Hi everyone! I wanted to tell my story and give an update on my plants at one year. Like most of you, I was seduced by the possibility of having such an exotic addition to the deck. I started with 4 scrawny no-name plumeria that I bought off ebay, and eventually owned 15 plants that required an indoor home at the end of September.

Bottom line for all of you just starting out this summer - I live in one of the coldest and snowiest parts of the country, I bought 15 plumeria last summer, put most of them in a dark basement over the winter, essentially forgot about them for five months, and all but two survived (and the ones that died weren't all that healthy to begin with).

I had a blast reading everything I could find about plumeria (and the other tropicals I acquired (see posts on other forums)), spent hours trying out different fertilizers and recording growth and leaf sprout, and didn't actually see a flower until this week when my first bloom opened. I have high hopes for the rest of them flowering, but if not that's OK. They actually look like "little palm trees" (my wife's words), so really do add a tropical flavor to your outdoors.

Here's my care and feeding plan while they are outside: I planted them all in a mix of commercial potting soil (mostly Miracle Gro) and perlite. I always intended to try some of the specialty mixes described in the forum, but couldn't ever find the ingredients (and still don't know what CHC is :)). I water them a couple of times per week - I use a mix of the "finger in the soil" technique, cheap moisture meter, and how heavy the pot is, to determine when to water. I'm also pretty fertilizer-happy, mostly because it's fun and it feels like you're doing something. I feed them with Peter's 10-50-10 soluble fertilizer and Superthrive weekly, and spray Bill's Perfect Mix every 10-14 days. Does it make any difference? Who knows, but it sure is fun. I also spray a fungicide/insecticide every couple of weeks.

So what about the plants? My first purchase was off ebay, and they were (and are) skinny, misshapened, but kind of "so ugly they're cute". I don't know what color the flowers will be, and I plan to give a couple of these away. Here are a couple of them:

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Next, I made a great decision - ordering from Maui Plumeria Gardens and Flordia Colors. The MPG plants were in great condition, and the extra mystery cutting she threw in I think is a Singapore (it was evergreen and had the characteristic leaf shape I've seen in pictures - no flowers to confirm yet). I bought the rooted cutting sampler pack for $90. Here are some pictures (you can search my old posts from last summer for comparison):

EWC #3

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Puu Kahea

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Carmen

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Mystery (I think it may be a Singapore, but not sure)

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The Florida Colors plants were also excellent quality. In fact, the grafted Polynesian Sunset has provided my only flowers so far.

Aztec Gold

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Jeannie Moragne

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Polynesian Sunset

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I bought two Celedine from Exotic Plumeria, and they both died of the dreaded fungal rot. Almost certainly my fault, but not sure what I did. I actually met Alan at his store last fall (we were visiting Tampa), and he's a nice guy.

Finally, I bought a Singapore off ebay that is extremely poor quality, and a Princess Victoria that seems pretty healthy (except for the odd orange spongy part on the trunk I posted about earlier).

Singapore

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PV

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What have I learned? Well, mostly that tropical plants are a hell of a lot of fun, and will amaze your friends and family. If I had any advice (and please consider the source), it would be to avoid ebay unless you ask around about the seller beforehand. MPG and FC are definitely more expensive, but the quality shows. Also, don't get too wrapped up in buying the right tools, soil, fertilizer, meters, etc. The fun is in experimenting. I've written a couple of other posts about my citrus and tropical plants, and came to the same conclusion with all of them.

Thanks for reading. I made this long because last summer I would have devoured a post like this, and was always looking for reassurance that these sticks weren't going to die.