I am new to DG and really new to Plumeria. Two years in a row (love punishment I guess) I have purchased Plumeria at our local flower lawn and garden show, which I might add is held in later part of Feb. or first part a March. It is still extremely cold here like below freezing alot. The hawkers just said oh just stick it in dirt and it will root and take off.....first year everything rotted, second year everything rotted except one which I still have in a pot with no roots but no rot. I was beginning to think I was lacking in the gardening skill until I joined DG. I must say I feel alittle better realizing they are not the easiest thing to root in cold climates, so I have just read the thread on how to root, so I think I will take it out of the pot again and do as the thread suggest. I want to thank you all for taking the time to post that information and the pictures CA. Wait until I see those hawkers next year! Just a short mention I was signed up for the plumeria coop, also thank you for those posts.
Joyce
Experienced Plumeria growers might get a good laugh
This is the friendliest, most helpful group of people I have ever met. I'm glad you found the information you needed and please post pictures when you succeed!!!
If and when I succeed I will be so delighted I will just be yelling at the top my lungs.
Joyce
Hi Joyce and welcome to the Plumeria Forum! I've gotten some really nice notes from a few people, and I am most grateful. I'm glad you found what I wrote helpful. You are right that these babies can be the easiest thing to root if you live in a tropical environment, but most of us don't live in a tropical environment and have to work at it. It is really tough for cold-weather growers to root and grow these lovely trees. You have to work twice as hard as warm-weather mild-winter growers, but even here in this supposedly subtropical zone of 10b, I still have cuttings rot on me in the winter and chilly spring so I'm glad that you can see that you are not alone.
Joyce, I read all the posts first, and with my first try, in the summer, they STILL got rot. Definitely not as easy as it sounds.
I was able to save and root 4 of the 5 using the water bottle/straight perlite trick I read somewhere here. That and some blazing hot July concrete.
Like you, I am grateful for the advice.
this seems like a good thread to introduce "the nub". This is one of two of my very first plumerias that I tried to root since moving back to the mainland. It kept rotting from the bottom up, and everytime that it started to rot, i would cut off the bottom and stick it back in the dirt until I was finally left with " the nub" as I so fondly call it. I ignored it for a while-I mean, there really wasn't anything left to cut off... and a few months later I was cleaning out an area of plants and noticed that it was starting to put out some roots!
here is the picture of the whole plant! Its a miracle!! lol
That's funny.
You, my friend, get the Plumeria Persistence Award.
Tigerlily, that is what I have done just keep cutting the bottom. I think I will go sit it on the concrete and see what happens. Nice July, humit hot days in Missouri!
SB...does that award come in foil wrapped chocolate? I really prefer mine that way! lol
Well, happ-if you are lucky, you too will have your own Mr. Nub!
That's amazing, Tigerlily! Excellent job there. I usually can't root anything under about four inches. When they rot like that on me, I just graft the tips.
Oh my Clare I am trying to root, and you graft the tips.....WOW...
I was given my first Plumeria two years ago and was told to just stick it in the ground. That is what I did last year and again this Spring. Out of about 20 cuttings I have only had one to rot. Most are seedlings and one has put out a couple of flowers. The rain has beet them up so I was not able to take any pictures. Another has put out a very large Inflo and I found it on the ground yesterday. The rain has been brutal. I will not root my Plumerias this way in the future but it did work. And again thanks for all the help.
Ken Piercy
www.vonrussellfarm.com
http://vonrussellfarm.com/PeafowlForum/
I highly reccomend trying your hand at growing about 20 seeds.
Youll have an instant collection and the blooms will all be surprises when they come.
There are over 10,000 unregistered seedlings last time I looked.
I have some real winners.
Im currently waiting on one I hope will be a red stenopetala.
The leaves look almost black at times.
Congrats on the stubby!
I live in Philadelphia PA andhave finnaly almost mastered rooting.
Im currently trying an experiment with an aeroponic rooting system on a heat pad.
So far its fantastic!
Great news! I have leaves starting after 6 months, so I am guessing it is rooting, is that true?
I live in Missouri and put it out on the concrete driveway in July (thank you to who ever suggested that) and just the other day I noticed something sticking straight up and it was a new leaf! Finally I couldn't believe it...our weather has been awful hot and humid, worse than normal and this week we will hit 100. I don't remember this much humidity since I lived in NC. I am so excited....YEAH!
Joyce
Okay are Plumeria's the slowest growing plant in the universe or is my just sort of lazy? I posted in August that I had leaves, actually I had one that opened and looked like a leaf, it is now October and that is still the only one I have open! Now in Missouri the temps are starting to drop and I brought in the Plumeria in September. Guess I need some help, is this normal do I need to get a plant heating pad to keep him warm in the house? help.....
Buy a heat pad and a good grow light.
Bottom heat and intense light will wake it up.
I garden in my basement during the winter and root in the winter time as well.
It took a lot of experimenting by myself and my best friend but we have rooting down to a science here now.
Regardless of that, there are still cuttings that rot anyway due to pathogens or disposition.
Id say we are steadily above 95% in our efforts.
Good Luck ;)
I didn't realize PA was zone 7a, gosh that would be nice. I have a solar room that is glass, floor to ceiling on three sides so light is not a problem and during the day it gets warm, but in the evening it is house temp around 70 or so. This summer to make it even start I had it in a black pot, on a concrete driveway, and it was over 100 degrees for over a week so I figured I was going to have to purchase a bottom heat pad. Well, I will be patient and thank you for your help.
Joyce
Next you'll be trying your hand at seeds, Joyce, this is a bad addiction!
I too tried my luck with seeds and holey moley. I have little seedlings everywhere. I really didn;t expect such a good germiantion rate as I am usually a passiflora grower and can;t germinate them in that time frame. Lets see, how many do I have now...46. Time to move them up to bigger pots (They are in plastic cups now).
Flutter
LOL, I hope I get little seedlings all over too, I have 35 plants, I think I need more!
WOW...I have one plant sort of ....LOL...actually just a stick with one leaf....LOL I must not be nurturing this little guy correctly....I truely have never seen anything grow so slowly. When you do seeds how long is it before you see plants? I have never seen blooms before except on DG and I think they are so lovely but I have to admit I am getting a little discouraged but I think the wait will be worth it. 35 of them must be beautiful.
Joyce
The reccommended bottom heat temperatures for rooting start at 90 degree f
I preffer 98 to 104.
70 will prevent dormancy but could take over a year to root.
Heat pad heat pad heat pad ;)
Happgarden,
From the point of floating my seeds over water, I saw rooting within 4 days and then leaves by no later than 2 weeks. Flowers will be a while but I can only keep thinking how beautiful the flowers will be once they do sprout and how exciting it will be to see what kinds I end up with.
Chris
Nubbie leaf just took 7 months! LOL..... I may not be young enough to get to see this bloom! LOL! Actually I think they are beautiful plants and I do want to try another.
Joyce
I'm following the thread too. happgarden, I live about 70 miles south of you, so am thinking I should be able to grow one of these here too!
This is bad! First I get hooked on brugs and am trying to get several brug varieties, and now Plumerias?? I'm going to have to build on an extra room just for plants! LOL!
Cat, that is what has happened to me. We are putting the heat in it today. Greenhouse is not practical where I live the cost to heat would eat me alive so the garden room has east, west and south double french doors, Later I may add more windows on the east side or a glass door, but right now I am too broke....LOL. I lived in TX a million years ago and I believe I had one when I lived there but I don't remember having this much trouble growing it. I am going to purchase a bottom heat pad.
We seem to have alot in common when it comes to plants....LOL
Joyce
I think it's an addiction!!!!!
Joyce, your plant may have struggled with rot or struggled to root if it took that long to produce a leaf. The pot looks pretty big for a rooted cutting that size. I hope it has lots of drainage holes at the bottom. Cuttings are almost always started out in one-gallon black plastic nursery containers and then moved to five-gallons once the roots have filled the one-gallon pot. Good drainage is absolutely essential. That soil looks a bit too wet unless it dries quickly.
Clare_CA thank you for suggestion, wonder if I should transplant it? I used that pot because it was black and I thought it would get hotter, but maybe I should take it down to a smaller size.
I wouldn't transplant it now as you risk breaking the fragile new roots. I would just make sure you've got good drainage and water only when the soil looks dry. With only one leaf, it doesn't need much water and will transpire water very slowly. If you are going to put it on a heat mat, that should help to warm and dry the soil if it is water-logged.
Ok, I quit. The nubbie that I worried with, took care of, waited 7 months for one leaf has shriveled up from the bottom and now I just have a tip. I said I wasn't going to quit, that I would keep trying but my try try attitude is failing quickly!!!!!!!!
Joyce
Joyce,
Don't give up! You may have purchased one that is just hard to root. Or, because it was started in July, it may have never fully developed a good root system before it got cold. Don't give up, make it easy on yourself, buy a rooted cutting this spring. You may even have blooms the same year.
Davie
did you ever get the heat mat?
it could be the way that you are starting them out.
the first one i tried rotted, too. and i live in a warm climate - tucson arizona desert.
don't give up!
This message was edited Dec 21, 2007 8:31 PM
OK, my nubby is completely gone. This makes 3 so far. I bought a heat mat. I bought all of these at the flower lawn and garden show in my area. I thought the last one was going to make it and am so disappointed.
I purchased a bunch of brugs. Anybody want to swap a brug for a start later in the spring? I might have some other stuff. I figure I might be getting bad starts since they all came from the same place.
Joyce
Sorry about that Joyce. I will probably have a cuttings for postage again next summer like I did last summer as dear generous FlyboyFL sent me his trimmings again this year. He is such a dear and generous man. We have to wait and see how many survive the winter in my greenhouse. Cuttings are tough to root in the winter so I'm not making any promises, but I'll post when I have a week off this summer to send out cuttings. In the meantime, don't give up. I highly recommend contacting Florida Colors Nursery in the spring and buying a grafted one so that you don't have to worry about rooting it. Call Carol and ask her to send you one with an inflo forming so that you can enjoy flowers in the summer: http://www.floridacolors.com/
Clare, thank you for your suggestion. What does inflo forming mean? I will check out floridaycolors. Thank you for your offer. I don't remember ever having so much trouble getting something to root and grow. When I got the leaf last summer I thought yeah I finally got it......just to be disappointed.
Joyce
An inflo forming is just short for infloresence forming -- i.e., flower stalk coming up. Plumerias are easy to root given the right conditions. You pot looked to be much too big, and the soil looked too moist as a result. Overpotting is usually deadly for plumerias. It is recommended to go from a one-gallon container to a five-gallon container, and large drainage holes are a must, which is why so many of us use the black plastic nursery pots instead of decorative ones. If I'm going to use decorative pots, I'll usually drill some more holes in the bottom. Cuttings should be rooted in just a small amount of soil before transferring to a larger container. Hang in there. You'll get the hang of it, I'm sure. I understand your disappointment. I've been there. I bet there isn't anyone here who hasn't had a plumeria rot on them.
I have had more rot than I have fingers, but don't tell anyone I have a reputation to keep!