We had a warm January this year so I decided to try my budding skills (according to Cyra) on grafting. See attached:


(These 2 still have shiny tips as of this week and with little leaves clawing out.. So I think these will survive.)


(The top one rotted and I now replaced it with the 2 inches DSP cutting I saved from air-layering experiments. All three experiments are doing good.)

I will post updates later when leaves are visible.

I love watching you succeed with your propagation skills because I know that if you can succeed, there might be hope for me, too! ...!

great job!!

Thanks Cyra and Hetty! I will update you on the progress of my grafting experiments each week the improvements of my grafts are more visible. I turned my pot now so all grafts are in full sun...just patiently waiting for more leaves (or blooms) to come out.

Hello, new here. I just recieved my first plumeria start yesterday in the mail. Though I was suprised to find out that it was a grafted start with roots in a 4" pot and not a normal rooted cutting. My question is how do I know when to take the tape off of the plant? It currently has two branches coming off the grafted plant and they are full of healthy green leaves.

(Smile) sounds like a good example of what Hetty meant, when she discussed the benefits of grafted plants. Sounds like your plant is off to a vigorous beginning, -congratulations!
On the other hand, I hadn't planned on "hi -jacking " Gigi 's thread ..as I'm enjoying and learning from it, so I'm going to return us to her topic, and mention that I (almost!) wish I had a few days off from work, to try my hand, at grafting plumies...good job GIGI!

sporty105 - the tape should fall off by itself when it is ready. And a grafted plant is better than a rooted!! Well, that is my opinion, anyway.

Congrats Sporty105, my self experiment grafts also have new branches just below the graft from the host plant. How cool is that? You might have 2 colors in one!!!

Cyra, you are always welcome to post comments here. I'm very new to this plumeria hobby too but I'm a plummie hoarder. If I like the variety, I buy more than one or root multiple ones. So, I'm less afraid to try and experiment. I'd rather try and fail than not to try at all :rofl:.

Hetty, thanks or the tip on what to do with the graft tape. I am now a believer of grafted plumerias. My 2 inches grafted DSP is no longer 2 inches long and the leaves are big now. I'll update the pics this week-end. The cuttings in this pics are now starting to have visible new leaves.

Gigi if your grafted plant is growing below the graft you probably have an imperfect graft, I'm sorry to say

Ooops I didn't know that. I was thinking it was a good thing. I might have to redo those grafts.

See what I mean, by "enjoying and learning from this thread "? (I didn't know this either...but will definitely file it away, for when I can try my hand at grafting plumies!)
Thanks, and a special thanks to Mike, who clarified something for me, wth regard to grafting.

Here is an update of my plumeria grafting experiment. I lost one out of five experiments. I think the rest will survive but except for the King Kalakua and Dwarf Pink Singapore, the rest are not perfect grafts (as mentioned by Hetty) because new growths from the host plants are visible just below the grafts.

The Dwarf Pink Singapore is a last rescue attempt from my failed air-layering experiments.

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

That is so interesting Gigi. You have a creation!

Thanks RobertB, wouldn't it be nice to see my DSP blooming on a large tree or if my grafts will all bloom.

Very cool! So will you have a tree with multi colored flowers? What kind of tape(s) did you use and how were they cut when you grafted them? On the diagonal?

I think if you graft a DSP onto a plumeria that's normally tall and lanky, and the graft is successful, the graft host wouldn't grow much taller after that....(according to something Mike explained to me), so you'd have a beautiful DSP....standard?

Cheryl, that's what i am hoping to achieve. I used a Burpee green tape and I used a regular green plant tie to reinforce and hold it better. The best time to do it though is when both the host plant and the cutting are in active growth like spring. I got bored and started my experiment winter time, which is not good. I used diagonal cut but the DSP was too short that I actually just cut it flat and the host plant was also flat and used the plant tie to hold it down (no tape because too short).

Cyra I think Mike is right the host plant did not budge an inch yet but DSP appears to be growing longer each day. I was panicking when I was left with 2 inches DSP only that I chopped down one of my failed graft till white blood starts coming out and attached the DSP before it dried out. So in haste, I have grafted a DSP on one of the branches of a 9 feet tall Hausten White.

By the way, I used the Hausten white because it seems to me that it is a better host plant, in my opinion.

Thanks Gigi, that's good to know. I'm still a couple of years away from my own attempts at grafting, but believe me, I'm taking notes ;) And there's no reason why I can't get some practice, before then. (Now, -if I only had a few plumeria that I didn't especially care for!)

Cyra, the hardest part for me is experimenting on my favorite plumeria. I have 10+ new plumerias I purchased late last year and I have not seen their blooms yet. I mostly experiment on My Hausten white because it gives me 4 to 5 branches after each blooms and the ones I grafted are from the ones that have 3 or more branches. I cut it long enough that if my experiment fails I can still root them. And I also leave enough length on the other plant that wherever I cut off, it has enough length to give out new branches. The way, I see it I'm giving it more chances to branch out.

Good thinking!