all winter, and last year I had blooms every month of the year. Some years, if it gets cold enough they do stop blooming though.

If you're going to bring them in for winter, you could keep at least one blooming if you have a big, south facing window.