AZ Grown Plumerias II

Red with mosaic virus.

Common pink

welcome back davie! nice blooms for this time of year.

Beautiful, Davie. MHE has a very sweet perfume, but the cooler weather might be muting the fragrance right now. I love mine! My MHE is blooming now too and started earlier this summer.

Thanks Dete and Clare.
The MHE just opened today, so maybe as it matures it will give a stronger fragrance? Beautiful large flower though.
I have so many new inflos, I hope it stays warm. It still hasn't been below 60 here, but I doubt I will get to see all of them flower before it gets too cold.
Davie

I almost think as temps drop the scent is not as strong as in the heat of summer. I have one blooming right now that had a very strong scent this summer and now is faint. Your pictures are great nice flowers! thanks for sharing.

I think Dana is right that the heat brings out not only the color but the fragrance, and lower temps may be making some flowers less fragrant. Davie, you need a greenhouse or two to see those inflo's! Here's a link: http://www.comforthouse.com/flowerhouse1.html

Dana and Clare, I agree with you both. As the weather has cooled the intensity of the fragrance has cooled.
Clare, I have access to a small space in a greenhouse, but it will be used to overwinter my seedlings, a few new plants, and cuttings so I could use more space. Thanks for the link. I have a few questions about the unit. Do you use that type? If so, how do you heat it? Do you have to heat it during the day? How many 5 gallon containers can I cram in there?
Thanks,
Davie
New Thai "Marble Leaf"

Thai "Precious Leaf"

Thai "Syrup Leaf" my least favorite. Light colored leaves burn very easy. Grows very slow.

Thai "Maya"

Thai "Maya Volume 2"

Thai mosaic pink

First flower of Pauahi Alli, hope that's spelled right. Something ate the fifth petal.

Ruffles one more time, still looks nice even faded. One of the other branches is about to let the blooms loose.
Thanks for looking,
Davie

Nice pics as always, Davie. My flowers are looking light in color these days too. I love your variegated ones. I have the Thai 'Marble' too. You are right about the leaves burning in the sun. I keep my variegated ones in filtered sun. I had an inflo on one of my variegated ones last winter so I put it in my greenhouse, but it aborted anyway. Oh, well. At least, it branched.

Yes, I do use that Comforthouse Springhouse. I have three of them, and two are up. I'll post some pics of it below. You can put quite a few five-gallons in it. I just went and counted how many are in one of mine, and I counted 36. I have ten- and fifteen-gallon containers in one and a rack of one-gallon containers.

I don't heat the greenhouses at night due to the high cost of electricity. If that weren't an issue, I would have a heater, a fan, and a grow light. When we had record cold last winter, I put an oil-radiant heater in my one for the night. That is when I bought two more of the same kind of greenhouses. As long as the temp stays above freezing, I won't heat it. I have some temperature gauges in them, which show me the air temps on my Atomic Clocks in the house, and it seems like nighttime temps end up matching outside air temps, but I don't have the bottoms sealed well, and it doesn't seem to matter because soil temps are much higher than the air temp. During the day, the air temps in the greenhouses are well into the 90's on a winter day, and the heat and humidity keep everything blooming and happy. I do open mine up daily to air them out but close them up again before it starts to cool off in the late afternoon. I think it would be unnecessary for you to heat them during the day.

Here's a picture of one that I just took for you. The screen is ripped on this one. I think I accidentally stepped on it a couple of times. My extra one is on the right.

Here is my other one against the house.

Here is a frontal view of that same one:

Here is another pic. from last January, which shows the inside:

Here is one from last March:

I used this Harbor Freight Tools one in 2004. I put that together with PVC pipe, and assembly was a lot more difficult and time-consuming, but it was twice the size of one Springhouse. I did heat this one with an oil-radiant heater and had a fan in there, and increased electricity costs came to about $100-$150 more than usual. The more electricity you use, the more expensive it is per kilowatt. This greenhouse ended up being crammed full of plants.

Here's my variegated one.

Here's my other variegated one:

Here's a new seedling that has been blooming outside. It has been plunged in the ground, but I dug it up yesterday to repot it today. I really like this one. It has some potential, I think.

Clare, thank you very much for the detailed information and pictures. That green house looks and sounds like it could fit my needs, and I like the fact that it folds up. I do have one more question, what is your overnight low temps in December and January? I am afraid that without overnight heat, we get into the forties for days at a time, the plants will still go dormant. What do you think?
Awesome seedling. I really like the contrast of the yellow orange center and pink petals with lighter pink edge, very nice.
Davie
It still hasn't dropped below 55, and still have more flowers coming. Common large pink.

Another common pink

Sometimes flowers completely red other times looks like a rainbow. This is the same red from November 2 "common red".

From same plant as above, faded flower.

Better picture of Pauahi Alli.

New and old inflo on Ruffles

Beautiful pics, Davie. Red is brought out by heat so, when the heat is gone, the base colors are left. Hurricane is often missing its red pigment in cooler weather, but its base color are pretty too.

We're having a heat wave at the moment. I love it. There are lots of flowers still blooming.

To answer your question, it doesn't drop much below 40 normally during the winter here, and my plumies don't drop their leaves. They don't do much blooming or growing outside the greenhouse though. Occasionally, it will drop into the mid- to high-30's for a few hours before the sun comes up, and that can last for a week or more. Last winter, we had record cold temps, but that was unusual. Last winter, it got down to 32 several times and 28 once for two hours. That is when I had damage.

Now, the ones in the greenhouses bloom and grow lall winter long. It doesn't drop much below 40 in the greenhouses, and the daytime highs are usually in the 90's or 100's. I believe that it is the high daytime temps which keep the plants growing and blooming throughout the winter despite low's in the 40's. I don't have time to study the effect of the heat on the soil in the containers, but I suspect that soil that stays warm at night is beneficial. The plants also receive plenty of water.

I have a theory that -- and I could be wrong -- the reduced daylight, coupled with the withholding of water and nutrients, brings on dormancy and that dormancy is a survival mechanism to protect the trees from drought, not cold. I water when the soil looks dry, even in winter. That could be why my plumies don't drop their leaves in winter.

Thanks for the compliment about my seedling;-) I like it too.

i might throw a couple in the gh, but no heater at all this winter! it was fun for one winter but i don't want plumies blooming when the weather is not optimal. that's just me because even though we have all the heat, i can't seem to get blooms out of them later in the summer after blooming in the winter. bummer!

davie the heat built up in the pots during the daytime does help to keep the soil warmer at night. i kept mine gh closed all last winter unless i had to go inside. this helps keep in the heat.

Hi Dete! You are probably right about that, but on these inflo's that develop so late in the season, I'm afraid that if I don't put them in the greenhouse to bloom, the inflo will dry up and fall off due to lack of energy. I've have had some inflo's stay on and bloom in the spring though. You just never know. I have some special ones in the greenhouse now, including Vera Cruz Rose, Lurline, Siam Ruby, and Jack's Purple. All of these developed inflo's just in this past month or so. I've had some bloom all winter then continue to bloom all spring and summer, but some bloom all winter, and they are done for the season. I guess you just never know what a plumie is going to do! LOL!

clare,

oh yeah, i forgot about those. LOL i was referring to the ones that emerge in the gh as a result of keeping them going during the winter.

i do have one in a pot with an inflo. i guess i can put that one in the gh. i want to spray it with horticultural oil first. the only other one with an inflo is in the ground. it will stay there and hopefully bloom next spring.

do you have abigail?

Hi Dete, you know you can buy one of those pop up mini-greenhouses or plastic umbrellas to protect the one in the ground that has an inflo. I wouldn't leave it unprotected through the winter if it were mine. I know you like to live dangerously and experiment, but I doubt that an inflo will survive with temps below 40 for very long. I guess it just depends upon what microclimates you've got going around it. I'm just still reeling from last winter's damage here. Just yesterday, I cut off a damaged tip on a seedling that just couldn't recover. We'll see if it wants to put out branches now.

I don't have Abigail, but I have about 30 Abigail seedlings that I just sowed:-)

Clare

clare - i am still venting my gh with an exhaust fan which is now on low. how long would you recommend that i continue to vent it? i have taken off the shade cloth so it will get toasty during the day. i put some plumeria in there today just for fun. no supplemental heating! just whatever builds up during the day and slowly radiates out of the containers during the night.

i don't want to fry my hoyas that are hanging from the ceiling. i could just lower their height so that they're not in the hot zone and then just circulate the air internally.

Hi Dete, the fan is good for circulating the air and for drying out the soil, which can stay perpetually wet in a humid greenhouse. I don't have room for a fan in mine though, and I want to reduce the electricity costs spent on the greenhouses so I have to do without a fan. I do open my greenhouses up everyday though to air them out a bit. Temps have been getting up into the 100's lately inside them during the day. I do keep them closed up on cool days to keep the heat in. If you want to keep a fan inside all winter long, it will be beneficial, especially to keep ants from farming aphids on the undersides of the leaves. I can't answer your question about your Hoyas though. I only have one Hoya, and it lives on my back patio all year long. I think you will be pleased with the effect of the greenhouse on the plumerias in the long run, even without supplemental heating.

i had only been running the fan during the day to exhaust the heat and then on inside just for internal circulation. it's on 10a - 3p. i closed the window today and will have to seal up the broken zipper. i kept mine closed during the day last year and will do the same again this year. it's always nice to go inside after work and hang out in there when it's chilly outside. the hoyas will be okay. thanks!

I think you can buy replacement zippers at Home Depot that are velcro or something. I would keep that heat in for the most part, if you can, like you did last winter. I've let mine get up to in the 130's with no ill effects. They love it! I would think the fan would be most beneficial when it is closed up. We'll compare notes this winter;-)

i guess as long as everything is watered those temps are fine. you definitely have some warm soil overnight.

here's to a warm winter!