Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Late August blooms, 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
onewish--

If you are asking about the Mama plants--depends how big a pot it is already in and whether you are going to keep them on a patio, or above ground elsewhere, or plant them, partially, in a bed.
I say this, b/c Brugs have these HUGE leaves that act as "parachutes". In high winds, the whole pot (if above ground) will keep blowing over (yes it will!) and damage the plant and break your pot--if it is ceramic. I keep 4 bricks on top of the soil just for weight on my above-ground pots because of this. Of course--my pots are the foam pots that look like clay--therefore lightweight to begin with.
Also--once Brugs grow any size--they sop up water very quickly, become light and blow over. Daily soaking is needed.

If you are asking about the rooted cuttings--Keep them growing inside. I would have them in at least a 6" pot by the time you put them outside. They can grow in these for a little while--but then you need to transplant them in a larger pot--unless you are giving the rooted cuttings away.

Here is what I do:

I plant Brugs pot-in-a-pot. Take a regular, black nursery pot--say a 3gallon size. Cut 1" (or so) round holes in the sides of the pot--maybe 4 or 5 of them--and plant your Brug in these pots.
Then prepare a bigger, squatty (18"-20" or so) pot with soil mix and sink the black pot 2/3 of the way into the soil in the bigger pot--leaving 1/3 of it sticking out.
Planting this way makes it easier to remove the black pot only and bring it inside for dormancy--NOT having to bring in the whole bigger pot.
Yes! You will have to trim off any roots that have grown out of the holes--and that is OK. Just put a plastic bag around the black pot while it is inside to keep the roots from drying out and water it once in a while during the winter with about a cup of water.
About every 2 years--you will need to root-prune and re-pot the bigger Brugs. They grow really big. I just take them out of the pot they were in (when I bring them out in the early Summer) and cut all around it with a sharp knife--bottom too. Then re-pot in a clean pot with fresh soil all around. Here you can add something like Osmacote or "Dynamite" to the fresh soil to feed the plant all season.
Brugs can be fed 2x a week for optimal growth and blooming. They are real "pigs" when it comes to feeding....And--water--water--water.....

You can also plant the black pots directly in a bed--leaving the rim sticking out and do the same thing when taking them inside...Dig them up, trim the roots off, etc.....
Remember---Brugs grow into small TREES where they can be left outside year-round. Keeping it in a pot requires a bit of "maintenance".

And--don't forget to treat the pots with some kind of a Systemic product before you bring them in. All kinds of "things" could have crawled into the pot from the bottom.

Always look out for Spider Mites or (the worst!) Cyclamen mites on your Brugs. Preventive spraying helps...
Yellowing of older leaves is nothing to worry too much about. it is normal. ...It can look scary to see all these yellow leaves all over! Just pick them off.
I think in this heat--they just don't like it all that much. Also--those HUGE leaves sop a lot of water out of the plants....

Again--more "advice" than you asked for--but I remember how needy I was in this respect when I first started growing Brugs. Just passing what I have learned on to someone else.......:o)

Gita

Here is what my BIG "Maya" looked like last October when I dug it up and had to trim off all the leaves before taking her in. I call this picture "The Carnage".....
See the roots sticking out of the pot's holes? It sure hurt me to cut all this off--as there must have been 100 buds on every tip of every branch--but colder weather was forecast, and I had no choice.