I bought this from Buried Treasures when they had their big sale last season and stashed it in the greenhouse overwinter. Its leafing out now and all I can say is WOW! I love it. I hope to get it to bloom this summer so it will branch. I have hit it with triple phosphate application a couple times but so far no cigar. Any suggestions??
So far (cross fingers) I have not ever had problems with rust on my plumerias for almost 20 years. Can't figure out why. I have had it on a few variegated cast iron plants though. But if I need it, what brand would you recommend?
Besides being a Gothqueen, LOL, I am also a scale and mealybug queen on occasion. But rust on plumies is something that has for some reason passed me by. Maybe it can;t find me out here in the woods.
I think I know the answer to this question but will ask anyway. I bought a Maya from BT also and its putting out new leaves too. Will fertilizer with nitrogen reduce the variegation? The last couple leaves since I fertilized don't seem to be as finely variegated. Thanks
I am not certain, because I am not an expert on variegation by any means, but, I think it depends on the plant and why its variegated. Plants are variegated because of a mutation and can be stable in their variegation or unstable and prone to reverting back to green. Its my feeling that the unstable variegates are the ones that will revert with too much nitrogen fertilizer.
I have a lot of other variegated plants that I fertilize regularly with a balanced NPK fertilizer...variegated orchids, variegated rhapis palms, variegated cast irons of varying patterns, Ae Ae banana, variegated pony tail palm, etc and they do not ever revert.
However, I bought a variegated Anthurium vittarifolium (sp I know) several years ago and it reverted. I should have grown it hard, but the variegation was unstable. I didn't find out that it was unstable til after the fact.
I do not know if these variegated plumeria are considered stable or unstable. That might be a question for the Thai breeders. I have kept a time release fertilizer on the two I have all winter (Nutricote) because mine in the greenhouse do not typically go completely dormant, they still get watered some, and both are still coming out variegated. But the Triple Phosphate is just for encouraging blooming, it has no nitrogen or potassium in it, so it shouldn;t affect variegation in any case.
Here is a pic I took today. Notice the first leaves look like they should and the newer are progressively less variegated. I have stopped fertilizing and hoping it comes back.
This was a seedling I proably had it now 3 going on 4 years there just slow
A seedling of Maya, or a random seedling you had that came out variegated?
All the Mayas are grafted plants.
Yes it was a grafted seedling came from down south bought it off ebay paid the most I ever paid for a plant and when I got i couldn't belive a pencil lol Then i talked to someone else and the said they paid couple hundred so then i didn't feel so bad
WOW I feel lucky. I got mine for a very nice price and it was already over 2 ft tall and the regular thickness (like hot dog plus). I had considered ordering one from Thailand on eBay as well, but, I am very suspicious by nature, and I did not think that it would be a good idea for many reasons...high shipping, long transit time, the possibility that US Customs might confiscate it, etc etc. I hadn't really considered small plant size.
I have gotten to where I never order anything anymore except from a very few nurseries, and I trade very infrequently anymore, and then only with other folks who live in Florida. I don;t really want any one else's noxious weeds and plant pests (I have enough of my own) and certainly don't want to send any somewhere else by accident.
i remember way back when that a cutting of amaron's curly white was sold for $500 on ebay. i am sorry but plumeria are just not worth that much. : )
thailand is the bomb after i bought mine I could have gotten any one I wanted for 5-10 a very respected seller too would have sent me all I wanted shipping was cheap blanket certifcate. If you want something bad enough you will find it for the price you can afford. Others who money is not a issue they don't look they buy I;m a looker lol!
This message was edited May 21, 2010 1:50 PM
Even though the Thai seller has a 'blanket certificate' US Customs can still decide to confiscate the shipment, quarantine the shipment, open and inspect the shipment etc ad nauseum. They don't have to honor those foreign certificates if they have any reason to think something may be amiss. And now, since the Dept of Agriculture is overseen by the Dept of Homeland Security, you never know what may happen.
Chill out you worry to much i have gotten lots of stuff from there the only problem I ever had was from germany they took it destroyed it and sent empty container to me saying so lol
yes they did the same thing to me with something from Costa Rica
If buy thru ebay you are protected If your stuff doesn't come paypal gives you your money back! Mean while all these plants are coming into country under the wire
And that's a good thing?
no! this is were all these viruses come from.
Ok gotcha.
Where is Mulberry? Are you Central or more northerly? This is not plant related, LOL, but this is another reason why I don;t trade with folks in states that I'm not supposed to...in January 2009 an article appeared in the CA papers warning that they have a new termite in CA that has actually evolved to be able to eat stucco. The scientific community believes that this was a natural evolutionary process because less and less wood has been used in home building in that part of the country for many years now, so the termites evolved to eat what is available. If they will eat stucco, they can probably eat aerocrete, which is what maybe 75-80% of the homes in FL are built with nowadays.
I'd hate to be the one who got a plant from somewhere in a trade infested with Florida's first case of those termites, LOL.
Supposedly there are some termites that have an affinity for asphalt now, and although many exterminators will say its not true, the guys who treat my house confirmed the existance of concrete chewing termotes as far north in FL as Ocala.
Then we have had the case of the Brazilian Tegu lizards that have been seen in the Ocala National forest. This is supposedly a really big deal, as they have no natural predators here and consume native species of all types at an alarmimg rate, and hibernate in winter so they can increase their range through North FL and possibly beyond.
Scary thought. A few years ago an Australian water moniter lizard that was about 4 feet long either got loose from its cage here in big G or was let go by its owner. It cause havoc for a couple months when people caught sight of it. I understand from pals in So FL that its not uncommon to find them in garages down there eating the dog's food (or the dog).
thats right my brother lived in hollywood he had them in his back yard you can cage a toad and fed it dog food he will grow massive like 20 pounds then you have the cuban frogs that are taking over all the bees hives have % of killer bee's in them and they are bad next door has hives and you can be in the pool bee see's you he's stinging you lol. Just one more thing to throw on the heap of troubles like all the turtles and fish coral birds that are dyeing from this last disaster they have not told the full truth yet how bad and how many yrs is going to take to get over this. Wasn't bad enough this winter was so cold we lost thousands of game fish snook 6 ft long were killed from the cold they weren't the only ones seafood going to be a thing of the past
Hi Goth!
I don't post here much anymore due to lack of time, but I did pop in today and happened to see your question. You are a fellow variegate lover! I've admired your plants here at this forum and at bananas.org.
You can trust the quality of variegated plants from this Florida seller: http://www.floridacolors.com/Thai%20Cultivars.htm
Also, the Thai variegates are stable. The advent of bud grafting exploded in Thailand as an efficient way to propagate plumerias a few years back. They found that there are variegated nodes on a nonvariegated plants. For example, I sent my friend in Thailand a cutting of my nonvariegated Australian fruit salad. When he propagated that cutting by doing bud grafting, one of his grafted plants was variegated. It was amazing to see. Anyway, that is how so many awesome variegated have been discovered in Thailand. I think if we did more bud grafting here in the states, we too would find more variegates.
The prevalent line of thought from experts that I know and trust is that increasing potassium increases blooms, not phosphorus. Too much phosphorus can be bad for a plant because it doesn't leach from the soil well from what I understand.
I just planted a bunch of variegated bananas, and some are Thai varieties that I am excited about. They are doing well in the ground so far. I've got that variegated ponytail palm too that I love.
I have a couple of variegated plumerias, and they have been slow to bloom, I think, but I have seen others get blooms. Try increasing your potassium and see what happens, but I think a regular fertilizing regimen of balanced number (13-13-13) should help you to achieve blooms eventually.
You know a plumeria can flower when very small if the cutting or grafted plant was taken from a reliable flowering mature tree; however, that sort of makes everyone expect their small plumeria to bloom when young. I do think that maturity has something to do with reliability in blooming. I think that it takes a few years for a plumeria to put on growth and girth from the cutting or just-grafted plant stage in order to have decent blooms. Your plant looks pretty small still so I would just give it some time. HTH.
It is small, its about 2 ft tall. It was fully leafed out (like yours) before the winter and has just started re-leafing.
I have had cuttings bloom before they have even rooted before, because, like you said, they were taken from mature plants. Most of the plumeria I have are large trees with heights of 6-8 feet and are very old and very branched. I quit collecting them (new ones) because I just don't have the room anymore. These 2 variegated ones and the little seedlings I am raising for fun are my only new plumeria in ages, LOL. I cut down and dug up a 12 ft tall Ylang Ylang tree to make a space to plant this Maya, I want it to have a premium place and lots of room to turn into a huge specimen
So take your trees and graft other cultivars to your existing trees have all you want
I like the ones I have and don't want to graft anything to them. I have pared my collection down to Confetti, Bubblegum, Kauka Wilder, Hilo Beauty, Princess Victoria, Candy Stripe, Maile, Vampire Moon and Vampire Blood, and now Maya and the other variegated one whose name I can't remember, and a species plumeria (Plumeria stenophyllus).
I'll see what the little seedlings I have turn out to be and if I don;t like them I will give them away.
I would like to see a picture of your confetti I have 4-5 trees here i got in tampa few years back I swear there confetti hard to find a decent pic of it to see heres mine
I am still waiting, LOL. Maybe this summer.
Doesn't that bomb I hate that I have bought purple jack 2 yrs ago still waiting tsumani another one 2 yrs there as bad as seedlings people don't realize don't get in hurry here lol the verigated Clare showed lighter green it was sent to me with a inflo a cutting now not a graft and it was a double inflo too too bad it died because it was a cutting but it y'd anyways it had to come from a big tree and it has never thought about it either
i started in 2001. i bought many grafted plants from fcn that year. they all bloomed the same year. boy, was i in for a surprise! that's not always the case with all of them. sometimes, we have to wait. i feel you pain...
a little late but ......
nitrogen will make the leaves green out
A variegated plumie should be in bright light not direct sunlight.
I have several from seed and they wont show variegation in the sun.
I dilute the fertilizer of 20-20-20 down to 5-5-5 so as to not over nitro it.
Also if you use bloom booster make sure the third number is 1/2 of the middle number so the plant can take advantage of the phosphorus.
The minor essential minerals like magnesium and sulphur help the plant to take up the nutes.
Without them you can get ph lock and the plant wont use the nutes no matter how much you put in.
Using Epsom salts can help with this balance.
get a ph test kit
test the water running out of your pot
test your water source
use ph up or down to bring the ph to between 6 and 7.3
They prefer acidic soil.
Good luck and BTW....
The flowers on Maya suck as do most variegated.
They are grown for the leaves not the flowers.
;)
OMG! i plumeria not grown for flowers? oh the agony in the gene pool.
I got one from thailand a marble it was just a cutting came with a inflo i was so excited a double inflo too! I developed for a while just as I figured it would open it bombed lol It did put off 3 tips
