New Plumeria Grove

Hi All! Some of you may have noticed my absence of late. I am in the process of buying a house here in Southern California, and there is a half acre of yard to plant! I will be in gardening heaven so to speak. I'm including a picture of some of the yard. I plan to plant nearly all my plumerias in the ground along with my Michelias, Brugmansias, gingers, gardenias, lilacs, and other fragrant trees, shrubs, and vines. It will be so much fun starting with a blank canvas and landscaping this yard.

I am really excited, but I know that there is a lot of work ahead, especially with amending the existing soil. The house will need major remodeling also, and then, of course, there is the most stressful thing of all: moving.

Needless to say, I will be extremely busy in the next six months, trying to do it all plus work. My Dave's Garden subscription is about to expire so I'm going to let it until next spring, when I may join again, depending upon how much free time and discretionary funds I have. During that time, I won't be a subscriber so I won't be able to read threads, but I will be able to read dmail if someone needs to reach me. I'll try to remember to check my dmail here at Dave's every so often. Many of you have my private email address as well and can reach me that way.

I still have a week or so left on my subscription so I'll be around for another week yet, but it will be a busy one. Rest assured that there are many people here on this forum that are well-qualified to give out advice including Kukiat, Davie, Hetty, Michael, Dete, Dana, Chantell, Brad, and many others.

I hope everyone has a wonderful fall and a warm winter, and happy gardening.

awesome! That's great news! Don't you have some pretty big trees? How are you gonna move those??

You go Clare! Keep us posted. You will be missed but look forward to when you return.

Half an acre!! Congratulations!!!
It sounds like you will be VERY busy. Good luck.

Good Luck! Clare your going to have a ball cooler weather coming glad for you.

Congratulations, Clare! We'll miss you - please come back when you can. Is your new house still in the same general area?

Miss Clare, I am so thrilled for you. You come back, you hear? Don't make me miss ya and come down to CA looking for ya.

big bear hug,
n

I just got a michelia, I'll think about you every time I walk by it.

Ah, you guys are great. Thanks Trent, Louise, Hetty, Dana, Kathleen, and Nery for the kind words, congratulations, and well wishes!

Trent, I sold my two 25-gallons just because I was dreading moving them! The rest are in 15-gallon, 10-gallon, 5-gallon, and 1-gallon containers. The tallest are probably 7 feet. My husband bought a trailer so I'll probably load them and drive slowly and make about a thousand trips. We may rent a big U-Haul that has a enclosed area so that I can do many at a time. I figure there are about 400 potted plants total, but I haven't counted recently. It will be a chore for sure. I still have nightmares from the last move that we did.

Louise, you have my email address so we'll keep in touch by email. I'll think of you when I look at my beautiful irises blooming.

Hetty, if my plumie patch becomes as beautiful as yours is, I'll be very happy. I feel good about leaving, knowing that you are here to help give advice and answer questions.

Dana, you're right about cooler weather coming. It looked like there was frost on my front lawn this morning. I was shocked! We are going to have a heat wave here for a week or so, and then it should get cooler. The remodel and move will take a couple of months each so I will probably start the actual planting in the spring after a long period of amending the soil. It will be so much work but totally worth it. Good luck with all your seedlings and with your lovely plumie patch and bananas!

Kathleen, yes, the new house is actually about a mile from where we live now, but it is in the foothills, and there is a big hill right behind the house, and we all know that cold air travels downward so I think I will have to protect my plants for this first winter and see how cold it will actually get there as I have a lot of tropicals. I still have my portable greenhouses so I'll probably utilize them again this winter.

Big bear hug back, Nery. You've got my email address so email me when you can. I would love it if you came looking for me! That is so awesome that you got a Michelia. Which one did you get? The Michelia x alba has the best fragrance. I dug mine up and am taking it with me. The Michelia champaca, Michelia figo, and Michelia chapensis are planted in the ground here where we rent, and I don't think I have the energy to dig them up as much as I would like to take them with me. I only hope that they will be taken care of by the next occupant when I leave.

Next year when your all settled in we will all have to send you something for a house warming. You wll have plenty of room lot of work but like you said will be well worth it.

This message was edited Sep 25, 2008 2:31 PM

Congrats Clare! I hope you'll have some time to post pictures. I wish I lived close enough to lend a hand

Jackie

clare, I have to look at the tag. will get back to you later. I sure hope it is m. alba.

I have the perfect housewarming gift for Clare!! How about a plumeria?!?!?!?!
Best wishes Clare and yes, I have your e-mail and will check in with you. Every plumeria I see makes me think of you and your generosity with not only your seeds and plants, but your knowledge also. I never thought I'd have all these plumeria seedlings! Thank you for those.
I'll sure miss reading your posts. Don't forget to come back to Dave's.

This message was edited Sep 25, 2008 1:56 PM

yeah... You HAVE to subscribe again when you can!!!

Good luck on your new adventure!! How fun! Please come back when you can, Kathleen always says ask Clare when I have a question. So you have to come back.

Thanks, everyone. I'm just a dmail away if you should need me in the meantime. It may take a while for me to get back to you, but I will always respond.

I'm sure that I'll keep uploading photos to PlantFiles as well to keep that project going. It's been a lot of fun building up the plumeria section of the database. So be sure to look for my pictures over there and at the PlantFiles forum. I believe that nonsubscribers can have discussions on that forum so you can always contact me that way as well. ^_^

Hello dear friends, some generous soul has given me a year's subscription to Dave's, and I thank you very much for that, but I am going to ask that your money be returned to you. If they can't return your money, then perhaps they can credit you with the 12 months and add it on to your subscription. I thank you sincerely for your generosity, but I really am going to be unable to read and post for at least the next six months, and I don't want your money to go to waste. Thank you again for the lovely gesture. There are so many great people here. I hope the generous person will come forward and dmail me so I can thank you properly.

Clare...
1- you r always busy
2- you still find time to post
3- congratulations!!!! yaaayyyyy!!!!! you have waited so long!!!!
Im so happy 4 u!!
you better make spot for Mrs. Malestrom now
She will be your house warming gift next year when your settled in (some) lol!!
Congrats darling!!

Hi Michael, Was it you, you rascal you? The year's subscription is so kind, but I am trying to get it reversed so that this generous gift doesn't go to waste. This remodelling and landscaping and moving and working is just going to be the death of me, and so something has got to go that takes a chunk of time out of my day.

Thank you for the congratulations!! You're a sweetie! Thank you also for the lovely thought of a housewarming gift. I'm actually really worried that I won't have enough room to plant all the plumerias that I have. Hubby is paving over the front area to extend the driveway, and the side area will be grass for the dogs. I think I may have to plant a plumeria tree every five feet, but I think it will be crowded if I do that. Thanks again for the congrats. You're so right that I've waited so long and have had this wish in my prayers: to own enough land to plant all my trees and shrubs and to rescue all the animals that I can who need rescuing. Thanks for the kind words.

I cant take credit for your subscription
That was another rascal lol!

Thanks, Michael. I found the darling person who so generously did it.^_^ I so appreciate the thoughtfulness of this person. It was a very sweet thing to do.

Clare, I will miss you! Thank you for all your advice and help.

Congratulation on your new home. Can't wait to see all your plumerias, planted and blooming. Hurry back and post some pictures.

She aint goin nowhhere lol!!
expect regular updates. ;0
luv Clare

Thanks, LiliMerci! I will miss you guys too. Thanks for the congrats. It's going to be so much work getting this house in shape, and then I'll have the hard work of getting the yard in shape, but the hard work will be totally worth it. It will be fun to come back and show before and after pictures.

LOL, Michael, but I am really going, and I'm letting my subscription expire in on the 2nd, and I've returned the generous gift of a subscription to the giver because I just won't be able to use it. I've got so many design books to go through right now for the new house. It will be good to get away from the computer for a while and stick my nose in books. I've actually missed reading in general, and there are a few books that I really want to get to. You and others will have to take over the advice-giving business here!

Here's a picture of Dr. Richard Criley Rainbow from my wonderful friend Kukiat in Thailand. He grafted this for me from a single bud. His grafting skills never cease to amaze me. He's as talented as he is generous. This flower is simply gorgeous.

Here's one of my seedlings:

Here's an Adenium seedling for Michael:

Thanks Clare!! ;)

Been away for soooo long. Australia...Holland, and none of it very much fun...all work and no play, you know what they say about that.
Hope I didn't miss you Clare...
Congratulations on your new home, and yard and all the plants you can put in it!
Hopefully you will stick around and come and go when you can. If not I will miss you and all the great advise you give. Hopefully you will be back though, in the spring, when you get everything accomplished. I am sure we would all love to see what comes of your new yard.
Davie

Clare, You sure you aren't going into the witness protection program?????? LOL good luck on the yard,fly me out there and I'll help ya, I got 4 weeks of vacation time at work! :-)

I know Clare won't see this for a long time but I just wanted to thank her for sharing all of her wonderful knowledge. She'll be missed by me while she's gone, but she'll be back I'm sure. I will cherish the seeds that she sent me that are now 2 ft. seedlings and so look forward to the day they bloom.