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strange.  though i'm perpetually away, i always boomerang back here at some point to ask a question or two, or post some random topic.  but when i typed in the last url i remembered spf being at, it didn't work.  so i typed spiritplants into google and found it at the 10th result.  

i apologize if these questions have been asked before by others, but i don't have the time right now to search through the posts.  so...where is eddy?  what happened to the old spf?  is it all gone?  it's sad to see that there are so few members here at this new site.  i just now noticed that this has only been up since january.  does anyone have any info or are we all clueless?

hi all.  first off, a confession:  i have not been caring for my brugmansias as i should have been.  there was a time when i used to give them time every day to talk to them, water them if necessary, check for critters, etc.  that was long ago, when i had a part-time job and lived with my parents.  now i live in an apt. with my mate and work full-time (i've had the plants for maybe 4 years now) and i don't have nearly as much time on my hands as i used to.  in fact, i initially wasn't sure i could care for them upon moving and had left them at my mom's house.  

unfortunately, she didn't pay much attention to them outside of watering them, and they got a nasty case of whiteflies.  after living on my own for 1-2 months, she asked me what to do with them.  it was getting cold out and she didn't have a place for them inside her house.  i agreed to come over and see how they were doing and possibly take them.  one of them had dropped all its leaves, but looked healthy otherwise.  the other was in sad condition.  there were whiteflies literally covering the underside of some of the leaves.  i could hardly bare to see it.  they were all over the poor thing.  i couldn't let that go on, so i took the brugs to my apt. and began a concerted effort to get rid of the whiteflies.  i've succeeded in getting them under control.  basically i just kill them with my fingers, carefully so as not to alert any others that might be on the same leaf.  i don't like chemical stuff, so this is my only surefire method and i don't mind it.  however, this kills the flies only.  i can see the eggs, but i don't know how to kill them and i'm wondering if there is some non-harsh way to do this?

also, i'm wondering, they've never bloomed, even when i took very good care of them for the first year or 2 that i had them.  my only thought about why this could be is that i didn't fertilize them enough, because i was definitely watering them enough, giving them enough sun, etc.  now that i'm getting them back on the road to health, and trying to care for them better in general, i'd like to try and see if i can get them to bloom.  but my other problem is that i don't want to have to repot them again.  i did so last summer and they're in pretty big pots now.  repotting, living in an apt. now, would be a bit of a hassle.  also, it's a 1-bedroom and there's hardly room for them as it is.  so my basic dilemma is:

is it possible to get them to bloom without encouraging too much growth?

thanks in advance for any advice you can give.