It was on Aug. 24 that I discovered this inflo peeking out. Now, on Sept. 26, I have a candelabra of sorts that is a bit over 6". VERY SHY !!!!!!! Not ready for the drum-roll shot yet.
Here is today's picture.
Louise
Blooms?? How looooong must I wait???
Holding my breathe. Mine is nowhere near according to the pictures of yours. Maybe next year.
LouC
LouC,
I have faith in Clare's forecast for my plants and I have HOPE !!!!!!!!!! LOL :-)))
(notice those two double chins on the smiley?? I may have three when this inflo
is in full glory !!!)
Before DG.....which is a lot like....BC..AD.....I had purchased a stick with not the faintest idea what it was. Turns out is a plumeria......again, so what is that? Did I ever mention that I am a novice?
LouC,
My first plant came from the Oct. 06 RU from 'kenboy' and the other 6 from generous DGers after that ------ so that makes me a 'novice' also, just feeling
my way through this plummie jungle of do's and don't's. The added benefit is that I've noticed that I have a lot more patience for life's ups and downs !!!!!
Louise
Shari wrote a very good article on plums early this week....read it if you have not yet had a chance. very informative.
I've been following this thread for a while now, and I can only imagine your excitement!! I cannot wait to see pictures of your blooms. And, your plumie looks so healthy!!
Mine aren't even close to developing an inflo, but when they do, I'll be able to know exactly how you're feeling now!!
Hey did the camera settings work?
;=/
Hi Louise! Well, my forecasting was a little off, but things could be slowing down now since the the nights are getting longer and cooler. It looks like a week or two more. You are probably going to want to put this in a greenhouse or in the house with some artificial light to extend the day light so that you can continue to see it blooming in the fall and winter. You could keep it blooming for several months once it starts if you give it warm temps and some added light.
lopaka,
Today, I tried using the zoom with the pictures in today's post. I will get my book out and find the settings you mentioned and let you know. Thanks for your help.
Louise
An update on the long-awaited inflo-
I can see the tiny petals forming on the tips and they seem to have a darker edge on them. Excitement is building !!!!!
Louise
Here they come! ♥
Texaslou your almost there the fun is not just the flowers but after it starts I like to watch and see after a while of flowering will a seed pod appear. Its really neat to watch them grow.
I'm anxious now to see how they keep blooming and blooming and blooming from the few branches on the inflo now. Do they polinate themselves or is there something I need to do to make them set a seed pod?
Clare, Teresa and Dana and all the others - thanks for sharing this experience with me. It's more fun when it's shared..
More to come...................
Louise
..and the crowd is silent,the suspense is in the air!
oOO-(•¿•)-OOo,, (o.~),, //(*_*),, ‹(•¿•)›,, ô¿ô,, (^o^)/,, @( * O * )@
lopaka,
That is hilarious!!!!! The only change today is that the edges are a definite PINK !
Yeah!!!!! Will post a picture tomorrow.
Louise
Waiting for October 2nd. I can't wait to see its colour! ;-)
Teresa and all,
The picture this morning didn't show the pink edge that I can see on the still tiny tips of the blooms that are only about 5/8" tall and the size of a round toothpick.
I'll post a picture when it will show a change.
Louise
This is like waiting for a first born and the mommy is in labor. I have my first and only plum but thanks to the very clear pictures...I can see that I 'm probably not getting any blooms this season. Pacing..pacing....pacing..
OK, then... waiting until October 3rd! ♥
This is the latest change. The color is more pink and the flower tip is about an
inch tall now.
(I think this is the last picture. They look almost the same.)
Louise
Louise;
What's your average temp. there. zone? Here bordering 7b-8a, my plumies seem to take a recess. The peak blooming period is def. over. The inflos. all are slowing down. Our temp. is tappering down quite a bit. I'm getting ready to prepare them for the Fall/Winter transitions.
This was the first wave of my pink plumie in the season.
The White one (shown above) was then at about the stage of yours are now. These are 3rd year trees.
One of the 1st flushes of blooms on this one....and there after were successions of blooms to follow, until this last week. Everything seems to have cooling down somewhat. Apparently the plants are preparing themselves for dormancy as the day lights are getting shorter, the temp. is cooling down. :(
Nice plumie pics thanks for sharing!
Awesome to see them blooming in your zone..
Thanks Iopaka;
Plumies can be successful raised here. This was one bad Summer, 1st year ever I've to moved my plumies to partial shade area to dodge the heat-wave of 3-digit temp. in Sept. I failed to move the trees back out to full sun area after the boiling heat was over, thus affected its performance quite a bit. The experience that I've will be applied to next year's growing them. I'll provide as much sunshine as it can handle. Take precaution of heat wave, but they do need more than 8 hours/day sunlight to make abundant flowers.
Best of lucks Louise.
Happy gardening.
K.D.
Lily_love-
Thanks for posting the pretty plummie pictures. I hope mine are that nice.
I had computer troubles yesterday but hope they are resolved now.
Here is a picture taken this afternoon. The blooms are about 1 1/2" today and are definitely showing the pink. Our temps are around the high 60's to low 70's at night and in the low to mid 90's in the daytime. Now I don't know what to do with my plants. I think there is bud beginning on one of the other plants. I would not be happy if I didn't get to see this inflo keep going.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Louise
This message was edited Oct 4, 2007 2:46 PM
Your climate sounds identical to mine, Louise. Last year, my white one's inflo. ceased to progress during the colder months. I did a drastic move which I shouldn't have; that was cut down the "frozen in place" inflo. Don't do the same mistake as I did. Keep watching the weather. Prepare a nice warm place indoor for them indoor. Like Clair suggested provide as much lights (supplemental lights are much helpful) and warmth. If not feasible (Providing lights and warmth), treat them as your brugs. Withhold water and let them go dormant. Next spring gradually harden them off back outdoor. The growth cycle would begin once again. Keep a watchful eye on bugs/mites. Do you routine treatment and observation.
The keys:
1. Keep them healthy and disease free.
2. Lot and lot of sun light during the growing season
3. Well drainage potting soil.
4. Never allow wet-feet.
5. Good air circulation.
6. Feeding program as suggested above posts
7. Repot with fresh potting media when become rootbound, and trim root ball in the Spring if needed. (avoid strong fertilizer immediately after working with your rootball, doing so to minimize root burn - resume feeding program when there are new growths).
DON'T panic when the leaves drop during dormancy. That's all normal.
Happy gardening.
...keep them warm don't allow her to stay in the lower 60's and she will continue her blooming cycle!
Lots of sunshine and in one of your watering cycles use warm water and mix some ferts together and feed her one time!
Lily and lopaka,
Thanks for the help! I have four skylights that provide a lot of light inside and keep the inside temp at 78 degrees around the clock. I feel like it is time to bring the one with the inflo inside. I hope the others could stay on a covered patio that is closed on three sides until the end of October. Maybe, the inflo would continue to flower all winter - seems like I remmber Clare saying that it might. I hope this one is the one from 'Dutch Lady' in Florida. The one, that she posted pictures of, was very, very nice.
How would the non-blooming ones survive if I kept them in a workshop that also had four skylights and was not allowed to freeze? Would they go dormant or not? This is my first year (this month!) to grow plumeria. I've never seen a bloom but, from what people say, they are worth the effort spent growing them.
Louise
Louise, most of my plumerias stay outside all year and survive temps in the mid-30's without damage. Damage starts at right around 32 and below. Flowering slows and stops when night time temps enter the 40's or thereabouts, depending upon your microclimates and some other factors. If your nights are 50 or above, I would leave them outside. Plumerias just don't do as well and bloom as well indoors compared to outdoors, but it certainly sounds like your four skylights will be ideal so it is up to you. Plumerias go dormant with reduced daylight (actually increased darkness) and with reduced water and nutrition. With a warm temp like 78 degrees and great lighting with some additional lighting extending the daylight and plenty of water, your plumies can bloom for you all winter. I put all the ones with inflo's in my greenhouse last winter with no additional heat, and they bloomed for me all winter. I watered normally as the plants dried out very quickly due to the intense daytime temps in the greenhouse.
Clare,
May I ask what is the temp. in your GH is being kept? I've learn a great deal more since this spring, primarily from being here on DG. Your recommendation in the past has improved my caring for my plumies as well. Many thanks.
Louise; having an atrium with skylights, woohoo, you've got it going on! Lots of success is to be had there. Your plumies definately have a bright futures. Those inflos. when they pop open, they're going to be heaven!
This is Tickled Pink, from cutting this summer. :-)
Clare,
Thanks so much for your continuing encouragement, advice and for sharing the picture of your winter situation. Mine are on the south side of the house so I think I'll leave them for a while until our nights get in the low 50's or high 40's.
Lily,
I hope I have a Tickled Pink! All of mine were sent to me without names, only colors on some of them. So, my blooms will be happy surprises to me.
Louise
Thanks, K.D. That is nice of you to say. I don't keep the greenhouse at any temp per se, but in the daytime, it heats up to about 20-30 degrees higher than the outside temperature with the doors open and even more with the doors closed. I try to open it up in the afternoon daily in the winter to air it out. It has gotten as high as 130 in there. At night, it might stay a few degrees warmer than the outside temp and eventually matches the outside temp. One winter, I kept an oil-radiant heater inside, which ran at night, and that kept the temperature about 10 degrees warmer than the outside temp, but that practice proved to be too expensive to continue, and it turns out that it wasn't necessary for blooms.
Sure, Louise! It should be any time now that those buds will open.
I hope this picture looks as pretty as I see the buds in person. They are going to be so pink. We still have 3 and maybe 4 weeks before frost.
Louise
Louise, many plumerias have a pink stripe on the back so it is still hard to tell what color it will be at this point. What you are seeing is probably the pink stripe on the back part of the flowers.
Clare,
The buds today are about almost 2" for the colored part. I'm not really sure, but to me it looks to be pink on the edge of the coiled up petals. The three new limbs at the base of the inflo are as big around as my thumb and 4 to 5" long. When will they have inflos? Will it take as long for them as it was for the first one? Seems like they should bloom quicker. I drove to my daughter's house in the golf cart this afternoon and brought her back to my house just to see the inflo. She was telling me about the fragrance of those that she saw in Hawaii a few weeks ago. She is excited to watch this with me. One of the cuttings that she bought has rotted and one is still OK in a glass of water to root.
Some of the tiny new leaves on the other six plants are a dark color to begin with from the cool nights, but they grow on out to the right color. I'm almost sure that there is another one with a bud forming. I hope it continues when I bring them in and blooms instead of going dormant. The learning process is fun.
Louise
I have been watching this thread closely. I don't think the color of the bud is showing yet, but I'm surprised it's still growing because the nights are getting longer. It is still warm though, usually in the sixties still at night. I've always thought plumeria were just too exotic for me to try to grow. This is just too neat!
Louise, yes, that is probably the pink stripe on the back that you are seeing. The front side could be any color, but it is probably white or yellow. The new branches that are starting will probably have inflo's next year. All three could have inflo's or just one or two of them. This year, I got a lot of inflo's on new wood while the old inflo's were still blooming. It is pretty neat when that happens, but I think the new growth has to start in early spring for it to bloom in the fall. Heat and energy usually determine the progress of the inflo's along with other factors. Water-rooting plumerias is extremely difficult to do, and I wouldn't recommend it for a new grower. Plumerias hold water in their stems and therefore rot easily. Cuttings should be rooted in well-draing soil or even straight perlite and put on a heat mat this time of year. Water-rooting is usually only successful in the warmest tropical conditions.