Sometimes I go into my "experimental-mode" and just get an itch to try something differently. There no real reason to cut that "Mother" 'Celadine' off, other than to see what happens.

All my plumeria are potted but some of the larger ones have their pots in the ground, just so I don't have to water so frequently. I never let any of mine get over 5' though. That's because they all have to come in for their five-month dormancy and they are stored without light, soil, or moisture in large contractor bags. I take cuttings to control their height/width. Since I have my (tiny) tropical plant business, I sell those cuttings.

I have taken pictures of my three, 25+ year old "Mother" plants and a rooted cutting. The first pictures are of the 'Celadine', the second pictures are of the 'Scott Pratt', the third pictures are of the 'Vera Cruz Rose'. The final picture is of one of the rooted cuttings of the mother 'Celadine', and that's probably now a 10 year old plant. The can is a standard, 16 oz. size. You will see all the new growth on the stubs of where I took cuttings late last summer. When I potted these four plants up in the spring, they did not have a single branch/tip, just the "trunks". They all were of course rooted but the roots were completely dry and brittle after those five months of dormancy.

I have a Scott Pratt cutting, and geesh am I having a horrible time rooting it! My Vera Cruz rose lost all leaves in our Santa Anna winds and now it's taking forever to grow leaves!! But this is my celedine...

There you go. You can always depend on the "Queen" of the plumeria kingdom to come through. 'Scott Pratt' does take quite a while to root. The 'Vera Cruz Rose' should be just about as vigorous a grower as your 'Celadine' though.

Scott Pratt is one of the slowest to root.

All my 'Scott Pratt' plants are now rooting well and growing lots of leaves. They were approximately a full month behind the 'Celadine' and 'Vera Cruz Rose'.

Thanks Ken! good info. Don't know the Vera Cruz Rose...it sounds beautiful! I had a Scott Pratt about 8 years ago and couldn't make anything out of it. We had an Irma Bryan that was the best red grower we had and lost it to a fungus this winter..Deep deep burgundy crowns and almost as dark as our new Hilo. We do have crowns on our Nova Pink, Candy Stripe, and Hurricane that should be popping in a couple of weeks!

We have learned that most of our "exotics" are very sensitive to everything...cold, too much sun, too little sun..fungus (they are all very susceptible to fungus). What we are starting to believe is, plants that we get that are breed and raised in other climates do not readily adapt to the Texas weather to quickly..Hawaiin stuff is the worst (and yes, growing reds anywhere is tuff)...Kaneohe's and Puu Kahea's really struggle here. Our Babies that were breed here do the best, and our Sally..which leads me to believe she is also bred here in Texas. We have 20 new seedlings growing. 6 are 3 times the size of the others. 2 have VERY dark red trunks..I've never seen this before in a seedling. The seed pod came from one of our 2004 seedlings (yes we are Grandparents! haha) and had the following was blooming around her..Kaneohe Sunburst, Irma, and Hurricane!!! We can not wait to see what comes of these offspring...if we can get a deep red that is locally bred we will be ecstatic!! Strap on your seat belts for this one ! as we will know in just 3-4 years!

Terry

Terry, I am the novice here. I started with three tiny cuttings, purchased from a grower in Maui over 25 years ago. Back in those days, and I am guessing here (Hetty will know), there probably were not many hybrids available. Now there are probably 1000's! My three were the Celadine, Scott Pratt, and Vera Cruz Rose. The Scott Pratt was the very first plumeria to be recognized by the PSA and the Celadine is considered by many to be the Queen of the Plumeria world. She's been around forever. Again I am guessing here, but perhaps those older varieties are more resistant to all the stuff mentioned that either weaken the plants or kill them outright.

I showed you the actual three "Mother" plants. Here are their flowers:

So the bottom is the Vera Cruz?

Yes, the last picture. This photo was taken in bright sunlight, and that bright light washed out the blush of pink on the petals. That's why I use the picture showing that stripe on the underside of the petals.

The Celadine cutting I bought from you last year Ken is happily growing here. So thankful for that cutting..helped me understand a lot about rooting a cutting.

Thats amazing how close the colors are to my strain I call Sally...I think the petals are different somewhat in Vera seems to have more rounded tips and Sally looks to "pinwheel" the petal shape more. What do the leaves look like on your Vera? On my sally, the outside edges are pulled up creating a boat like effect. You can see it somewhat in the photo attached. We have around 12 plants from the orginal and they are all like that...you can tell them from the others from 20ft away!


Your Scott Pratt is also awesome!

Here's a pic of the Vera Cruz rose....

I love the red/colored inflo! It just adds to the beauty of the bouquet.

Thanks Mark...I can see there the inflo and tips are really red..much deeper than my Sally. Really a pretty Inflo!

Terry, the leaves on my Vera Cruz Rose are similar in shape, size, and color to my Celadine. The leaves on the Scott Pratt start out very burgundy-colored and though they lighten up as they grow, they are still much darker than the other two varieties.

We have 20 new seedlings growing. 6 are 3 times the size of the others. 2 have VERY dark red trunks..I've never seen this before in a seedling. The seed pod came from one of our 2004 seedlings (yes we are Grandparents! haha) and had the following was blooming around her..Kaneohe Sunburst, Irma, and Hurricane!!! We can not wait to see what comes of these offspring...if we can get a deep red that is locally bred we will be ecstatic!! Strap on your seat belts for this one ! as we will know in just 3-4 years!

Terry
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I'm bad at growing seedlings, my germination rate is quite high so I stopped growing them. I currently have 75+ or maybe more growing and I'm afraid to get rid of them, just in case one is the "special one" . Some are now over 2 years old. I kept some in small pots so they don't grow too big too fast. Especially if I have to wait 3 to 7 years.

Ken you have beautiful plumerias! If you've had plumerias for 25 years, you are not a novice. I got the plumeria fever almost 5 years ago. Before that, I was borderline obsessed with orchids and roses; but they are not as prolific bloomers as the plumerias.

My neighbor gave me my first plumeria (the trimark)...then they gave me my Hausten White...now I have 35 named varieties and some NOIDs. I love them all!


Mark your Veracruz is beautiful too.!

Gigi Plumeria: I'm bad at growing seedlings, my germination rate is quite high so I stopped growing them. I currently have 75+ or maybe more growing and I'm afraid to get rid of them, just in case one is the "special one" . Some are now over 2 years old. I kept some in small pots so they don't grow too big too fast. Especially if I have to wait 3 to 7 years.

You are exactly right in your fear of missing the "Special one". I am surprised at the caviler attitude most growers have towards seedlings and refer to them as "Common" whites...yellows etc...I have to agree, when ours first started blooming after growing and babying these things for 3-4years, they weren't anything special...they were just whites and yellows...some had some uniqueness and we had some that stuck out...but they weren't that much different than the parents. Over the growing cycles, their personalities started to emerge and after 7 years we started to find plants with really different blooms. Now that they are 10 years old...they are just like children..as different as snowflakes.

At the Plumeria Society sales I go to...it is very common for them to cut seedlings off at the base to graft a named variety...usually reds because they are hard to root. I have no idea what all they discard and they will never know what they are cutting off for another. We never noticed Kiya or Kealani before last year.

I am going to post pictures...so I'll start another thread so as not to hijack this one!

Terry I don't like cutting off the babies before they have a chance to have their own blooms!

haha,,,...thats why they get to be 8' tall