It's okay, Don! They are only cuttings that can be replaced. Keep trying and don't give up. I can't even count how many I have lost. Learning is something we all do if we are open to it! LOL! Please don't be fearful and try again doing exactly what you did before. When it starts to get below 60 at night, bring your cutting inside for the night and put it back outside on hot cement or concrete the next day. Your heat pad will come in very handy this fall. Your cutting could be rooted by mid-November. It doesn't even get cold here until late October. Just watch your nighttime temps. I would not hold off. I do not think it will survive if it has to wait until spring. I think it will be too stressed and too dehydrated by then. If this one decides to rot, you can get another fresh one next spring. Live dangerously! LOL!
Cutting not getting any roots??? Help!
Thank you, Clare for your very encouraging words. I'll try again in two weeks.
Don
I have heard so much about keeping pots warm in order to promote rooting. I would like to share an experience I had this winter. When I was packing my plumerias in the greenhouse for the winter, I had to trim a few so that they would fit. Some of the cuttings were rather big with multiple branches.
I keep a trash can in the greenhouse that I keep potting soil in. I put the cuttings about an inch deep in the potting soil to keep them from drying up. I did not water except for a few drops once in a while.
I don't keep my greenhouse very warm. I just try to keep it from freezing, so my plumerias will go through periods of temperatures in the forties and upper thirties. To my surprise, when I unpacked the green house and decided to root the cuttings, some had roots already.
I think sometimes we do more damage to plumerias with TLC. They are really a resilient plant. One thing I learned from past experience is that plastic pots are deceiving. The top soil may appear to be dry, but depending on your soil mix, sometimes deeper they are wet. And plastic pots hold alot more heat and moisture inside than clay ones. Here in the south, our plants are often stressed following a wet period when the ground is saturated and a blistering sun beats down on them. That is what you have with overwatering.