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!)

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.

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

So 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.

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.