the yuma road trip was awesome! a huge thank you to davie for a most informative and behind the scenes tour of the local agriculture. i am already looking forward the the next tour to see the winter crops.
we saw a singapore plumeria that is larger than the biggest one at the royal palms resort in phoenix. this is the one that was unscathed by the freeze that davie mentioned. quite amazing because when you see it in person and you wonder how it survived. we have our theories...
plus, we were cruising the neighborhood looking for plumeria and came across a lady who was getting ready to dig up her plumeria tree and send it to the dump. score one tree for davie!!! mickey also got a cutting. i kindly turned one down - 2manyplumeria! LOL i never would have imagined that happening in arizona.
yuma road trip...
this singapore was growing in a parking lot. can you imagine the temps over the asphalt! looks good doesn't it?
That's awesome!!!
here is the other side of the same plumeria. hmmm...i'd say that plumeria don't like reflected heat too close. you can clearly see what the reflected heat from the roof has done to the other side.
here is a large singapore that grows in the yuma valley where they get FREEZES. i think the height of this plumeria is what saves it. the trees and brick wall don't look like they provide much of a microclimate for protection.
I think you'd be surprised how nearby overhead trees can provide freeze protection. When we had our freak record-breaking freeze here, nothing on the west side of my house was damaged because of two large nearby trees. Since one of those trees was providing too much shade the following summer for my plumies, I cut one of them down. The next winter, the Ylang Ylang promptly died.
That limb over the roof is clearly dead. I think another explanation is that it might have died from cold damage. If the roof got moisture and that moisture froze, those limbs might have gotten cold damage being so close; whereas, the other limbs were over concrete.
tell the overhead protection story to my plumeria that were covered by a thick canopy of olive branches that don't drop their leaves during winter. LOL they are now dead because it got too cold under the tree and right next to the brick wall.
you should have been there to put your hand right over the roof. it was much hotter than standing right over the asphalt.
however, it's all conjecture from everyone until someone collects some data.
Sorry about that, Dete. Yes, the overhead protection only works under the mildest of freezes and won't due any good for hard freezes.
That's true about the roof and about it all being conjecture at this point. I just remember how well Gordon's plumerias do on his roof in New York, which has a temp of 145 degrees, which made me think it might be the cold that did that to the Singapore branch. It typically doesn't freeze here where I am, but the roof will get a thin layer of ice sometimes just before the sun comes up.
Clare,
I was with Dete too. I think that branch got damaged from the heat of the roof. It was only 114 when we were there but I felt the roof. It was way hotter.
Mickey
Most of the yuma plumeria are growing in sun. I'm still trying to figure out then why are mine burning?
These plumeria are getting shade only from the sides, nothing from above. They are never misted either.
At one of the houses that had the Singapore they had a plumeria that looked like it had seen better days. I have no idea what the problem was but it was making a comeback. The half dead plumeria was right next to the house.. The singapore was out by the wall but had to be at least 25 feet tall.
Davie was kind enough to give us a short tour of the plumeria in the town. Yuma is far more tropical than Phoenix . I don't think people have a clue yet what plumeria are, however we did see them for sale at a nursery.
Drive by plumeria...
more drive by plumie...
Dete checking one tree out...
This message was edited Jun 23, 2008 5:56 PM
a drive by plumie
a plumie that could have used a little TLC...
plumies in the ground
More plumies in the ground
This is a Cuban palm. I had never even seen one before this. It has a white trunk naturally. Davie knew of this tree . Dete noticed one across the street the Davie never even noticed before. If you're the driver it's hard to spot the plants...
Nice pics, Mickey! I guess it is just speculation about the branch without knowing more details like when it started to die back, etc. I'm glad you guys had a nice time on your trip!
Thanks for the road trip, Mickey. Looks like you guys had a good time.
Thanks for coming Mickey, Dete, and Chuck. It was a great time. Nice to have some other Plumie nuts around.
Davie