the 2nd inflo is looking good. i guess i'll give it another chance. LOL
Blooms?? How looooong must I wait???
here's a pic from today of that acw seedling that i've been "complaining" about.
Gosh, Dete. I think it is a keeper. It's beautiful.
thanks clare. i must admit though that i'm all about fragrance. hopefully, that will get stronger with time. the flowers are definitely better on the 2nd inflo of the season. there is still one more branch that can bloom before winter. i'm considering a larger container before winter. hmmm...
You've actually been complaining about that gorgeous bloom???
It looks so pure! In your picture, it looks completely flawless.
well, i haven't really been complaining. LOL just wanting it to have a stronger scent and not drop buds. however, it's a seedling blooming for the first year. i'll be patient...
Fragrance is important to me too, but some are just stunning even with just a mild fragrance. I also noticed that, the bigger the inflo, the stronger the fragrance -- maybe that is just because of higher number of flowers emitting scent.
The picture is a bit blurry, but this is my very first inflo in progress today. The bud and stem are about 5/8" tall and the bud is about the size of a pencil eraser. We even got a fairly nice 25 minute rain last evening. I usually water at least once and sometimes twice a day when the soil feels dry to the touch. None of the other six have buds yet.
I have never seem a plumeria bloom, much less smelled one. This forum has fueled my passion to grow these plants. Thanks for all the beautiful pictures from here and everywhere! I'm sure I'm not the only one who became fascinated because of DG!
Louise
LOL No, you are not the only one. I'm being fed and led into this addiction by someone who's name I won't mention :)
I had my very first bloom just recently, and have two more that should (hopefully) be ready sometime this weekend. I found myself going outside quite often, just to smell my one little flower :)
I want more!!!!
lorri, did you say more??? hmmm...let me look out back. LOL
Ahhh man, now they're gonna know who got me into this. I wasn't going to mention any names, Detrick LOL
Congrat's, Louise! That's great! I am watching a few inflo's that look like yours too here at my house.
Lorri, I knew you meant Detrick!
LOL I figured you would, Clare
who? what? leave me out of this! i'm innocent! LOL
dete
laying low so that he can finish weddings. brides are stalking me...sceered!
Don't be skeered!
TexasLou,
I won't crowd your thread so check the thread I made with my funky plumies and the major inflo that has been blooming constantly since possibly late May
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/765505/
Maydreams27,
I just opened all the pictures on your thread 'My Funky Plumies'. You really lucked into some bargains! How many plants do you have now and how many are in bloom? The small one with all the branches was interesting looking. Did it grow into a bush instead of a tree form? What colors do you have? Are all of them in pots, or are some of them in the ground? In your zone, you can leave them outside all year, can't you. Do they bloom all year long? I'm so new to plumies and have a gillion questions. When an info comes in, how many weeks or months does that info take to quit blooming?
Louise
Yes i Did and I am loving it. Lets see, I got 12 1 yr seedling and 6 that were 2-3 year seedlings the first day. Then I went back with a friend becasue she wanted some and I picked up 6 more 1 year seedlings. Of these I gave away 3 little seedlings to a friend). Then i went back yesterday and picked up 2 of Richlins specialties and a 4 year old seedling. Plus the goofy one you saw pictures of on my thread. So I guess that makes it 25..Yikes!! LOL . Of these only my goofy is in bloom. I expect next year to have at least 4 more blooming. The small goofy one some people have told me they thought it was a seedling that just grew different.
Weel, you see I have the white wih yellow throat. The others are a mystery. They are all seedlings which wil hopefully come close to true to their parent. I have one Aztec Gold seedling, one Hot Pink, One MAry Moragen which is a pink and Orange, one Kimo which is lighter pink and orange, and the rest, who knows!! None of mine are in the ground. All oin pots surrounding my pool in the screened in patio.. :ast year I had just my big one on the pot. It stayed out all year...year and a half. I didn;t know anything about it so i left it outside. Nothing happend to it except it lost all its leaves and looked dead for the winter. Easily enough it grew in the spring. I think I noticed my inflo back in April? I don;t know and it is still blooming.
Flutter
Flutter,
Your zone 9b is soooo gardening friendly with the mild winters. My zone 8a has a freeze in late Oct. or early Nov. I must limit myself to the space I have to winter the pots indoors. I don't know the names of any of my 7 plumeria. When they bloom, I will post pictures and maybe someone will recognize them. But , then, it would only be an educated guess. They will whet my appetite for a few special ones with real names.
And, now, the wait for the inflos continues.........................
Louise
flutter - i got my seedlings from richland. nice! he didn't ship the larger ones. bummer! i need to pot them up now.
Cool TP, I guess shipping the big ones was too much. I am so happy I came upon him. I have been referring all my friends in the area to him and it is all great.
Flutter
Louise, Ken at Vonrussell Farm has more for you again this year if you come to the swap, along with some special Brugs and other plants. It will be good to see you again. I don't post here much, mostly read and learn. I will be posting some of my first blooms soon. I have one from a friend, who brought it back from the Big Island but has never bloomed. He has too much shade. It is so much fun to give someone a plant or cutting and then find out how much they enjoy growing them. As far as growing Plumerias, I too am a beginner. You and I will learn together. Hope to see you soon.
Ken,
So nice to hear from you. The plant that you gave me is the tallest one that I have but still no bud in the top yet. I just repotted it in a pot twice as large as the one it was in and used a mix of MG regular and MG moisture control. It gets plenty of sun and maybe the blooms aren't far away now.
Joan told me that I could have one of her spare rooms for Saturday night. I'll be driving down alone this year. The meet on Saturday will be at your place, won't it?
I'll need a refresher on how to get there because I wasn't driving last year and didn't pay attention. I wish I could have gone to the Houston meet.
Louise
Texas Lou, I am so glad you posted that picture because now I know what's going on with my plumeria. It's my first and I've only had it since April. I don't remember what I fertilized it with in April, but just last week I switched to something called Buds and Blooms from Rabbit Hill Farms and all of a sudden, I have this little weird thing show up in the top of the plant. I didn't even know what the inflo would look like, but I'm excited now.:)
BTW where are Hooks and Big Sandy?
silverfluter,
Hooks is in the northeast corner of Texas, just 15 miles from Texarkana, TX, which is a twin city with Texarkana, AR. We have a highway on the south side of town and one main street that deadends into the highway.
I think Big Sandy is closer to Tyler, TX - maybe 30 miles away. One day of the RU was held there last fall and one day in Tyler. Lots of fun, meeting everyone.
Louise
Hmmm OK. I remembered hearing the name because when we travel, DD likes to read off the names of towns nearby. I think we passed not far from your town when we drove her to school in Missouri.
Here is an update on my one bud which is about 1 1/2" tall now. I hope the bug that I see in the picture is not an earwig, but it surely looks like one. I didn't see it when I took the picture.
The inflo will be a while yet, but it's gettin' there!!!!!!! Yeah !!!!!!
Louise
Louise, go flick that thing off of it. It looks like a grasshopper, and those eat plumerias!
Clare,
I went outside with the flashlight, looked on the plant and whatever it was, it was gone. I'll really have to watch them more closely. So far, I haven't had any bug problems with any of the 7 plants.
Louise
Louise, there is a small hole in the leaf in the picture in the background, and that good be the culprit. I had a tiny katydid in my greenhouse this past winter, and he did some damage before I found him. He was just a little guy so I had little holes. The bigger ones do much more damage.
Anyway, the inflo looks great. I'd say maybe another week or two until you see flowers. Teresa's guess of a month about two weeks ago seems right.
Clare,
Your yellow and white bloom is so beautiful! The petals look thick. I'll be happy if mine looks like that one. The little knobs on top of the bud don't have any color yet.
My daughter is trying to root two cuttings that she bought while she was in Hawaii a few weeks ago. They left a few days before the storm hit. It wasn't as serious as was predicted by the weather men.
Louise
Thanks, Louise. Tell your daughter to use lots of bottom heat! She may have to continue rooting on a heat pad inside once the weather gets cooler at this late stage in the season.
Clare,
I told her that mine spent amost three months in water with a bubbler before roots started to appear and then they went in soil in a spare bedroom for three months before they showed signs of new growth. By then, it was spring and I didn't know if they were responding to spring or really had roots.
But I am very happy with them now. I bought stakes and stretchy plastic tape today at Home Depot and plan to straighten the trunks of them tomorrow. We have thunder this evening and may get rain tonight. The last time it rained, it damaged a few of the tender new leaves.
We are ready now to start building a garden room joining my bedroom. It was supposed to be finished by now - but like all plans, it was delayed. It should be finished before frost. We decided on the dimensions - 14' x 20'. I'll be able to play in the dirt all winter!!!!
Louise
Clare, that shot of your white and yellow plumie with the bug, is absolutely wonderful!
What kind of camera do you use?
Louise, it sounds like you did a terrific job in getting your cuttings to root over the winter -- not an easy task at all. I wish it would rain here. It has been one of the dryest years on record here. I am so tired of watering! Lucky you to be able to play with your plants all winter! That sounds neat.
Thanks, Teresa! I like it too;-) I use my hubby's digital camera which is a Samsung Digimax A7.
Well, it certainly has a great close-up ability. Maybe it's time
for me to upgrade mine.
May I make a suggestion about the stretchy tape? If you can find it, try the velcro type instead. It's much easier to reposition and doesn't stretch like the tape. Also, it's reusable. We've found it very useful.
Kathleen
Kathleen, I have that type too, and the only problem with it is it doesn't give as the tree grows. I usually straighten when I repot, and then I won't remove the tape until I repot again, and the velcro will girdle the stem if it grows too fast. You want the stretchy tape to be pulled tight to straighten, but you need some give as the trunk grows. I also found that ants were fond of farming mealies underneath the velcro for some reason. I think, if you only have a few plumies and can watch them closely, you can monitor for these things, but when you have hundreds like I do, it is more difficult to monitor them. I do use the velcro for my tomatoes and just spray the ants that are inevitable around here.
Good to know about the underneath, Clare - never noticed that, but will keep an eye out. I generally use the velcro for something I'm training and move it frequently. If it needs to stay in place, I use the stretch. And, yes, I only have a few. :-)