In the Garden — Plumerias

Perhaps I feature my plumerias too much but I think they are so beautiful and so rewarding for the little care they need.  I have several plumerias–all given to me as branches by friends.  When I see them in Home Depot or at a nursery, selling for top dollar, it just makes me shake my head.  These plants are the easiest plants in the entire world to propagate.  Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but totally easy.

Most of my plumerias are in the ground now because they just got too big to keep in pots.  They can’t handle a freeze and I know that every winter there’s a chance that I’ll lose them.  So I cut one or two branches off of each flowering mature plant every summer, and stick it in a pot of potting soil.  I use Miracle-gro.  I’ve used other soils but my plants always do better in Miracle-gro.  The new plumeria will be the same color as its parent.  (I’m not sure “parent” is the correct technical term, but I’m using it!)

In the Garden -- Plumerias
Just cut a branch off at a fork on the plumeria.
In the Garden -- Plumerias
Stick the branch in a pot with moist potting soil. I usually put the cutting in shade until the next year.

Usually it takes about two years to bloom, but I just potted this one last summer and it will be blooming in a few weeks.

In the Garden -- Plumerias

In the Garden -- Plumerias
Buds on the one-year-old plumeria.

I also have one large pink plumeria that has had seed pods twice.  I gathered the seeds and never planted them. 

In the Garden -- PlumeriasSo while I was sticking that branch in a pot, I threw the seeds into another pot of soil.  I don’t know much about growing plumerias from seed other than they are not necessarily the same color as the parent.

And here’s some of the various colors that I already have.

In the Garden -- PlumeriasIn the Garden -- PlumeriasIn the Garden -- PlumeriasIn the Garden -- Plumerias

In the Garden -- Plumerias
This one is actually my neighbor’s plumeria. She gave me a yellow one but it only bloomed one time. But it’s big and leafy green now!

I put super bloom on the plants every week during the growing season.  They also like full sun, or at least morning sun.  Once it gets cool, I put the pots in the shed and never water them again until I pull them out early in the spring.  Then I repot them and give them some Epson salts so they’ll green up.  That’s it!  Easy peasy. 

2 thoughts on “In the Garden — Plumerias”

  1. Thanks for the beautiful pictures. I’ve seen the flowers before, but never realized that the plants were so large. Reminds me of Rhodidendrons.

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