Hi Everyone!
I'm new to this group and to plumarias for that matter. I was given a plumaria as a gift and has now become an obsession to learn more about them, and (to my wife's dismay) collect as many different species as possible! I'm getting ready to redo my flower bed / garden and wondered if anyone had any thoughts about how to blend plumarias into the rest of the garden. My wife is really hesitant because they "turn into sticks" during the winter months. Although here in southern California, we don't worry too much about temps dropping into the 40's for too long and am hoping to keep them in the garden all winter. I'm sure it's personal preference, but any ideas / photos would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Mike

P.S. My wife actually doesn't mind my new found obsession. She says there are worse things I could be interested in!

Mike!

The best place for you to find answers to your Plumie questions is in the Plumeria forum where @Dutchlady1 (Hetty) is the moderator. She's our Plumie expert! And we have many other members who are plum crazy over plumies.
Here's a link:
http://garden.org/forums/view/...

I think it would be fine to just copy & paste your above post over there. Go on over & introduce yourself.

and Mike!

Welcome to ATP.

Good Morning Hetty and Dave, and thank you. I'm looking forward to learning from you "veterans"! I've seen several photo galleries of these beautiful flowers, but not many of them in gardens or flower beds as a whole, so I'm hoping that I can get some advice.

Thanks again.

Here is a photo of my only plumeria so far....and I'm not even sure of it's name!

I think you may have 'Elsie' - it's lovely!!

Elsie it is then!

Thank you, Hetty

I would call it 'Elsie?' - I would hesitate to positively identify it from just one bloom picture. Is it a compact variety? Where did you get it?

SoCalDawg with Hetty, your plumie is lovely!

Glad to have you on this forum, SoCalDawg. We may be related!

I have my plumeria not only in pots but also in the landscape from March until November. Unfortunately, they then have to be un-potted or dug up and are forced to go dormant. I store them all in large plastic bags in the house during the fall/winter months. You are so fortunate to be able to make them permanent landscape plants.

Hetty, the plumeria was given as a gift, so I'm not sure where it came from. On a different note...it seems, after reading many postings, that people "get" plants from other members. Are they swapping? Selling? I'm really interested in getting other varieties! And when people speak of "graftings"...is that a single plant created by two different plants together?

There is a sales and co-ops forum
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
and of course there are gppd vendors around the country.

A grafted plumeria is a cutting of a special variety grafted onto a (usually seedling) rootstock of a common but vigorous variety. You have less chance of losing the special one and it starts it off with a robust root system, which in a rooted cutting would take at least a year to develop. I am a great fan of grafted plumeria.