I started messing with brugs about4-5 months ago and it became a little excessive. Anyway I have a collection of 100+ plants. These will go in on the Texas coast z9 hot and humid. The surviviors will have a home and the ones that cannot take the heat?? Well I am going to try them on Grimaldi feet just for fun. I really like propagating stuff. I am growing lots of stuff in rooting buckets right now. Doing a little plumeria right now in soil. Seems if you have brugs you have to have plumeria and confederate rose etc.
My goal was a fragrant area. Second goal was they had to be very hardy plants.So if yoall (texas slang) have some ideas of plants I am all ears. I am adding new stuff but it must be invasive/aggressive. I do not mind killing it back but will not pamper a plant. My newest item I am after is the giant bird of Paridise. I just got my aggressive roses today.
Hi Jim, and welcome to this wonderful brug forum! Lots of brug addicts here & willing to share knowledge about growing them. I think I remember reading about your plans for lots of brugs in your Tx yard...& many cuttings rooting. There's a lot of trading going on here too. Mine are just starting to break dormancy & I just can't wait till Spring!
Anyway, welcome again & hope to see you here often.
Patty
Milwaukee, Wi
zone 5
This message has been edited by Ladyaqua on Feb 8, 2007 2:38 AM
Hi Jim...thanks for joining us here on our Brug Forum. I think you'll enjoy the very friendly group. How far down the TX coast are you? I've lived in Dallas & Houston & we have several members currently living in TX. You mentioned an interest in grafting brugs...you might hit up Mikeyinfla to discuss that & pick his brain a little! He has posted here on that topic.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
Just outside of Corpus Christi. I will check in with the person who does some grafting. Things are hitting growing time here 70s day and 60 nights. Soon 80s and 60s. I am ahead of the growing game this year as I spent the winter putting things together. Thanks for the invite.
Quite a winter here we had a freeze and 14+ inches of rain in about a weeks time. It took a few of the weak. All are healthy are growing good now. Most will see their permanent home in about a week or two. I am still trying to hold them back because we still could have a quick northern bring a rare freeze.
I need to catch up on my end on some trades but will be after some in the near future. I do have a fairly good list of plants and am adding daily almost for the next few weeks. http://members.gardenweb.com/members/exch/jeep461. I am trying to pick up a bunch of Grimaldis for grafting but the guy I get them from is backed up with ebay sales that cannot be shipped due to freezing weather. I will just have to wait. We had the same cold a few weeks back and I do understand his problem. I bet the cherry blossoms in Washinton DC do not come back out this year. KInd of hard to go from a bloom to close to 10 degrees in a few weeks. I guess the NE US will have a lot of sick plants this year.
We have a global warming problem here also. I am less than a mile off the coast and it does not rain. (last few summers) I did not own a garden hose 5-6 years ago and now had to put in a complete irrigation system to keep it growing the last few years. Hmmm in a drought when we live right off the water. It used to rain every other day for a few hours from the clouds coming off the gulf. Now it is just hot, humid and dry. We now live in a coastal desert. The only saving grace is I live on an unlimited amount of shallow well water that is not saline. So my well gets a good workout every year.
Jim to the forum. You will find everyone very warm, friendly, informative and we all love to share.
I also have plumeria, 130+ brugs as well as many tropicals. WHen I was talking to Debra on the phone uesterday, she convinced me I just had to get some confederate roses!!!, so will be buying some of them (I am so weak and easily convinced!) I have major relandscaping plans for the spring!
Enjoy the forum and be sure to post pics when you get an opportunity
Hi Jim! Welcome
I haven't had much time to post, but have spent a lot of time lurking and have learned alot .
Just wanted to say Welcome! I've met a few people already and this is a really mellow place to
hang out and stop and smell the BRUGS! ha ha
darmadoll
Hi, Jim - I recognize you from the Texas GW. Welcome from another Texan to this wonderful forum, you will not be disappointed. I live north of Dallas, and we were in a 3 year drought, but thankfully, got rain this winter. Keep us informed of your progress, and post photos - we love looking at others photos. and again,
Welcome. Sounds like you have a fairly large area to grow things in. Will have to put on my thinking cap about the invasive species of plants that might do well there.
Welcome to the forum, Jim.
Excessive is a term we all can relate to... as well as obsessive. Hope you will feel right at home here amongst others who love brugs, and the other plants you mentioned... as well as some other great plants as you will see when you browse thru posts and photos here.
Welcome Jim. Are you by any chance jeep on GW? You'll like it here. I haven't been here too long but have found everyone to be extremely nice and helpful.
Karyn
Hi Jim and welcome.
It's always nice to meet someone new that is interested in not only Brugs but other plants as well.
So many new and different ideas make it a learning experience for everyone.
Hi Jim and Welcome!
I like your Passion Flower and I also like your preference for the invasive/aggressives, lol. We're in similar climates, I'll take a look around at what grows really well here, there may be something that you'd want.
I have just got back into plants again. I went on a mini buying spree today. I got 2 burgandy rubber trees 5 gallon pots with about 5-7 trees in each one- Beautiful these will be yard trees, 2 banyan trees, 3 Meyer Lemons, 1 mars orange, 2 giant bird of paradise, some stinky rosemary, and already had a car full of mulch and cuttings. Some real special plants I had been looking for all in 5 gallon + pots. Oh and some veggies.
Snagged a few more Plumeria cuttngs and some Confederate rose. Now I am trying to figure what I need for annuals. I have not started much form seed before just off of flats. I have a propagation chamber that needs to get used.
Thanks for the welcome. I will start with some bud grafting and then move on to plants. Even thought I might make a rainbow brug with about 10 different colors of bud grafts just for fun and practice.
I have all sorts of things rooting right now. From sea Grapes, esperanza, brazilian pepper tree, rubber tree, roses, confederate rose, cactus peruvian torch and san Pedro and pencil plus some golden barrel etc. Why? The stuff is just around and I like to propagate. It is planting time for them all as I do belive we are done with the freezes for the year.
I do like invasives as they seem to grow well here. My climate just wants to kill any plant that is not hardy. I do have plenty of roundup in case I need to control something.
Jim, I know you live on the Texas coast, but don't know exactly where. I have gardening buddies in several locations on or near the coast that could better help you with the annuals. I would think almost anything would do well - believe you are in zone 9 - rignt?
I grow White Bird of Paradise, which is what I think your calling Giant Bird of Paradise, my neighbor also grows them. Hers is at least 20 ft tall!! Mine has not taken off yet, its only been in the ground a full year this Spring, it was in a pot for most of its life. Its about 12 ft tall. Hers has not bloomed and neither has mine, please keep me posted if yours blooms.
Michele
Jacksonville, Fl
Zone 9a
Nature, in order to be commanded must be obeyed. Sir Francis Bacon
I live about 15 mile north of Corpus Christi in Aransas Pass. My house is 1/2 mile to the water. I also live on the highest hill in the county. I have a lot of sand but am also using a bunch of cut 55 and 30 gallon plastic Drums white and blue as containers. So I do have some decent soil.
Yes it is the white Bird of Paradise. I heard they did well in our area so I had to have at least one. Now I have two. They are 5 footers. Started with brugs and seem to be adding more than I expected. I had a bunch of cuttings in my suburban before I went shopping. I chopped them up and planted them today. Seems I found a good way to propagate by accident. In a white cut in half 30 gallon drum 1/4 soil put your cuttings and cover with a cut 55 gallon white barrel cut. I had lifed the top of one to put in some soil and found some forgotten cuttings all rooted. So now I have 3 30 gallon barrels full of Sea Grapes, Rubber Tree and Oleander. My if they all root I will have to be giving them away. There is about 200 cuttngs in there.
I had rooted some rubber tree by accident. I had given up on some a while back and found these guys all rooted. I just might have to fence in another 1/2 acre from my livestock. Too many plants that are going to get big real quick. I did plant about 10 Charles Grimaldis direct into the soil today. I figure these can survive my poor sandy soil better than the others. They just kept out growing every pot I put them in.
Booo on the cold. It was supposed to be in the 80's this next week and now it shows 50's with one night in the upper 30's. I was ready for warm again. All my young plants were outside. So now I had to move the real tender young rooted ones back inside. (Plumeria and Confederate rose)
I really need a few good solid annuals. I do not have a clue to what I need to plant. With it being cold again I have a week to think it out.
I still have a lot of relatives living in the Aransas Pass - Port Aransas area. I will ask my friends at Rockport what they would use for annuals. I think, though, that this will pretty much be up to your choice because almost anything that likes warm to hot weather will do well for you. You might try to find some Firewitch Dianthus that can take both the cold and the hot,
I went to school in CC in 83.I loved it down there.I wouldn't mind moveing back either.
Petunias
Marigolds
begonias
snapdragons
dianthus...it will bloom better in the winter for you.
impatients
salvia
moss rose
pentas
love in a puff.keep it sowed for all summer bloom
just a few things I recall seeing growing when lived there.
I can think of 3 things that are invasive with hurricanes....
castor beans(can blow 20 ft away)
fuzzybean vine(it doubled in size)
joe pye weed
also amaranthus,but /I like it.
I'd love to see pictures of your invasive-area-2-B.And Welcome!
Cough, cough had to take a sick day. We are going to have a freeze, Boooo 3rd of the year. This one is 10 days past the last freeze date. I put a bunch in the ground so had to set up sprinkler system and all types of rigging. I kind of wanted to see how hardy they were. But my better senses prevailed. It will be 70+ in 2 days and for a week+.
I planted some Marigolds, Just out of luck. I need to plant some more annuals so I will check out those types.
My baby sheep? If is growing like a brung. It is not 2 weeks old and is running everywhere and prancing like little sheep do. My fox terriers want to play with it. I discourage this because they might decide it is pretty tasty. I will take a picture and see how to post it here.
I sure hope everyones plants are ok during the freeze. This should be our last but with the crazy weather this year who knows. I will try to play it a little safer. Still have a few new birds of paradise and burgandy rubber plants to move inside. For all of you southern gardeners out there I have a ton of tropical stuff rooting and just got some Mango cuttings. If they all root I will have enough for a forest and will be looking to share.
Hey, Jim, I just learned today that my daughter has been awarded the use of her company's beach house in Port Aransas over Thanksgiving, so I will be spending some time in your area. Would love to check out your gardens if I have the time.
i am allergic to mangoes so i donot grow them but you can keep mangoes around 10 feet with prunning but there are varietys out there that grow slower or are grafted to semi dwarfing rootstocks. i had a cashew plant for a short while but they are related to mangoes along with brazilian pepper and poison ivy. so i gave that away. i have seen allot of standard varietys of mangoes that are around 15 feet tall in my opinion there is no sense in letting any fruit or nut tree get to be 50 or 75 feet tall noone is going to climb up and get the fruit. have even heard tell they are trying to find dwarfing rootstock for pecans so you can plant more trees per achre in smaller trees instead of less trees that are 80 feet tall. have not heard any more on that research.some trees are easier to keep pruned than others and timming is important because you may trim flower buds off if trimmed at the wrong time of the year.i am not sure how well mangoes would work in an espalier but i am trying it with a jackfruit plant i have not sure if it will work or not but worth a try.i do have an apple that i am espaliering not looking very uniform but seems to be working on the apple.on apples it is supposed to increase yeilds not sure what the affect will be on a jackfruit those plants like getting larger before they produce.hopefully one or the other of my projects will work. time will tell.
in gardening there are no failures only learning experiances unless of course you give up mikey in fl
I do not name them very much. I try to keep them as livestock or 24/7 gardeners. They keep the back area under control. Last year I only had to cut the grass twice and that was to help rid mosquitoes. They are cute. This is number 11 of the heard. I named one and it became a pet to me. I had to put it down due to a breach baby that no vet would do a cesarian on. This was the only time it ever happened. I just do not want to get attached to them.
Mangos I was just given some. I know I like them but I know nothing of the tree.They still have to make it through propagation but if they do grow I would never let one get 50-60 feet tall. Well maybe not. I guess it depends on if I like the tree. I am in hurricane country so it has a way of pruning them naturally. LOL. I just like to see if I can propagate them from cuttings.
Here is a picture of some of last years babies the 2 males are just now 1 year old and the two females are 6 months old. I did name the one with a white top, ELVIS before I knew what sex it was. It tries to become a pet but I try not to become attached.
I just like pictures,
Jim
Edited to insert thumbnail image
RA
This message has been edited by Tiedjens on Feb 16, 2007 2:06 PM
Jim I'm glad the baby is doing well. I wouldn't mind getting attached to them as long as they weren't destined for the slaughter house.
Mangos are one of the few tropical fruit trees that will produce for me here. They do well in a greenhouse over the winter. I don't know what variety my mango was but it was under 8' tall and had a very wide canopy. I lost a number of my tropical trees & plants a couple years ago when the power went out for a few days and the greenhouse froze:( I'm starting again but blooms are a few years away.
Karyn
Jim, thanks for more sheep pictures. They sure are healthy looking. I would have troubles not getting attached to them. As for mango trees, don't think I could find room for even a dwarf mango tree in our small lot, especially now that I've planted most of my new brugs. Fruit is so reasonable to buy in our area that it wouldn't pay.
The sheep are my gardeners. They are Black Belly Barbadoes, Short Hair sheep. They work 24/7 keeping the grass trimmed and fertilized. I had one goat and he tore everything up and tried to antagonize me. Well he finally lost. I do not eat them. I do hear they are excellent. My wife refuses to cook it if I slaughter one so I just give them away sometimes.
Now those Mango's I knew little about but do like their foilage. They are a couple of days in and they appear to want to root. My neighbor has a ton of Oleanders and I was planting brugs today and saw they had a bunch of seed pods opening up. I have never seen seed pods on oleanders. So I guess I will collect some seed. What for I do not know. Maybe someone might want some. Fruit is pretty cheap here but I have always like home grown fruit. It seems most growers pick them green and ripen them with gas for market. I guess that is the difference in taste. I was in Valencia Spain when I was young and remember the oranges form the trees. WOW, you had to wear a bib to eat one they were so juicy and sweet. I am now growing Oranges and Lemons.
I put in close to 50 brugs today and will put in another 30+ tomorrow. I am getting ready to start some flats of princess trees, nicotina alta, trumpet creepers, hybiscus (dinner plate), and some annuals. I will be putting in the ground about 1 lb of heavenly blue morning glories and some brazilia pepper trees about 5 lbs of seed. I always plant a bunch because these will go into the sheep area. They are kind like the tender new shoots. Some will survive. Maybe they will not like the taste and I will have a jungle but there is always roundup.
I do belive I need to seek some professional help. I went from no plants to over 400+ since last October.It all started with a couple Brugs. Where does it stop? March 1 is my deadline. After that it is only seeds or stuff already propagating. So I guess there is some type of plan.
Sounds like you've got it bad, Jim, not unlike many of the rest of us !!! I am going to make a concentrated effort to see your garden when I am in the area in November. I have 2 cousins still living in Aransas Pass, 2 in Corpus, and a few in Port Aransas. I also want to try to see as many of them as possible while there. BTW, I have donkeys to help me with my mowing, and they do a fairly decent job, but I am very attached to them, so had to quit the breeding process before I got too many.
I am a new farmer/rancher/gardener/???. I went with a couple goats that did not work. I found some hair sheep. They are ok but have such small hoofs that they like to turn grass into sand. My friend has a couple of horses and wants me to take one. I cannot with sheep. I do not believe they would get along.
My neighbor has a donkey and a goat. He is real cute, the donkey. Animals are good when they help with the chores. My heard is about as big as it can be. If there is a drought and it gets any bigger I will have to get rid of a few. I am getting ready to plant them another area and irrigate. I am about to swipe about a half acre from them for plants.
My garden/brug area is not much to see right now but it might be in a few months. If all the plants take off. I have a plan, but nature is not cooperating with me yet. I am trying to put a lot of thought into where the plants go. I am having some problems with confederate rose. Seems some of what I bought was a little misrepesented. I purchased rooted cuttings and got unrooted that had been stuck in the soil. By the time I tried to reroot them they had fungus and so,on,and on. I do have about 10 growing plants.
Anyone need Oleader seeds? I have a ton of picked fresh today. Never knew they produced seeds. I guess they will grow plants. There are 50-100 seeds per pod and I have 2 baggies crammed full of pods.
I had never thought about oleanders producing seed, but all plants do, I am sure. What color are the oleanders? I know they do well on the coast, but have not seen them in my area - too far north, I believe.
Might try them. They are pretty hardy. I belive they are white, pink and a almost red color. Let me know. There are proably a couple thousand seeds in there. I have seen oleanders in Dallas. If I did not have sheep I would have a few hundred plants. It will kill the sheep if they at them I do believe.
Lots of brug addicts here & willing to share knowledge about growing them. I think I remember reading about your plans for lots of brugs in your Tx yard...& many cuttings rooting. There's a lot of trading going on here too. Mine are just starting to break dormancy & I just can't wait till Spring!
and again, 
