 |
| Dormant Brugmansia |
These are my Brugmansias, plumeria and tuberous begonias (not pictured). Now that spring has sprung, it's time to drag them out of the basement and start waking them up (break their dormancy).
For most of the winter, I store my dormant plants in a dark room and water them sparingly.
 |
| Dormant Plumeria |
At some point during February or March (whenever I think of it), I will bring the plants out of the dark room and into a room that gets filtered sunlight.
During those few months, it's not warm enough to move the plants outside, but allowing them to see some sunlight is their first cue to start waking up.
When you force plants to go dormant over the winter, it's best to wake them up slowly.
If you try to force them to wake up too quickly, it could do them more harm than good... and could even be fatal to the plant.
Here are a few other tips for bringing a plant out of dormancy:
- Don't put the plant directly into full sun, this may burn the stem and leaf buds. When you first move the plant outside, place it in a spot where it will initially be protected from full sun, wind and rain.
- If the temperatures will get below 45F, move the plant back into the house to protect it from getting too cold.
- It's best not to overwater the plant while it's still fully dormant, this might cause it to rot. Give it a good drink of water to help wake it up, but make sure the excess water drains from the pot.
- Once the plant starts to put on new growth, begin watering as you normally would. This is also a good time to give it a light dose of fertilizer.
- Winter growth will be weak and may burn off once you have moved the plant back to it's full sun location. This is normal. You may choose to remove the weak growth, but it's probably not necessary.
- Don't feel bad if the plant never wakes up! It's frustrating but it happens to the best of us. :-)
 |
| Dormant Brugmansia |
I get to enjoy my favorite plants every summer, and it's much cheaper than buying the same plants every spring.
Do you force dormancy to overwinter any of your tropical plants? I would love to hear which plants you do this with and your secrets of success!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions about gardening, or ideas for a topic you'd like me to write a blog post about; please feel free to add a comment on any of my posts. You can also post something on my Facebook page.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh No! I have three brugs that have been sitting all winter in a south-facing window. Should I not have done that? They have been dropping a few leaves, but not all of them. I don't think they've gone dormant. They are pretty small, still just rooted cuttings that I got about a year ago. They grew hardly at all last summer, and when it got cold I brought them indoors. I've given them occasional water, too.
ReplyDeleteHi Alison!
ReplyDeleteGreat question! Don't worry, your brugs are fine. You don't have to force dormancy on them. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I only force mine to go dormant so I don't have to worry about caring for them all winter. Last fall, mine had aphids really bad and I didn't want to deal with them all winter. No leaves, no bugs. :-)
I recommend following the steps I listed above when you start to move yours back outside, even though they aren't dormant. You will want to reintroduce them to their full sun location slowly so they don't burn, and protect them from wind and rain the first few days they're back outside. You can start watering them more often and fertilize now too. Your brugs may experience leaf burn, but if you acclimate them slowly, they'll be fine. (just like us - after being inside all winter, our skin can't handle direct sun!)
Amy