Hi Karen. Sorry but I have not been doing much with my plumies lately so I have been working on a surfing blog with my wife. I am healing up and almost ready to get back in the water. Many of my plants are still leafed out and have not gone dormant and several are still flowering or trying to flower. I have to do some root pruning next month on some of my larger pots and I have several that I need to pot up in size so next month I need to get busy. I have not had the cold that you have in the valley and with the Santa Anas, my plants have stayed much warmer this year. My white with red stripe still has several dozen inflos and over a hundred smaller flowers. Thanks for your concern. I usually get back into the plants in late Feb to early march when I start pruning, making cuttings, starting feeding programs, etc. Take care. Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: our surf blog.

Hi Bill,
glad you are doing well. Great website, I run two, and yours is a winner. yes, way too cold. All I can say have to see how strong plumeria is..wether they will make it and do well in spring and summer, and will they flower.

I have a lot of tip damage, some in full leaf too. Red white, have some black tip damage, cut off the infos to give strength to the plant.. Most of my canned ones are on the patio, covered at night, ones in the ground like Celedine are in the rains and cold temps..cannot protect, 5 in the ground, Celidine and daisy so far are ok.. others are questionable.

Karen B.

Great website Bill, and I'm not even into surfing, lol! Seriously, it is set up nicely and is interesting. Don't know what your 'healing' is about, but I hope you will be 100% soon.

Karen, what are your websites about?

Eloise

Bill Im new to this forum.. had to ask HOW BIG is your tree with several dozen inflos and hundreds of smaller flowers ???? Love to see a picture of it if you have one to post !!! Happy growing with your warmer winter !!

Visited your surf web site, you and your wife have done an EXCELLENT job !! My condolences to friends of and to Waynes family... brought tears to my eyes looking at the pictures of the celebration of his life and the final tribute. Heart warming.

Cali

Cali- Since I posted we have had a major rainstorm come through with heavy winds and rain. which removed quite a few flowers and leaves. I went out in the rain with an umbrella and took a picture which shows some of the inflos on the backside of the plant and I took a picture of two of the average inflos so you can see the size of the flowers (about half size). At least you can see that this plant is doing well for the 23rd of January. Bill
Eloise- I had surgery in late Nov. for prostate cancer and so far all is going great. bill
{{gwi:1148880}}

{{gwi:1148882}}

Hi Eloise,
I am an artist.. I paint on canvas, acrylics on paper and am a officer in an Art Association. I have built and maintain a website for my art club, monthly activities, art shows and publicity for Burbank Art Association, I am also on ebay for 8 years..sell under elbe4, paint roosters, one of a kind breadboxes, nostalgia, etc.. My sis and I for 13 years did Arts and Crafts shows, festivals, indoor and outdoor, were called Country Sisters. So have a site for that..on country sisters site is a link to my auctions on ebay.
http://www.countrysisters.homestead.com/index.html

thanks for asking.
Karen B.

Oh my gosh Bill ........ "I went out in the rain with an umbrella and took a picture" ... that was sooo kind of you !! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!! That is a TREE Bill !!!! It's HUGE... did you plant it or did it come with the house ?? Beautiful blooms I bet it smells heavenly in your front yard.How long have you grown plumeria ??

We had that same weather front move thru here yesterday and last nite it's headed north. Another hitting here right now. Have snow at the base of the foot hills I've never seen so much snow on the mountains surrounding our valley !!
In my thoughts for a continued speedy recovery... do you surf as well ??

Cali

Bill, good to hear you are on the mend. Medical science sure has come a long way, and that's good! What a great plumie.

How exciting Karen! It's great to have a sister nearby where you can do stuff together. Your website is very nicely put together. I didn't go into ebay though. I used to do acrylics on canvas in several art classes I took at LAVC and in Burbank through one of the parks many years ago, but I didn't continue. Too bad because I really enjoyed myself and it was such a great way for me to relax.

Man, it's cold outside and wet!

Cali- It is a small tree. I raised it in a pot for a few years and then made the planter and planted it about '96 or '97. I have loved and had plumerias for several decades but I really started collecting and growing them seriously over the last decade. I have about thirty in the ground from 4-9' tall.
{{gwi:1148883}}

I have about 50 more in large pots ranging from 3-8' tall.
{{gwi:1148884}}

There are over a hundred young plants (this 40 are some of my best varieties)
{{gwi:1148885}}

And about 40 seedlings from a Cindy Moragne
{{gwi:1148886}}
{{gwi:1148887}}
Thus you can see Cali, that the eventual problem of collecting plumies is that those several hundred sticks will become bushes and then trees in a decade. Since each plant was a delightful acquisition, weeding them out for space is like giving up one of your children or pets. I do not have a huge collection but at about 130 varieties it has been fun seeing what the flowers are like and deciding what I like best. I still have about 50 that have not yet flowered so I look forward to the surprise of a new or unique flower. This year I am hoping will be an outstanding flowering year- so we will see. Bill

Hi Bill,
Did you get any damage tonight from the wild rains, winds and storms? Beach area was scary tonight..tornado warnings. hope you was away from that area.

In all the years I have lived in So. Ca.. have never seen tornado warnings like that come accoss the screen..those in trailors evacuate, vehicles evacuate..get inside. That was scary.
Karen B.

Wow Bill, that's a whole lot of plumies you have! Are you planning on going into business, or is it just your love of plumeria that's made you such a huge collector?

Hi Karen and Cali, hope both of you are staying dry. Isn't this weather something? I love rain, but this ongoing raining is keeping me from doing some things.

Yes Bill, we are all now sufficiently jealous that you have inflos and flowers in January! Haha! Good for you and glad your healing is coming along. I still have about 5 plants with green leaves in my little garage greenhouse experiment, but having some trouble with bulbs burning out from the long hours. After we get through Feb. and it starts to warm up a bit again I may pot some other plants to put under the lights as you suggested.

Karen B., beautiful work, but how can you resist painting plumies??? LOL!

eloise- I am not creating a business, in fact I can hardly manage what I have now. I am just a guy who suffers from "wow, that is a beauty! I do not have one of those. Maybe I should get just one more....." In reality, I wish I had an acre or two and could get together with (James?) Freak-4-plumerias who really has a monster collection (once 450 cultivars) with some of my wish list like golden pagoda and shear beauty and we could plant Plumieland, a park where you could see all the spectacular flowers together in on place. unfortunately people would have to walk in caged in walkways so they wouldn't break off all the branches and steal cuttings- a sad comment on plumeria collectors. Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: great flowers by Freak-4-plumerias

Hi Kevphol.
I have never painted any plumies. I do love to paint florals..Have won some ribbons in gallery shows with them. I should paint plumeria.. perhaps this summer..good idea. Seems I get caught up in painting roosters and sunflowers, what sells for me one ebay.

Way tooo much rain, lot of flooding of streets around me, tree down around the corner..3rd storm coming in.
Karen B.

Hi Bill - your plumie patch looks wonderful.

Karen - I love the rooster paintings. When I get my chicken coop going, I will have to place my order with you for a roo painting.
Kasie

Hi Bill, I understand how you can easily accumulate such a large collection of plumies (or whatever one is interested in)! And yes, that's usually the way it goes, "wow, that is a beauty! I do not have one of those. Maybe I should get just one more.....", LOL! I've always loved plants and my kids used to say, "every time we go somewhere mom always says, wait, let me just look at this plant".

For the past two years I have not had as much time to look after my garden the way it should be, and I am going to put my house for sale either March or April, so I really shouldn't be accumulating more plants. Well, o.k. just a few more plants. Went to WorldWide Exotics yesterday and ended up with six plants, no plumies there though!

Karen, I used to have an Americauna (sp) rooster named 'Rocky' but had to give him up because of new neighbors. I have this picture of a hen on my kitchen wall and just love it!

Hi eloise,

I love your rooster..I can see him on my wall. bummer on having to get rid of yours.
Here is a example of what I paint. I just sold this hardwood breadbox on ebay. My hubby totally re-conditions them and then gives them to me to paint..I like these, was pleased with them.
{{gwi:1148889}}
Karen B.

Hi Bill !! Thank you for all the pictures of your beautiful plumeria !! I checked out Freak 4 plumeria's page oh my !! If you 2 got together and made Plumerialand... I'd buy a ticket I'd buy several lol !!

Your yards look just super and all the plumeria... I do believe you have a green thumb. I noticed everything seemed to be out in the middle of the sunshine. The sun here is just too harsh, I have to use shade cloth or end up with sunburned leaves. I'm in the San Joaquin Valley and the heat is just blistering my way. I wish I had some of that heat today... well for the past 2-3 months !! We have froze more here since Nov than I can ever remember in years past. It's FEB now, so hopefully this frost/freezing weather will move on and we can get on with SPRING !!!

Do you use any special feeding program or particular fertilizers on your bunch ?? Ive spoke with Jack at Kimi's Plumeria and gotten a Liquinox program initiated... this year I promise to be more diligent. I want healthy plants AND blooms and blooms and blooms !!! Was it you that said you had no duplicates ??

Take care and thank you again for your pictures.

Cali

Cali-That was "freak" who had no duplicates. I keep a few back-ups for my hedges but try to pass on my duplicates. I still have many whites and seedlings which will soon go to make room for the growing two year olds. Liquinox is a very good product. I am a bit lazy in my approach and just stocked up for March.
{{gwi:1148890}}

The promix is a professional quality growing mix that I mix with the white bags of pumice. I start with the sulpomag which is sulphur,potassium and magnesium and wakes up the plants. Two weeks later I spread a couple of ounces of Dr. Earth with a layer of Organic worm castings and water this. Six weeks later I will give the 6-20-20 every 6 weeks until September when I give the plants sulfur of potash to strengthen for winter. I throw in some foliar feedings of Spray N grow and add Seaweed extract when I water. I buy my products from Chris Roy at Orange County Farm Supply in Orange Cal. This is what works for me and I have happy, healthy plants. I used to give weekly water soluble feedings but this is about as effective and less labor and it is not so harsh on the soil microorganisms. I can tell you that your plants will respond really well to your liquinox as it is a superb product. I do not have injectors and I want to get away from the labor with so many plants so I use the pellets. Bill

hello, Bill, glad to hear that you are on the mend. it must be so nice to have blooms at this time of the year. it seems that there are alot of plumies which did not go dormant this year. Is that not unusual?
Laurie, that bread box is beautiful and you are so talented!!
sue

Sue- I think it is unusual to have so many plants that are still showing leaves and two still with flowers. Usually by now most of mine are stalks but only half are bare right now although most are now dropping some leaves. I also see a number of new inflos starting which is very early for me as usually my blooms come from June to October. Bill

Hi bill,
Most of my plants are in strong full leaf. Brought them back inside for night temps in the 30's, back out in 40's tonight

Should I cut them off to nubs??? and bring them inside for the rest of the winter. keep them in the house? this is new for me.

thanks on the breadbox, appreciate that.
Karen B

No Karen- You just need to get through Feb and you are fine. I would leave them alone and just bring them in if the temps are going to be very cold. They will drop leaves if they want and if not they will just keep on truckin'. Let the plant do its own thing. It knows what it needs. Remember to water lightly as long as you have leaves but not like you do in the heat. Just a cup every few weeks and only more if you have a Santa Ana day which draws out more water.
Less is more. The plant can do fine with only a little moisture to keep it from wrinkling the stem, Misting is fine. Remember, no mother henning. Bill

Hi Bill,
thanks, printed out, what I needed to know.
Karen B