Tropicals & Tender Perennials: help, 1 by Clare_CA

Clare_CA wrote:
Corky, Are these in the ground or in pots? Plumerias are fairly forgiving trees. If you mean that you have to dig them up from their location where they are planted now to move to your house, that shouldn't be too difficult. Like any tree about to be moved, it will fare better if you can get as much of the rootball as you can. You do this by digging a wide circle around the area which extends below the widest branches and use a straight shovel to dig straight down rather than into the rootball. I'm sure there are instructions somewhere for digging up trees in general. I'll see if I can find something.

I'm fairly sure that, even if you lose some of the roots, your plumeria trees will still be fine. You may have to prune some branches to compensate for the root loss. When plumeria growers in colder zones dig their plumerias up in the fall to store for the winter, they can end up losing some roots, and it usually doesn't affect the tree's ability to grow them back in the spring. Here is a picture that belongs to Paula which depicts her plumerias which were dug up in the fall in preparation for dormancy.