Mike, the seedpods will mature in late spring, as a rule. The trees set seeds in late summer, and then they mature just before the rainy season starts. Mother Nature has that all figured out.
Having a white or variegated looking seedling does happen.... it will probably color up later on, though.

I'll send you some seeds when you are ready for some more.

Hello to all! Since I have taken indoors my Plumeria, I decided today to see if this little one had any roots at all. It sent out flowers, but was struggling with the leaves...so taking it out of its soil to see what is down there..

The whole plant as it looks right now:


Close-up of the struggling leaves:



And down there, no roots...stem feels firm, though a little wrinkled..


So I have returned it back to its pot..I hope it comes back much better next time

I really have a tough learning curve with this one!

It was probably busy making those flowers, instead of roots. I don't recommend leaving inflos on cuttings you're trying to root, but it's tempting, of course.

Hi there Hetty! So you mean next time, I should chop off those inflo buds if the leaves are yet to come out? Hmmm...another note to remember...but I just wanted to see how pretty the flowers were heheheh! OK, I will bear that in mind..hard it may be....

yeah.... it's a hard thing to do!

I had forgotten I was going to take pictures of plumeria trees (Flor de Mayo) around town but I did get one on my cell phone. I took this in the last couple weeks and it has quite a few blooms for this time of year. You can see from the door in the picture that these are about 20' tall.



Since they are native to this part of the world I can tell you a little about their natural weather. The rains stop almost entirely around the middle of November and there is little to no rain until early June. The months of April and May are very, very hot and quite humid. It's the hottest time of the year for us. No rain though, just hot and humid. The rains start sometime in June and the temps are cooler as it generally rains in the late afternoon or night. It's a wonderful time of year, heavy scented evenings but cool enough to be pleasant - at least for those of us adjusted to the tropics

The name for plumeria in spanish is Flor de Mayo which means flower of may, that tells you that the most prolific blooming is in that hot, dry but humid time of the year after a long period of drought. The native white with yellow centers type does bloom all year but sparsely. All types of flor de mayo bloom very heavily in April and May, the trees are a mass of blooms and the scent is heavenly. Most of them drop a lot of leaves in the dry winter, they don't go entirely bare but they are not as lush as in the rainy season.

To duplicate this in the north where they go completely dormant, I'd repot them in the spring but water sparingly to give them the slight moisture of the heavy humidity but not the drenching of the rainy season.

Hope this is useful info,

That is extremely useful. As a matter of fact, I would love it if you would copy that into the database.
I thought our climates were similar (here it also doesn't rain from November till May/June) but our hottest months come in July and August which can be miserable with the constant daily rain and heavy humidity.
Your native white is a 'Plumeria obtusa' type, and possibly you could have Plumeria alba there, recognizable by its very distinctive leaves. I need to download a picture into the database, as a matter of fact.
Thanks for posting this!

That could very well explain why mine has decided to bloom now, in the Fall.
Last Fall I let them go semi-dormant...hardly any water (Oct. - May)
Since my Canadian summer sun isn't hot enough for them I kept them in the greenhouse all summer. It kept them warmer at night since every night here in the summer is cool enough to need a sweater on. So they didn't get rained on and cold.

They think it's May in Mexico right now! in November LOL!

Some just bloom later than others. I have one that consistently only sets inflos at the end of the summer, whereas others will just pop up at the first warm day in April.

I was talking to a local friend and she reminded me that we do get the 'little rains' for a week or so in the winter, usually in Feb or March. So, perhaps that small watering starts them on the road to blooms?

Hetty, I don't know how to enter in the database. I'll look for it. I would love to see pictures of the ones with distinctive leaves, that might help me identify some of them here.

Look at Plumeria alba, and I'll put more in later.

Interesting leaves, they stay a bit furled like that? I'll look around for that type of leaf and take pictures if I find it. Thanks.

tarev said:Hello to all! Since I have taken indoors my Plumeria, I decided today to see if this little one had any roots at all. It sent out flowers, but was struggling with the leaves...so taking it out of its soil to see what is down there..

The whole plant as it looks right now:


Close-up of the struggling leaves:



And down there, no roots...stem feels firm, though a little wrinkled..


So I have returned it back to its pot..I hope it comes back much better next time

I really have a tough learning curve with this one!

Inspecting the current situation of this plumie cutting I have, it is not coming out good..have put it indoors this winter, not watering it, placed it in the warmest, sunniest part of the house, but it seems to be declining...here is her photo right now...Some parts of the plant seems to have softened...seems to be rotting...is there any hope for this one at all? or just ditch it to plumie heaven haaay!




Am feeling sad

Tarev, I'm sorry to say it's not looking good. Often when we leave the inflorescence on a cutting it gets too busy making those flowers bloom and neglects to make roots. It is a trade-off. The only thing I can recommend now is to take a pin and stick it in the center of the stick to see if white latex flows. If not - I think you're looking at a goner....

Hi Hetty, I stuck a pin on the lower end of the stem..just a tiny speck of white not really flowing. The Y part of the stem, really has nothing, and half part really so soft. The upper part of the stem is not so soft yet..I will try to chop off the really softened part and see...

I have this other cutting, which I got from my aunt this New Year..have wrapped it in newspaper and hidden it in a box, and is showing some inflorescence, but as always no roots...okay, this time around, I will chop off the flowering part and wait for the roots...third attempt hopefully a charm! fingers crossed!!

Well, white sap is good. If it is rotting usually the sap is black or clear.
Take off that inflo and give it some more time....

Alas...I have cut the bad one, and it so deeply rotten..I am only left with a 2-inch and 3-inch part that still has some white ooze coming out. Will that even recover and grow?

The other one I got from my aunt, I have removed the inflorescence and you can really see the white ooze gushing..one really sturdy happy cutting hope rekindled that this one will be better.

Trial and error, live and learn for me

It's called 'plumeria lessons'. We've all had to pay for them.
The two and three inch pieces may survivem they often surprise us. It is important that you let the cuttings callous though before sticking them in the rooting medium. I would say, a week.

Hi Hetty, my two very short plumies have toughned up nicely, at least feels rock hard and not mushy, and nicely calloused. Is it okay to stick them in pure perlite, I run out of cactus soil, have been potting up other new seedlings yesterday.

pure perlite is fine, and warm!!