I have six I care for at work that are in an atrium with really good light and I've gotten some flowers several times, but not from every plant. They are very potbound in 8 or 10 inch hanging basket planters. I have no idea how long they've been there. They used to have bad mealy but I think I've finally gotten rid of it. They were trailing over a wall, and the client made me trim them back because she thought they "look like hair". So now the stems are probably too short to bloom. :( Hmm, on second thought, that lady doesn't work there any more, so maybe I'll just let them sneak over the wall again! :)

I am not a rose expert, but I think it is still way too hot right now. I think I wouldn't start any until late September or early October, if it were me. If you are going to start them inside, you probably could start them now and keep them inside for a few weeks to beat the heat. Keep in mind, too, that rooted cuttings will have very small roots intially and will be prone to freeze, so be prepared to protect them from freezing temps. You can root any roses you want, but only own-root roses will give you a plant that is identical to the mother plant. Hybrids are grafted on to hardier root stock, so while hybrids may root from cuttings, those cutting-grown roses probably will not be as hardy or grow as vigorously as the original hybrid plant from which the cuttings were taken. I have the best luck rooting cuttings of any kind when I use either a commercial rooting hormone or willow water I make myself by soaking willow stems in water. When I was a kid in the 1960s, my aunts and some of the 'old southern lady gardeners' that lived around us rooted roses a couple of different ways. One method they used was to take a cutting and place it in good, rich garden soil in a semi-shady location, like under a hydrangea or lilac or similar plant. They watered it in and then placed a Ball Mason canning jar over the cutting to protect it, twisting the jar back and forth in the soil to work it into the ground enough that it would not easily tip over. In a few weeks they had a rooted cutting that they could then transplant to wherever they wanted. A second method they told me about which was used by THEIR mothers and aunts was to take a large white potato and cut a deep slit about halfway into it. They then took the rose cutting, stuck it into a jar with willow water for a day or so to help stimulate rooting, and then placed the cutting into the slit cut in the potato. They then buried the potato in the ground, with the cutting sticking up out of the ground. Supposedly the potato helped keep the rooting moist as it rooted. I have not ever tried this method myself. Good luck. Keep us posted. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting Roses Info From Dr. William Welch

Hi Trunorth, yes there seems to be a few of us trying to to grow this beautiful plant here in in NorCal. I am in Novato, just north of San Francisco, and came back from a Hawaiian vacation at the end of June -arms loaded with cuttings - and have a small forest of plumeria 'sticks'. Almost all of them are slowly putting out leaves. But with the cool summer we are having here, I have little hope of getting blooms. Anyway, there are a couple of people here you may find helpful. Tdogdad (Bill) lives in SoCal but is a tremendous source of information and patience, which in my case is very helpful and Sunseeker53 must live up here somewhere and seems to be very successful at growing Plumeria. I personally, would not do anything with your plumeria until it goes dormant. It seems that most people in our zones (10, 10a, 10b) just stop watering the plants when they show signs of going dormant and either put them in the garage or somewhere protected and forget about them until they start to show signs of life. However, I am not the most knowledgeable of people here. Someone else may have better info for you, so I wouldn't do anything until I heard from someone who knows a lot more than me! I stumbled across this site several years ago when I got my first plumeria and it has been a wealth of information ever since! It is now my 'go-to' place for all of my gardening questions. Have a little patience and someone (much more knowledgable than me) will get back to you soon with a more definitive answer. Have fun! Les PS: I am in the same situation with my husband as you are with your BF. My husband just thinks it's hilarious that I am still trying to grow these plants, since I have yet to get a bloom! And yet we just went down to Armstrong nursery today to pick out a 6' tall Plumeria that he is buying for me (50% off! Even he couldn't pass that deal up!)

mgleason, Thanks for your response. Potting up when the roots poke out certainly makes good sense, otherwise the little guys would be vulnerable to damage. Putting the potted up plants on a shelf underneath the system won't work for my set up, but i can have them to the side where they will receive sporadic misting. michela, Yes, this is exciting. I thought 'Oklahoma' was fast--taking only 3 weeks to root, and then 'La Tosca' took only 17 days!! I have only one cutting per container so it's really easy to move them. When potting up I use a lightweight potting mix I make up of a commercial mix (one without added fertilizer) with pine bark fines and perlite added. mgleason seems to have the answer to your questions as they are much the same as mine. Laurel