I am in south Texas. I have many young plumeria all started from cutting last sping (2019). They are all in 2 gal pots. Just had fisrt strong norther.....temp got down to 41 deg briefly. Seems like they will survive that and this will probably make them drop leaves and go dormant. There is not room in the garage for all those pots to over- winter them. I believe i heard they can be plucked out of pots, soil shaken off roots, and piled up dry in an indoor location to save from freezing weather. Is that right....and what happens if I pull them out of the pots right now before they have dropped their leaves?

No hands on experience here but there are a couple folks that I know can help can help. @ShadyGreenThumb @Chris1948

Good luck!

What I did was to cut all the leaves leaving about 1/2" of the stem on the trunk or branch. Then I pulled them out of the pots, shook the dirt off the root ball and put them into some 15gal pots I have. I have 16 so I put 8 into each pot and covered the root balls with perlite. I'm in Houston at the moment or else I'd send you a photo. I'll try to remember to take a few when I get home tomorrow and post.

I dont think that wold work for me. There are about 70 young plumeria that have to go in the garage for the winter. I might find space for about 3 15 gal pots, but not more. Seems like some years ago i heard of a way they overwinter them where they. pluck them out of ground or pot , shake off dirt, and just hang them bare-root from the rafters. I dont really have any garage rafters, but it seems if you can do that, then perhaps they can be piled up on a shelf in garage. It gets quite cold in the garage in winter, but can be kept above freezing, like in the 40s, using a space heater.

How young are your trees? I had the same question since I was given a dozen freshly uprooted trees. They were on the border of being too young to be uprooted for winter, 18-39" tall, about 3 yrs old. So I repotted them and gave them on a heat mat hoping they are in a winter protected environment (heated greenhouse).

My other trees were uprooted. I pull them out of their pots and gently use a small hand rake to pick at the soil, not rake the roots. Get as much soil off as you can this way, then hose off the rest.

My tallest trees are about 12-14 ft tall. Once out of the pot and cleaned it us hoisted onto a sling of 2 large ropes about 3-4 ft apart to sleep away the winter.

Another way for smaller trees is to stand them into a large pot, as many as you can, tied together and cover the roots in perlite.

See my original post. There are about 70 plumeria cuttings which were all started last spring, all in 2 gallon pots. Most are 1 to 2 ft. Tall, and some have hardly grown taller at all. The leaves are starting to yellow and die from the cold. Most of the garage space i was planning to use for all the plumeria pots got used for other purposes. Is it not possible to uproot them and store like you can do with a tree? Have to something very soon.....whats min. temp below which they die? Abt 40 deg.?

On way that was suggested to me was to remove them from the pots, shake as much dirt as you can from the root ball and then put into large plastic trash bags. Do not tie the bags shut. That way you should be able to just set them on a table or something and stack the bags up. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong in doing it this way.
I'd also suggest you go over to the Plumeria 2019 or the Plumeria forum and ask there.

I reread your post. Sorry I missed it the first go around. I believe your young root system is too small and tender to uproot like a larger tree. Is it possible to bring them indoors and use a glowlight? For best results, it is suggested that young seedlings not go dormant. Here us a standard pole light fixture I use with grow lights indoors (Target $19.99) Bulbs from Walmart.


Here is the root structure if a mature tree. I'm afraid your young trees will look nothing like this. Instead, will be a fragile small collection of white immature roots. It will be a risk to uproot them. And suggest not.

Well my long post by phone was deleted. I'll rewrite it on PC in a bit. But consider winter protection outside in the firm of a hoop house structure.

Sorry it took so long. The day was so beautiful! Once I got outside I didn't come back in until I got hungry! What I was going to say was recently I acquired almost 3 year old plumeria seedlings. They were yanked out of the ground before I got there, and not very carefully either. I was going to just keep them bare rooted for the winter. But local plumeria consensus said to put them back into pots on a heat mat to help the root systems recover during our warmest days we have left. Here are what my 18-30", 3 year old tree roots looked like. I do believe they had a chance to be bare rooted but they were just this side of considered too young to winter over this way.

I believe your young trees would not have a root system established enough to survive the winter out of a pot. My suggestion to give them the best chance is to put them up off the ground on to a table of sorts. Provide heat by way of a heat mat (Amazon)to keep the roots warm. If they are not indoors, then erect a structure outside, a hoop house, or a tent, or greenhouse that will protect them from frost and cold weather if possible. It is believed that a first year seedling should not go dormant. Mine have gone dormant and knew no difference. But that is the general consensus speaking again.

Good luck this winter. Keep us posted.

Possible freeze coming early next week. I hope Texas Plumeria Lovers are prepared.

I like your gh shelves. Did you construct them yourself? I have a few long folding tables I use. I stuff smaller pots under the tables. Not the bext lighting for those.

Bubbles said:I like your gh shelves. Did you construct them yourself? I have a few long folding tables I use. I stuff smaller pots under the tables. Not the bext lighting for those.

Yes, copied from a shelf on Pintrest using 3 (4?) stair risers, and 2 x 4"s as supports, furring strips as the shelf slats then all covered in oil based enamel paint. It is holding up great.

Thanks! I just showed your post to DH and he said those were stair risers. And I said I was going to make them! I believe I caught him rolling his eyes.

YOU can do it! *I* did it with the help of some clamps to help hold wood level. Make them any width you want. But as you get wider, the more risers you need. Think about your summer storage. The ones I made dont collapse like your tables do.

YOU can do it! *I* did it with the help of some clamps to help hold wood level. Make them any width you want. But as you get wider, the more risers you need. Think about your summer storage. The ones I made dont collapse like your tables do. Here are some photos. And I'm here to help and cheer you on.

Awesome! I hope we can build them before it turns really cold. Thanks for the visuals!

Get them built. Paint later...

They look really handy... Are they heavy? You could use them outdoors in summer as well and not worry about summer storage.

@pod. Mine was built custom size for the greenhouse. I'd have to break it to get it out of there, I think? But you can build them to any size/width you need.
Heres the photo I used for my idea.


Here are other designs: