My two plumies have already begun to save their energies to go through the summer months beginning next month. Now the winter is on with temps of 15-25C on the average. Mist and fog on certain nights and mornings. One of my plumies has shed off leaves to stop evoparation. The one in the foreground here has smaller leaves. No blooms now.
That is so interesting, Dinu! 15-25C (59-77F) is still very warm. My plumies don't start shedding leaves until the temps drop into the 40's F (4.44C), but I keep watering normally, and the daytime temps are still very warm. It is nearly 80F (26.66C) here today, and the wind is blowing fairly hard. I am getting a yellow leaf here and there, but very few of mine have lost their leaves completely.
When the leaves are down for you, does it have flowers here and there, at least?
My aztec gold has no leaves but many inflos and flowers..
:)
May be because my plants are too young (4 yrs) to have that sort of inflos in such conditions? I noticed today in our campus a couple of plumies in bloom and not much leaves. Have taken photos and will post them on a separate thread where I have posted a white plumy. Watch out tomorrow.
Hi Dinu! Yes, most of mine still have all or most of their leaves, but the ones that have dropped all their leaves still do have flowers.
Robert, my AG has an inflo right now too!
Such a small potted plant flowering! It's quite amazing to me.
Dinu, that is one of the neat things about this tree. It can flower even while being rooted or soon after if the cutting is taken from a flowering tree. Only seedlings take 3-5 years to flower from seed.
Aha, that makes it interesting. Can it be maintained to a certain height?
Well, only the dwarves stay dwarf really, and more and more dwarfs are being created so that is good news. The dwarves tend to stay under five feet, I think. However, that being said, you can prune the trees to whatever size you wish and start over with new cuttings at any time. You have to prune selectively so that you leave yourself some flowers for the current season.
While cuttings can flower as they are being rooted or soon after, it bears mentioning that the inflo's and flowers are often smaller than normal due to a limited amount of energy. Well-established rooted cuttings have bigger bloom heads and bigger flowers.
There are some cultivars, like Elizabeth Thornton's 'Lemon Drop' and 'King Kalakaua' and some others which don't get to be very big trees and seem to grow wider rather than taller. You can grow plumerias in containers for a few years before they start to get really big and before they get to the point where the flowers are over your head. You can continue to grow plumerias as trees in containers after that if you root prune and add fresh soil each year once the root system becomes impacted. Growing plumerias in containers will naturally stunt them a little bit compared to what they would do in the ground if planted. Restricting the root ball does seem to slow the growing process down a bit.
Here is a King Kalakaua below.
That is georgeous Clare. I didn't realize they could get that big here. How old is he? How's he doing with all the cold weather we've had this year?
T-
It's has grown so bushy. Beautiful. I saw this before, but did not reply immediately.
Hi T and Dinu! I should have mentioned that that King Kalakaua is not mine. It belongs to a grower in San Diego named Ken Ames. There are many trees around my neighborhood and in the neighborhoods in Los Angeles that I see when I drive around. Some of them are at least 15-20 feet tall, maybe taller. It takes about five years for a tree to reach a nice size if put in the ground, depending upon the variety. Some are fast, tall growers, and some have slower, wider growth habits.
T., that grower in San Diego did get some damage when the recent cold spell hit, but I think it was mostly just leaf and tip damage. He has a whole grove of plumerias. There are a few other nursery owners with large collections of plumerias down your way.
