I have inflo on the 20 yr old tree I have! Finally, I get to see what color it is! I have been watching it and all my others daily like a hawk! But this tree is so tall, the sight of it sprouting must have gotten by me! Yippee!!!

Holy, moley, 20 years wait!!!!!!!!! I sure hope the flowers are drop-dead, gorgeous, and I am sure they will be. I am excited to just see what they turn out to be. How tall is this tree now?

Hetty, what variety takes 20 years to bloom?

It bloomed for me once. Then a freeze took it and one other tree. One died and one lived, this one. but IDK which it is?? It might be yellow or it might be pink or it might be neither because my memory is fading? I took the frozen tree out of the ground when the regrowth was 4". The base must be easily 8" across. It is now about 9-10 feet tall in a pot with 3 "trees" sprouting from the base. ONly the tallest has branched out.

Last week I thought about getting a bigger pot. Maybe I was bonsai-ing the poor thing?? But wondered how I would move such a monster as the pot she is in now is rather large. The past few years have been crazy with illness issues and I missed quite a few feedings. This year, I was on top of it and they get regular feedings of Super Bloom weekly-10 days. That probably did the trick, that and moving it to yet anoter place to get more sun. Notice my screen name? A good sunny place is hard to find around here. But I found a good spot on the driveway, not quite out of the way, sticking out in the middle of things so that we have to drive around the trees. But it's worth it!

Eight inches in diameter! I thought mine were big at 4-5" in diameter.

Cheryl, you probably already know what I do with all my plumeria, so I won't repeat it here. But IF I had such a huge tree, I would be taking cuttings here and there and rooting those cuttings. You are not only insuring that you will have plants if something were to happen to the "Mother" plant but also relieving some of the stresses associated with growing such a huge plant in a pot.

Hetty is much more expert than I, so hopefully she will give you some direction.

Congratulations on finally seeing blooms, Cheryl!
I would do as Ken says (after it is done blooming) and root a few cuttings.
Can you show a picture of the whole tree some time?

But only the base it huge. It is a if it were cut back to the ground and allowed to grow again, which is what happened when it froze back completely. the 4" diameter part died and another 3 shot out from it. The largest is about 4" diameter and 9' tall. The other two about 4 feet tall and the 9 foot tall one with the inflo. I feel lucky it did not die when it froze back. But it sure took it's sweet time coming back! I guess it was hungry? I wish I could live in a climate where they live happily in the ground. But I won't take that chance again. We have rare hard freezes, but I would only worry if they were in the ground. There is a lady up the way that has 3 trees that always bloom profusely. They are in pots, too. She digs a hole and puts her pots into the ground. I know she has help with that (I don't)but I figured she does something right! I watch hers and take mine in when she takes her's in. Next winter I will have a nice bright greenhouse for mine.

None of my plumeria grow like that - tall "trunk" and then a top. The bases of my three original plumeria, 'Celadine', 'Scott Pratt', and 'Vera Cruz Rose' are much thicker than those you show. I have a feeling that at 25 years old, mine are way older.

I wouldn't look at my tree and compare to yours, Ken @drdawg. It is a survivor, yes, but odd in the way it did it, I think? 8-10 years or so when it froze back to the ground, it was 4" in diameter. It died back and tried again then died back again in a hard winter. That is when I dug it up. The old base has it's second attempt at life that died. Who knows how large it might have been had it not started over. I still think it started over in an odd way, three separate shoots off the old base so in essence, I think it's a young tree, maybe 10 years old off a 20 year old base.

Hetty, please show me where the tree should be cut back later. Truth be told. I don't want to cut it back. I would love to see it bloom and bloom and bloom. But if it will help it live in a pot then I will.

Have you considered planting it in the ground, then digging them up during their dormancy in the winter and storing them in a frost free area? People in the Houston, Texas area do this each year with sometimes as many as several hundred Plumeria trees.

That is an unusual form - three trees from a single base. Thanks for the updated picture. Maybe I should cut one of my three huge bases off at the ground and see if I get multiple trees from that single base. But if I killed my 25+ old tree, I would be sick. I might just do it with the 'Celadine'. It is such a vigorous grower, it might just survive that experiment.

Hetty, have you ever seen someone actually saw a plumeria tree down near the ground and have it come back with multiple trunks?

Cheryl, what Hetty told you is what I do every single year, but as I said, that info. had been posted (probably several times) and I did not want to repeat myself again. You can also dig holes the same size as your largest pots, and put those pots in the ground. That does help maintain more constant moisture and keep the root ball cooler.

I thought about putting it back into the ground while it was small. There is no place I can plant it now. Where there used to be Sun it's now all shade as the they have grown. The driveway is about the only sunny spot left in the yard. I have 6 trees 4 ft and taller, and two small ones. All in pots. I think for now, this is the only way I can have Pluneria.. If I need to, I will get one of those super gigantic permanent pots. Then dig then up each year, or at least when we have a cold winter. Would that work better? btw, Iam having the same placement/potting issue with a Giant BOP. She's doing well in a pot for now, actually she's gorgeous. But she'll need another home eventually. I have to learn to say no to certain plants that, or forget about using the driveway!

Move the driveway so that it is under your tree canopy. Then tear out the driveway and make it a raised bed.

Hi Cheryl! We are almost neighbors as we live in Clear Lake! We do not keep many plants in pots as they stunt the growth of the plants and it is hard to keep that many watered. We dug up most of our plants, but we had around 40 that were too big this winter when the freezes started coming...so we cut them completely up as a way of saving them and we are really glad we did.
Basically what we did...using yours as an example, is we would cut the top 4 branches off where they branch out giving you very nice cuttings (there are plenty of writings on the specifics of doing this properly). Then we would cut the "Mid-section trunk into 3 ft chunks, leaving 4-6 inches of the root ball sticking out of the ground. Out of the 40 we cut up, we only have 2 that didn't re-grow..and the trunks on all of these were totally frozen....oozing a black goo out of them..and they are growing new growth.
I am not advocating you cut your plants completely up...I am just sharing because we have never tried to root some of the things we have now, successfully rooted. We took some cuttings that were 6ft tall with 4 main branches. We have rooted the mid-section trunks, and the root balls are now generating what will be plumeria shrubs. Our main plant was 10ft tall and 14ft wide and the root ball on it has 12 main branches and is growing out of control.

I am making a post to show some of this..It has been a VERY time consuming project! lol

Hi Neighbor Terrinj!! You've heard my story. I have no where in my yard that is sunny enough for a plumeria among others plants that I love. But that didn't stop me from trying. Happy to say I have info on the old mystery NOID. And today I discovered inflo on my Riviera Rainbow that has been through some drama. Two of it's branches broke off and are currently in pots.

Currently I have 6 very large plants in very large pots and a smattering of <4ft ones that join them. The plumeria and BOP are the only ones on the driveway requiring full sun. I have a hose connection with the water spitgot on and always ready for me to give them a nice soak and spray from overhead. So far, that hasn't interrupted my lifestyle. But then I only have 12 or so pots that need that attention. And with the summer rains we've been having, it's been great and the plants are loving it! In fact, we're getting thunder and a very good downpour as we speak.

I will think about cutting down my NOID into pieces. But so far I have been able to winter it over nicely and it seems healthy. But if you and Hetty think it is struggling in a pot, and it absolutely requires cutting back, I will think about it more. I am just going to need Prozac to do it a that process scares me to death! I think the roots won't be any smaller from cutting it back, in fact the rot ball might even grow more. I guess you might be talking about doing this in dormancy.

ShadyGreenThumb said: I wouldn't look at my tree and compare to yours, Ken @drdawg. It is a survivor, yes, but odd in the way it did it, I think? 8-10 years or so when it froze back to the ground, it was 4" in diameter. It died back and tried again then died back again in a hard winter. That is when I dug it up. The old base has it's second attempt at life that died. Who knows how large it might have been had it not started over. I still think it started over in an odd way, three separate shoots off the old base so in essence, I think it's a young tree, maybe 10 years old off a 20 year old base.

I have a nebels rainbow stump Thats about 6 years old, I also have two shoots that have grown of this old stump!!