If we see any more, I will try to take o pic of them. I just hope we won't see any bugs anymore.

The close up photo shows that the tips and the leaves closer to the tips are healthy looking. If the main branch closer to the soil is firm, I think you're plumeria is just fine. Last week-end my big plumeria tree had a few yellow leaves (we had a week of rain), now they are fine.

Thank you Gigi. Yes, both main branches are firm close to the trunk, which is firm too, just checked all of them today.

Mima, the bugs are sow bugs which eat dead vegetable matter and debris. Not a big problem, but if you have them, you may have other critters, too. You definitely will want to get rid if your mulch. (What Hetty said) After your bloom season, I'd get a large clean planter, or clean yours thoroughly, and carefully unpot your plumie, and remove all the soil from it's roots and inspect the soil for tiny fungus gnats larvae..almost microscopic tiny white bugs in the soil. Hopefully there won't be any.
Then you'll want to repot your plumie in a good plumeria mix. I use a blend of cactus mix and perlite with the recommended amount of Nutri -Star time release plumeria food and a few Tbs. of bone meal mixed in well. These aren't necessary, they're just what I use in my mix. After you repot your plumie, you'll want to only water it lightly maybe once per week or so, when your top 3-4 inches of soil feel dry, or when the pot feels light (in weight) . My opinion only...
...and, in the meantime, I'm dying to see that first bud unfurl....looks kind of like a yellow or white, maybe?

Cyra, thanks for your advice. Last night I was already sleeping at that hour.

OK, so I will let her be for now. I was thinking about repotting her when I first got her but then it was the moving shock and I thought it would be too much for her. I will ask hubby to help me of course, because as you say, those tiiiiiny little thingies will be invisible for my poor eyes. I hope we won't find them anyway.

I water my plants once every 10 days or so because the weather was not too hot until now to have the soil getting dry too fast and the moisture meter was showing that way too. We'll see how the hot weather will be, with triple digits in July-August. Last year was an oven here. Hope for less than last year!

The first blooom is almost here. It is an Aztec Gold so I hope it will look like one.

Yesterday the bloom was opening all day and only at night we could admire the full bloom. Here are pics of the entire process from yesterday:

Now, today early morning (way earlier than usual) I was already checking on her, and the flower was not so opened as in the evening. Do Plumeria blooms close through the night?












Checking her closer I've noticed more leaves that are yellowing and I got really concerned now. I remember when I first got her she was pushing out leaves like crazy, now not so much, and they are yellowing. The branch with the inflo didn't push out a leaf in quite a while. I also noticed some... small stuff close to where the leaf gets out of the tip of the branch. Could those be some insect eggs or drops or something related?



Yellowing leaves on the branch with the inflo:








The thingies that look suspect to me. Or maybe that's just dust and dirt?











Thank you in advance for looking and giving your input.

Yeah, you might have spider mites....

Bloom is lovely!!

Oh! So that could be the reason for yellowing leaves?

Yes, the bloom is gorgeous. Thanks Hetty.

Gorgeous bloom

You can get a magnifying lens to see if there are spider mites crawling on the leaves or wipe the underside with white paper towel to see if there are insects (black specks against white). Mine were infested by spider mites when I had them indoor but I kept spraying the leaves (including underside) with water every time it's watering schedule and they all gave up.

Now, I'm busy cutting leaves off with yellow rust. While it is not harmful to the plumerias, I don't like the look of yellow rust at all.

Mima, I'm legally (not totally) blind...so I'm afraid I can't be of much help, here, even when I super -sized the picture! (Sorry!) The only time I had leaves go yellow like that, and drop, was with my first plumeria ...when I killed it through over watering ...

Thanks for all the advice, it really helped!

I wiped the under-leaves today in the morning and there were some tiiiiny little dots on the paper towel. With a magnifying glass I could see them moving although I couldn't notice if they had legs or not. But I am kind of blind too. Not like you Cyra, bit I can't see a lot of small things even with my glasses on (which I wear 18 hours a day anyway). So mostly sure these are the spider mites, aren't they? So now: Neem oil is the solution?

Could they kill my plumie? Could she drop the other buds not opened yet? She didn't grow anymore leaves since they started with the yellowing. She was pushing leaves out like crazy in the beginning. I am soooo upset! How could she get those?I know we have lots of rose bushes and other plants on the alleys which are close to our patio too, but they seem well, spider mites seem to be attacking only my plumeria. Now I hope they won't get on my cycads too.

And above all these, I just got 2 rooted cuttings from a grower who was rooting them for me for quite a while (one of them was a gift from her, and there is still one rooting at her nursery). I should keep those 2 at a distance from the Aztec Gold right? The gift/free cutting doesn't look that good though, it has a strange color of the stem and although it's not squishy now, I think it's going to be soon.


Here are some pics of the yellowing leaves taken this morning:















And the bloom with the other buds that seem to have stopped growing:







Here is the new cutting received a few days ago:


Pic taken when they arrived:






And other pic taken today:




She's a Keiki Lavender so the claws should be darker if I understood right. No signs of new claws yet but they don't even have a week since they were potted.


Thank you all for watching, and for all and any advice.

Forgot to write about the cutting: when I got it out of the box, it was wrinkled and after potting and watering it, it plumped back up by next day. I could say the darker color of the lower stem is almost the same as when it arrived, only the stem is not really that firm.

Keep good air circulation on your plumeria. Spider mites attack when air is too dry, When the leaves are wet and with good air circulation they scamper away fast.

Your cuttings look fine (do not over water the new one).

Good advice from Gigi.
It is normal for plumeria to stop pushing leaves when they start to bloom.

Oh, ok, I had no idea they won't push leaves when they are blooming.

So my plumeria is on the patio, good air circulation and even wind. But indeed, dry weather here, and it didn't even start yet with triple digit temps and even more dry weather. How could I make it less dry if not moist?

Thank you Gigi and Hetty!

Thanks Hetty

Mima, I keep a spray bottle (just regular water) and wet paper towel handy when I suspect spider mites on my new or smaller plumerias. I spray the leaves to keep them moist during the day or I wipe the leaves with wet paper towel to disturb the spider mites egg production when I have more time. I usually do this task in the morning so the leaves can still air dry and I avoid doing this late afternoon. I make sure the spray will not drip too much so as not to overwater the soil of new plummies.

The big ones or well rooted plummies that can handle excess water are sprayed with the regular water hose spray. I do the same thing when I suspect spider mites on my roses.

Also, you can fill a plastic tray with four inches of river rocks and set your plumeria on top. Then add one to two inches of water to the tray, being careful to keep the bottom of your plumeria above the water level and dry. This will increase the humidity of the air around your plumeria, without wetting it.
If your Keiki goes soft, you can re -cut it's stem well above the rot, dip the cut end into a powdered fungicide, and lay it out on paper to dry for 5 days or so. Then repot the shortened cutting into almost dry perlite/cactus mix, and set it out onto a warm concrete surface to root and develop claws and leaves. Once it puts out about three -four inches of leaves, you can resume light watering.

Oh, such good advice here, thank you all! Thanks Cyra and Gigi!

So I'd better not hose the plumie, just wipe every under-leaf, even the yellowing ones? I'll do that right away. It seems well established as a plant, the nursery guys were saying it's 5 years old. Not too tall for that age though right? After wiping with wet paper towel isit good to also wipe with only a bit of neem oil? I'll go get some and do that if needed.

I'll check on Keiki tomorrow though, today it didn't seem too soft, maybe I'm biased when trying it, only because I'm over stressed out with not killing them. The root of this cutting was really tiny, only a few little roots.The other one, that's a 2-tip Kimo, hada real nice root ball, and she's a shorter cutting than Keiki. Both were vut last year in Sept, it's written on their metallic tag attached.

I started spraying the underside of the leaves yesterday with neem oil diluted in water (hubby bought the concentrated one - 70%). Prior to this I've wiped them with wet paper towel. This morning, hubby told me he can still see liiiiitle critters crawling under the leaves. I can't see a thing but I trust him. So this morning I sprayed them again (the leaves).

Last night I found the bloom fallen on one of the cycads pot (the plumie was higher than that cycad). So, is it normal for a bloom to last only for 2 days? That's how my bloom lasted...



Are the mites already too many and they're killing my plumeria??

The weird thing is that they don't have those nets I've seen in pics all over the internet. Leaves were clean on their underside, only the little dots were there but they are so tiny I can't really see what are they.

Today, 2 more leaves are ready to fall, yellow and dead...

What can I do more? Wipe the under-leaves with rubbing alcohol? Maybe rubbing with the concentrated neem oil? I really don't want to lose this plumie, it's my first one and a gift from my family for my birthday.

Thank you all again!