Bluegrassmom--
I have a 4-level split house.
The lowest level Shop, is 80% underground. So--naturally cool...and damp...YUK!
It does not have any heat vents down there--but it is part of the house. Lots of concrete...
The Temp. down there is about a ssteady 58*.
The Brugs do fine there--in a semi-dormant state. They grow little leaves on top which last until spring.
Once in a while--they even throw a bloom, probably because that part of the plant was
about to bloom anyway.
I dribble a bit of water on them now and then. My 2 Clivias are down there as well--
but they are under the shop light. One of them just finished blooming--gorgeous!
I have to tell you that I grow my Brugs pot-in-pot. The 2-3gal. nursery pot gets planted into
a really large pot, 2/3's of a way down. That is how I learned to grow brugs many years ago.
The smaller pot has 1" holes cut, all around, near the bottom. It grows roots through those holes
and into the soil of the bigger pot. When I have to dig it up to bring it inside--I have to sever
these roots with hacking them free and then removing the inner pot.
Then I wrap a plastic bag around the dug up pot--and that is how they live until end of April.
By then--they are ready to sprout--and I just bring them out, in shade, and let them get going...
It is like--BAM! and they are all green.
Every 2 years--I will un-pot them and give them a serious root-pruning. Then...re-pot them
in new soil and they really take off. I do not fertilize them a lot--I use osmacote--nor do i do anything special.
Did have some Whitefly issues last year as well as some Broad Mites on the Dr. Seuss.
That was hard to deal with. I had some "Forbid" someone gave me and that helped.
1--2-Here is a picture of a just dug up (from the bigger po)--Brug. See all the roots it grew through the holes?
It has been cut back--all blooms sacrificed--and ready to go down the Shop for dormant storage.
3--4--The cuttings from the stem's sections rooting and growing. I NEVER take cuttings from green growth!
and I NEVER root the sections on water. Just Mix. Stems, of any size, root really well, even the main trunk--
if you wanted.....
Gita
#5--My Clivia blooming don in the Shop. Some days--i forget to turn on the light. No biggie!
