I finally got my husband to help me plant my one and only Plumeria in the ground! It's been root bound in it's container for a few years ... leafing out now but I don't know if I will see blooms this summer; I sure hope so because I miss those beautiful flowers and the awesome fragrance. If it does well I may just have to chat with Hetty to see what she still has available. I'd love to have a hedge of different colors of Plumeria!!

ten years later the yard IS plumerias in my case LOL

Aaah ... but Hetty you live in the best part of the state for a yard full of Plumeria's! Here in the east central part of Florida we've been known to have prolonged freezes in the winter; not usual but it does happen on occasion and all it takes is once which is not good for Plumeria's and other "southern" tropicals! I have left some "tropicals" out for a few consecutive nights of mid 30's with just blankets over them for protection but if we were to have week after week of cold I'm afraid all would be lost.

Pull them up and store them bareroot in the winter. People do it all the time!

Do we ever! Ken in Mississippi

I know some people can store them in the garage for the winter or the basement. Here our winters are sometimes severe enough that they would for sure freeze solid in the garage especially since we can't really close our garage doors. However this winter was not severe at all and I lost 3 or 4 plumeria (along with many other things) this winter in the greenhouse because we lost the shade cloth we had so everything got too hot repeatedly. Next winter I hope I can put the plumeria at least in the house somewhere. We don't have a basement and none of our windows get a lot of sun.

Mary Lee, I live in Starkville, MS and I pull all of my plumeria up around the middle of October and allow them to "rest" under oak trees for a couple of weeks so that they lose most of their leaves. I then hose off the remaining soil from their roots, remove what leaves are left, and put them all in large contractor bags. The bags then go in closet(s) and under a bench on my (now) enclosed porch. They will all overwinter bare root from November till March. Three years ago I stored most of the plumeria out in our unheated (though enclosed) garage, and lost all of them. Lesson learned. Ken

I'm sorry I have no idea how that got on here. My son was downloading some pictures from our desktop to the laptop so I guess he did that by accident.

Anyway, thanks Ken for telling me what you do. It sounds like you have yours all in the ground during the growing season. I don't have a place to put them in the ground that drains well enough, so I keep mine in pots. Since they are in pots, should I take them out of the pots for the winter? It seems like a lot less work to just move them in the pot. We have a spare room where they won't be bothered, but won't get a lot of sun. But if yours are in "closets" it sounds like lack of sun is not a problem.

I have half in the landscape and half in huge pots. It is just a whole lot easier, since I have several dozen plants, to bag them up. They just "go to sleep" for 4-5 months. Whether you do what I do or leave them in pots with poor light, they still will go dormant. What I do seems to work. They plump up quickly when potted and put outside in the spring. Believe me, I am no expert here. There are others on this site that are. I just do what works for me in NE Mississippi. It would be soooooooooo nice to live in central-south Florida or S. California and leave them out year-round. Most of us live and grow our plants in non-tropical climates. Ken

There is an advantage to taking them out of the pot for the winter. When you pot them up in the spring they'll get fresh potting soil.

Good point. For me. just finding the space that would be required to put two-three dozen huge pots inside the house would be an impossible venture. Closets make nice "storage" areas for these contractor bags. Ken

Late to the party again... whatcha got left, Hetty? Or have they all leafed out and become less shippable? My one plumie got nice leaves again last summer, and I just potted it up again... but no blooms in 5 years. I kept saying when I got this one to bloom, I'd indulge in a couple of new ones. I'm beginning to think maybe it's not me; maybe I just have a "dud."

Jill I have the Elizabeth Parker and Petey's Red left, or I also have a Japanese Lantern with a beginning inflo... which means (if USPS manages not to break it off in transit) you'll have blooms soon! send me a treemail if you're interested!