Plumeria Workshops

I've got a tray of 48 Plumeria seedlings and two little round pots that contain another 10 seedlings or so a piece.

I've scheduled a workshop at a nursing home for the 4th of October for 25 residents and another workshop at the same nursing home for another 25 of their residents will be scheduled the week after. I'm really excited and will be posting photos of the activity.

I had a girlfriend who picked up seedlings and she has some spares so I am going to be able to schedule two more workshops at two different nursing homes. The workshop at the second nursing home will be on Oct 18th. Haven't scheduled a workshop at the third nursing home yet but I will real soon.

Looks as if I'll get 4 workshops out of the plumeria seedlings I was given and the extras my girlfriend had. This will be fun.

Today I went shopping to pick up materials for the first workshop at this nursing home.
Here's what I picked up-

What I need right now is a link to Clare's FAQs so that I can extract a few paragraphs again to be able to cut and paste them onto a word document. I'll make copies and hand one out to every resident who pots up their own plumeria so they leave the workshop with a simple how to care for their Plumeria seedling.

Can anyone provide me with the link to her FAQs please?

Is this what you are looking for? it is at the beginning of the plumeria forum threads

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/599185/

No, something she wrote about basic care that's on the www somewhere. She gave me a link to it and I extracted some information but it's gone now. I need it back pretty bad.

http://www.plumeria101.com/

:)

I find it a little bit disconcerting that no one knows where my article is! It can be found under Guides and Articles or in the FAQ's Sticky Thread in several places: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/45/

It sounds like a great project for your seniors, Lauren, and good for you for doing this. Those pots, however, need to lose those catch trays. Catch trays usually mean death for plumerias. They impede good drainage and allow the soil to stay perpetually moist. Perhaps they could be removed and watered outside?

Good luck with this. I'll try to check back on this thread when I can, but I am pretty busy right now and probably won't be posting much for a while.

That's it! That's exactly what I needed! Scheduled another workshop for Oct 5th at 10:15am. Really glad you stopped back in.

Bad news, we're all up here in the Midwest where we get lots of snow and lots of freezing temps. Wish we were in sunny California but (sigh) we're not.

The catch trays are removable so the seniors can take their little seedlings outside next spring without them. Unfortunately, most of the nursing homes are older and have wooden window sills so to avoid damaging the wood, the residents must have a drip tray or they aren't allowed to take their plants back to their rooms. Sad. The Plumeria I have do not have catch trays because you warned me about this before.

Say, I know you won't be able to be around much but here's a photo teaser for you of what's coming your way. These are your actual seedlings from one-gallon pots being given away for free that I barerooted to send to you. The seedlings from one-gallon pots that I barerooted to send to indiana_lily are the same as what's been sent to you and what my girlfriend was able to pick up in the one gallon pots too-

Hi Lauren, sure, I understand about the window sill thing. Perhaps you could just tell them to only water when the soil looks dry. That should keep them from overwatering the seedlings in those pots. Seedlings are pretty resilient once they get past the infant stage. Since these seedlings have already been started for them, I'm sure they will do just fine.

That is very sweet of you to send those to me. Those are actually rooted cuttings and not seedlings. You can tell by looking at the bases. Seedlings have tap roots and won't be cut off at the base like that. The wood looks older, and the branching also indicates that they are rooted cuttings and not seedlings. I will be very happy to receive those from you and from Voytek and please thank your friend for me for her efforts. It looks like she got ten rooted cuttings in those one-gallons so they weren't seedlings after all like we were led to believe. I guess the other party who got the rest made out like a bandit. Thanks to your friend and you for recovering at least 10 rooted cuttings. Felicia, your neighbor, and I will take good care of them, and I'll send Voytek a thank-you note with the message that he can have these back at any time.

That I can definitely do. Some of them already grow other plants on their windowsills and all of them share rooms so I can kinda nudge room mates to remind others not to over water. Nothing shy about seniors, they love to nudge each other.

Both you and Felicia are getting the two plants that my neighbor decided against trying to grow. She changed her mind because of the size of these plants. The plants from the one-gallon pots you and indiana_lily are getting are the same as the 10 plants my girlfriend picked up and are the same as the few plants that Ted's Nursery set aside. The guy who owns the nursery had said that all of the 400 or so one gallon pots had been cuttings but that only some of the smaller round pots were. I don't mean to sound stupid but wouldn't actual seedlings be better than rooted cuttings for novice growers? You said seedlings wouldn't be cut off at the base. Presumably, seedlings would be better rooted and I'm thinking less can go wrong with a seedling than a cutting.

Also too, I've never met or even spoken to the Voytek man who allegedly had to get rid of all of his plants hence advertised the plants would be free for pick up last week. I wouldn't even know how to get a hold of him. You're on your own there but it's a very considerate thought.

Those are gorgeous, Lauren! And, again, thank you so much. Like Clare said, we'll take very good care of them. And, I think they'll get along very well with the brugs, maybe not with the passifloria vitifolia that is trying to eat everything on my patio. :)

I'm glad that you were able to schedule another workshop! That is such a fantastic thing you're doing. :) I talked to my friend who still works with activities at a nursing home, and she wished that she could do something like that at the new nursing home she is working for, but administration is just deadset against it.

I'll definitely defer to Clare on the cuttings v. seedlings question.

Well, the reason that I said that the seniors should get cuttings and not seedlings was that seedlings take 3-5 years or longer to bloom. A few might bloom at 2 years, but 4-5 years is more realistic. Yes, seedlings tend to handle more abuse and tougher conditions better than rooted cuttings so, in that respect, they are good. However, I would imagine that senior citizens, like anybody, would prefer to see some flowers, and it will be a long wait for these seedlings to get to the flowering stage, I suspect. Furthermore, seedlings could turn out to be anything, and hybridizers know that seedlings can sometimes produce inferior, nondesirable flowers so that too could lead to some disappointment. Seedlings also can have very aggressive growth, needing 5-, 10-, 15-, and then 25-gallon containers, sometimes even before they bloom. These large root balls get to be very heavy and cumbersome to repot. These are trees after all. I don't want to dis your idea, which is very thoughtful, but I would think that annuals or even vegetables would be the better way to go so that they can see results right away. If there were grounds where these could be planted, like in South Florida, then they would be much easier to care for, and no repotting would be needed. However, since you and your friend have all these seedlings, and they were given generously to bring enjoyment to others, then why not distribute them, and if they end up suffering from lack of repotting or whatever, so be it.

OK, I understand fully now. I think I would have preferred to get at least a few of the one-gallon pots for all the common areas of the nursing homes while leaving the seniors to pot up the actual seedlings. I sort of thought all the plants in those one-gallon pots were too big to be seedlings but I know squat about plumerias. The way I figure it is that some of their seedlings will actually live to next spring and beyond. Many of the people who live in the nursing homes were once avid gardeners and I suspect they'll end up getting 1 per 10 to survive and thrive. The nursing homes have paid landscapers and maintenance staff. The county home even has some empty decorative pots outside that are at least 10 gallon if not larger. What ever outgrows the windowsills and then outgrows the common areas can be moved outdoors for the summer into one of those jumbo pots then indoors into one of the sunrooms for the winters. They definitely have enough staff to do this and they already move a few huge potted plants in and out as it is. What's a few more and the larger plants in the sunroom and in front of the long length of windows in the dining areas sure do make the place look inviting.

I'm with you on this 100%.

That sounds great, and the sunroom sounds like a nice place to spend the winter. The lush leaves of plumerias make the room feel very tropical. That's great that you are doing that.

On a related note, a huge box arrived for me today! Thank you so much! I peeked at how much shipping cost, and I do believe that you are owed more postage. Thanks very much for the expert packaging and shipping. You are a sweetie.

Yes, the sunroom is at least 100 solid feet of glass. Very bright and very cheerful with small intimate groupings of chairs arranged so friends can gather. They've got birds in there and a piano and tables for people to play cards. And, the building is 3 stories high and there is one of these sunrooms on each level not to mention a central sunroom by the nurse's station on each floor.

I don't ask for postage when I send a gift. Still haven't figured out what to do to reverse what you already tried to do but I'm working on it ;) May you and your box bond tonight!

My best advice for people growing plumeria indoors and the seniors will understand this very well is to treat the Plumeria like a cactus, which means very little watering, perhaps only once or twice a month at most. The light through even the sunniest window is much less than it will receive outdoors. And definitely no drip tray....it can be used while watering, but after allowing the plant to drink as much as it wants, to spill out all additional water.

Plumeria have a natural dormant period, and will shed most or all of its leaves. Sometimes when people see the leaves turning yellow, may have a tendency to water again, but in fact the plant is going to sleep and needs no additional water until spring. It's okay to stay on the sunny window sill, but no additional water until spring time when the plant starts showing signs of new growth.

We are here to help every step of the way. Hope everyone gets lots of enjoyment from this wonderful plant. It's fun to grow!

In theory, this might have been good advice. From a practical standpoint of having worked with residents in the past, it's asking for the contents of the pot to end up on the floor. Those bottoms don't pop off all that easily and their fine motor skills aren't what they used to be. If anyone else is considering a project such as this, I would not recommend instructing residents to remove the drip tray to water their plant. The process may sound simple enough but if you've ever watched them struggle with other seemingly "simple" processes, you'd know the above would be a recipe for disaster which could reduce one of them to tears. Best to let them leave the seedling in the pot attached to the drip tray and let them water their seedling to the best of their ability right where it sits.

Just bought 25 more little pots, another bag of potting soil, two more bags of perlite, and more plant tags for the workshop on the 5th. The pots were a different color though but at least I was able to get 25 more. Now to work on materials for the workshop for the 18th and the other one for the week of the 8th. Slim pickings out there at this time of year. Seems as if all the garden centers have replaced most gardening supplies with fall bulbs and Halloween merchandise. I'm going to have to drive out further today or tomorrow to try to get more small pots with drip trays in quantity.

Wish I could be there to help you, Lauren. You've got so much on your hands, there. I was having a conversation with someone the other day -- how the "big" stores dictate what you are going to buy during the year. I'm hard pressed to find large bags of potting soil, and like you, pots are like gold nowadays, and don't even think about wanting to buy charcoal, because it's fall. Seed starting medium was nonexistent last winter. Anyway, you obviously know what I mean.

I can understand where needing to keep projects "simple" is very important. My dad has been diagnosed with MSA (Multiple System Atrophy), and it is a breakdown of the central nervous system. It is heartbreaking to see someone who was once so vibrant (played tennis every day) have problems with the simplest of things now. And, I can see where if a "simple" project becomes difficult, the tears and frustration are very soon to follow.

Kudos to you for all you do to help with your workshops and volunteering to put a smile on people's faces. :)

Lauren, the nice thing is that, since these will be in sunrooms and on window sills, probably with some artificial light at night and house heat, they won't go dormant and won't shed their leaves and will keep needing water so, if the seniors just water when the soil looks dry, they can't go wrong. Normally, I have such a mild winter here with temps not dropping much below 40. Last winter was an exception of record lows, but normally, my plumerias don't lose their leaves in the winter, and they keep on requiring water. I water a couple of times a week during the winter.

Thank you so much for your gifts. You've paid way more postage than I paid when I shipped to you so please don't do anything to reverse my reversal! LOL! You are very sweet and thank you for the gifts;-)

I'm with Felicia in congratulating you and sending you kudos for taking on such projects, and I know you will make a lot of people very happy just because you care about them.

Yes, I know. The simplest of task can be very frustrating. One really must factor in the limitations of any group one works with.

Thanks for the kudos. I kinda figured it would be fun to do a few workshops with the one tray of seedlings but never expected to be getting even more seedlings and then her leftovers. I am now up to 5 workshops trying to get rid of these "free" seedlings.

I could use some help if anyone lives near a Lowes.

Here's where I'm at.
I got the tray of 48 seedlings from my girlfriend.
I got the two rounds of seedlings that contained about 10 seedlings each from Ted.
I now have the excess seedlings from my girlfriend after her place did a count to figure out how many of their 212 residents would be doing the project so now I have another 50 seedlings. That's a total of 120 seedlings when I thought I'd only have 48. That's a lot of seedlings.

I've scheduled 4 workshops so far but I know about how many people will attend each one.
1st- 25
2nd- 25
3rd- 28
4th- 12-15
5th- 15-18
I am working on using up the last of her leftovers and have contacted a 6th nursing home to try to use up the excess seedlings.

I bought pots for the first two workshops. I can't find bulk pots with drip trays for the other workshops. A member I know personally who is registered here at DG is going to send me 28 from the Lowes in her state. Does anyone else out there live by a Lowes who could buy these pots for me and mail them to me and I will PayPal you the costs? Please d-mail me if you would be in a position to shop for me. They are around $1.50 per pot and would probably cost somewhere around $10 to ship out plus the cost of gas to get to the PO which I would also reimburse you. I have tapped into every Lowes in my area and I've wiped them out. They claim their systems show that they have them in stock but they don't. I don't want to be buying ceramic pots at anywhere from $3.99 to $19.99 a piece x the number of people remaining who will be planting seedlings. I've got some time until the 3rd workshop which is the week of the 8th but not a lot.

The pots are in the outside garden centers of all the Lowes I have been to. They are 6" in diameter and they taper down to 4.5" at the base. The height of them is around 5.5" tall and what I believe is a SKU number is 0 49206 01986 7
RR06 FE appears right under the bar code and the numbers listed above.
I took this off the pots I bought that were that sage green photographed above but Lowes also is selling the exact same size in a sort of terra cotta color which is fine also.

Thank you!

Thank you!

I needed only 15 more after other people contacted me in the past 15 minutes and just opened up my d-mail and bingo! Another person is getting pots for me. All of the pots I needed are coming to me from 4 different DG members.

That was warp speed fast that everyone covered me in a matter of minutes. I must admit I started to panic this morning when I found out Lowes no longer does store to store transfers.

Lauren, if you get into the jam, this site does pots and planters by mail order: http://mortonproducts.com/page.cfm/1480

Hey! Mortons is great! I order my plug trays from them! Thanks for the back up. I never thought of contacting them.

Here's another place for containers that I forgot to mention also: http://www.growersupply.com/nurserypots.html

Here's another place I've ordered from before-
http://www.procalpots.com/about_pro_cal.html

This morning I went to breakfast with a friend and told her that she really needed to consider trying to grow a Plumeria. I told her how beautiful they were and how easy to grow they were and how they made great patio plants that could be brought inside for the winter (shhh... I didn't exactly tell her they grew into trees and that she'd need a 25 gallon pot sooner or later). I also told her how beautiful the blooms were and that some were even fragrant and that a Plumeria would be great for her (How am I doing recruiting Plumeria addicts Clare?). She agreed to try one. I told her I had really good news for her and that I just happened to have a really nice spare that I could give her as a gift (Shhh... let's not tell her she got a left-over that was free). We went shopping and she picked out a really nice pot for her new baby. We went back to my house and I showed her the trays of seedlings that I just happen to have sitting on my sidewalk and told her to pick one, pick any one her little heart desired. She decided to try one labeled JL Trumpet. I was really sneaky and waited until after she had potted up her new prized Plumeria and put it in the back seat of her car to tell her there were strings attached to her "gift" and that she had to go to a workshop with me.

Here's Garden4Birds (my new workshop assistant- tee he) with her prized "free" Plumeria-

Ah, you are a sneaky one! Good job! That is a nice little seedling.

Why yes, I was pretty sneaky now wasn't I!

Anyone else who lives close to me want a "FREE" Plumeria seedling? Naturally, there are strings attached to these "gifts". Come on now, don't be shy.

I'm glad G4B picked that one. It was the largest of all of them and best to get it out of there before we start bringing trays into the nursing homes. Not that anyone would whine about so and so getting one bigger than them but you never know.

OOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....I'm Telling You're skipping SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL
Thanks,so much..I can't wait to do the workshop..I find the older folks so much fun and alot of wealth of information.More then some of the younger folks of today's world..

I would have never thought people so much older than me would be such a fun and interesting group but you're right. They are. Glad you're looking forward to this. It'll be so much easier with you to help.

I just wanted to add one suggestion for your project. Include some information on a plant stake or in a printed address label attached to the pot so that relatives of people who pass away know what the plant is and can do the research on how to take care of it. Not to be morbid, but it's nice to be able to maintain a plant from a loved one who is no longer with you. Also helps the family when the relative is no longer able to be responsible for their plant.

That's a good idea. Popsicle sticks make great inserts into the pots and are cheap. It could read "Plumeria Seedling."

You're not being morbid in the least, you and I are going to die too... it's only a matter of when. I think the idea of adding the genus to a stake is nice. I like the idea of the popsicle sticks. They're not as difficult to write on. I can pick up a box of those at Hobby Lobby real cheap. I'm going to have to use up the two packs of white plastic stakes that I already bought for them first.

Here are a few photos from the workshop this morning which had 35 people who came to pot up plants and I was told only 25 would show up. Rats, I only had 25 pots. The residents who share rooms agreed to share a plant for their window sill so all was good.

This gal took all the price tags off the pots before we started our project-

The residents who only use walkers mixed the medium together.

This gal wanted to be first. She really got into patting the medium down around her plant. She made the aids write her name in permanent marker on the outside of her pot so there would be no mix-ups. She wanted HER plant not somebody else's "look alike". I cracked up laughing when she referred to the other plants as "look alikes".

This little sweetie is one of my favorites. I know I shouldn't have a favorite but I do. She always tries so hard to do everything by herself-

The residents had a blast. Big Band music played in the back ground while we worked which was fun and upbeat. People were singing very loudly and several were cracking silly jokes. Every single person who came to this workshop waited patiently for their turn at the potting table. The whole process took a little bit longer than was anticipated but that was because we had extra attendees which was a very pleasant surprise. There were a couple men who had attended a carnivorous plant workshop I offered who decided they'd try a Plumeria workshop. It's nice to be able to get the men involved.

The ticket to these types of workshops is to let the project be their project. I know it sounds silly but we all know how to pot up plants and many of them have never potted a plant in their life. They take pride in taking those plants back to their rooms and you can bet your bottom dollar that when they get a visitor they're going to point out their new plant on the window sill.

It's the process not the product. If they have fun and do as much as they can possibly do themselves unassisted, they go back to their rooms proud of what they have accomplished. I had one woman who asked me to uncurl her fingers for her so she could stabilize her own plant while another woman added more medium around the base. When they determined they had the medium at the right level in the pot, the gal asked me to please "undo" her fingers because they were sort of stuck around the plant. Bottom line, she held that seedling in place not me. That's how it should be. If you do a project like this with any special needs group, try your best to let them do as much as they possibly can themselves. If a plant ends up lopsided, don't worry about it. Leave it lopsided. In the larger scheme of things, it doesn't really matter and fixing it might make a resident feel bad.

I've got another workshop tomorrow and another one early next week and then the next one after that is the 18th. I can post photos of the workshop tomorrow, the one early next week, and the one on the 18th but I do not have releases to be able to post any photos from the last two nursing homes. I can share those photos privately if someone is intererested but they need to stay private and can't be passed on.

I had fun, anyone else interested in doing something like this at a nursing home where they live?

I think this would be fun for my Girl Scouts to do at a local nursing home. Usually we go and play Bingo with them and decorate the home for the holidays but this would be cool too now that I see your pictures.

Flutter

I would encourage you to go for it. Maybe you could pot up little pine trees and add a miniature ornament or a miniature star to the top? I think it sounds like a great idea. Total cost for me per 25 residents was $57 and that includes the pots, the potting soil, the perlite, and little stakes for them to write the type of plant on. Plants were free. Bet you could get a nursery to donate pine tree seedlings if you start asking for donations now.

I have actually done this with a group of kids once. It went fine for most of the kids but could have gone a lot better. The mistake I made was in not having the kids practice potting before we went. If I had to do it all over again, I'd have the kids do a practice run potting up pens or pencils so that they would be familiar with the process before they went in to help others. I assumed all the kids had potted a plant before. You'd be surprised how many parents have never potted up a plant with their kids. I sure was. That's what threw me for the loop. I had about half of the kids who had potted a plant before and knew to wet down the medium so the plant wouldn't flop over, knew to be very careful with the roots, and knew to gently pat down the soil a little bit and the other half stood there smiling not quite knowing what to do to try to be helpful. I felt really bad for those kids because I had no idea they had no clue what to do. Took me totally by shock because not one of those kids had mentioned they didn't know how to pot up a plant when we were voting on things to do with the seniors.

That workshop ended on an upbeat note for a few reasons. I asked for a show of hands of residents who knew how to pot plants and started matching them up with the kids who didn't know how. We had a role reversal going on in which the residents who knew how to pot plants helped the kids who were supposed to be helping them which was kind of neat in and of itself. Then one of the "wild and crazy" residents suggested wheel chair races down the hall with the kids pushing. There were a few other residents that wanted to wheel chair race too. The kids ate that up and took turns racing with residents who wanted to go flying down the hall. I was sort of surprised none of the nurses batted an eyelash at the suggestion and said nothing other than to make sure the wheel chairs didn't collide and steer clear of the walls because they were just painted.

I hope you'll share photos of your girls potting up plants at a nursing home.

Neat! Thanks for sharing the pics!

Equil, you are an angel to do this and thanks for sharing the photos - it's good for everyone to see.