Congratulations! It's a beautiful flower!
Your pictures look almost like paintings. Very cool!

Those are very pretty flowers. Half day sun is fine to get blooms. In fact, sometimes full all day sun is a bit much and the flowers fade quickly.

Your plumie looks very healthy!

Tony

Thank you both for your kind words! Tony, I'm encouraged to hear that half day sun as been enough for your plants. The sun is indeed intense here, as it is in your and Sunseeker's neck of the woods. In fact, I'd read so much about overwatering that I held back too much, and eventually realized that my poor plants were stressed from baking in the afternoon sun without enough water to sustain them through the heat of the day. They became much happier when I started watering more frequently, especially with our drought conditions. Just goes to show, every growing situation is unique.

Greg

Greg- If you get some worm castings and spread it around your plants and water into the soil, after a week or so the white flies will stop showing up because they hate the taste of worm castings. Works on hibiscus too. Bill

Greg, those are lovely! Do they really smell like jasmine? The petals look nice and thick. You're so lucky to have gotten to go to Florida Colors in person and pick out what you wanted. What else did you choose? Any trees there you thought were real stand-outs? (for those of us who have to pick our plants by photo only)

Jen

Hi Bill and Jen:

Bill, I would be tempted to respond, "yeah but..." because not just my plants but every single plant between here and Orlando has about six million of these suckers on it. You should see the condo's landscaping--palms, ornamentals, trees--everything is covered in nasty white specks and sticky goo. Same at my friends' place five miles down the coast. But I think you're saying the castings are not a repellant so much as a kind of "nature's systemic". Either way, I have nothing to lose--I'll give it a go. Thanks.

Jen, yeah, it was neat to go down there. The property is beautiful--just tons of trees in flower--in a corner of Dade Co. called the Redlands that is rural and agricultural. Anyway, these are the cultivars that I bought at that time:
Aimhorn
Nebel's Rainbow
Donna S
To answer your questions: I don't really get jasmine from Aimhorn--to me it's more like a rose...but then again, I've been told that I have a "weird" sense of smell LOL that may be true--anyway, take it for what it is. Regardless, it's a stunning flower, and my pics don't really even do it justice: the banding on the underside is just gorgeous, IMHO.
As for standouts/why I chose the ones I did, it's hard to say. I do remember thinking, how the heck will I choose, they're all amazing. Also, at that time I was very new to plumeria and my criteria for choosing would probably be very different now.
Take "Donna S" for instance: it is a beautiful flower, smells great, it was in bloom when I brought it home (no sign of inflos this year yet, however). It seemed perfect to me then because it is a "compact low grower." But when one grows in pots, those horizontal-extending branches take up a ton of square patio feet! Not that I'm NOT recommending this fabulous tree, it's just that for someone like me, who is destined to own far too many plumies for their limited space to accommodate, a tree with horizontal branching can be a problem now and then, especially if you're clumsy like me...anyway, now I don't worry so much about acquiring "compact" cultivars. I just get what speaks to me.
As for "Nebel's Rainbow," I love this flower, but I wouldn't recommend it because what you hear about it is true--it's black-tip central. It took months to finally catch growth this spring and me being a newbie pruned the black tip perhaps(?) too aggressively. Now it's ok, has a growth tip but the plant looks atrocious, pretty much. I notice that FL Colors took it off their master list...maybe they've got black tip too.
The other standouts that I remember from the trip:
Suzanne St Amour (uh oh, ANOTHER horizontal brancher LOL but those speckled petals are fabulous)
Magnum Opus (bigger is better)
Rosa Elegante (the name says it all)
Gladys O'Neal (those blooms are really big, can't really tell from pic)
Gold Coast Cotton Candy (the visual effect of the rainbow pastels is stunning)
Tahitian Sunset (that orange eye is the kicker)

Not that the others aren't great too. All depends what you like in a flower, but that's my short list for when I return. Sorry I'm so long-winded, hope that is some help! Happy shopping, Jen.

Greg

Greg, I always appreciate a detailed response--thank you! The last plants I ordered from Florida Colors were J105 and Leona Hoke. I asked Carol which she would choose between Leona and Lava Flow and she didn't hesitate to say Leona because the tree was so gorgeous. Info like that is important when you're accumulating a lot of plants!

I hear Intense Rainbow is also black-tip prone, so maybe best for anyone north of, say, CUBA, to stay away from any variety with "Rainbow" in the name, LOL. My Singapore is forever riddled with black-tip, too, and has never bloomed for me for the same reason as I cut so much back on it, but the foliage is at least beautiful and glossy and it takes our Texas heat really well.

Jen, I bought Leona Hoke from Florida Colors too!
When I read that the original tree was from near Waikiki Beach (but apparently removed by the new homeowner), and saw the colors in the picture, I was sold (Waikiki Beach has a special meaning to me)! I hope the plant gives me an inflo this season!
I'm pretty happy with the 3 plants I bought from FC, even though I was a little surprised that the Butterfly Gold wasn't a graft (I thought all their plants are grafted).

Not too encouraged to hear that Intense Rainbow is prone to black tips (I have one too!). I'll put it in my greenhouse comes this winter!

Haha, Sunseeker, it sounds like we have the same taste in plumies--I also have Intense Rainbow! That's at least three we both have, with hot, hot colors. If you say you also have Makaha Sunn I'll really have a good laugh.

I'm keeping IR in the house over winter; I read about all the black tips after buying it. Live and learn.

Can you imagine having a plumeria tree with flowers like Leona Hoke and deciding, "Nah, I'd rather chop it down."?! Some people are oblivious to beauty around them, I guess. Anyway, as with Maui Sweetheart, I promise to post pics if mine blooms first.

Well, you ARE going to laugh, because I have been looking for a Makaha Sunn! I've been trying to contact a person in this area, who I was told might have it, but haven't been able to talk to him in person :-(
I saw it on eBay too, but would rather not go into a bidding war.

Jen and Sunseeker..i also have been looking for Makaha Sunn...I have been interested in this beauty since i read about it in Bud's Brochure on his named trees....great story behind this beauty...

I might have a lead...

if it works out ill let you know...

Laura in VB

I liked the story in Bud's book too... and I could kick myself for not driving up the west coast of the island where he saw that tree... (I only got Bud's book after I've left Oahu! And that was too bad, because if I had it before getting there, I could have used a few of his useful tips :-)

Jandey and sunseeker- I have had several intense rainbows and one that went through a major freeze in 07 and I have not noticed any problems with black tip on any of them. I do have a small Makaha Sunn that has an inflo (exciting-can't wait) as I have not seen the flower in person.

Well, don't we all have great taste?! If you find a Makaha as a cutting you might consider sending it straight away to Florida Colors to be grafted. They are VERY hard to root! I've only ever seen rooted through 1-stop-aloha. I don't know why they're so scarce, but there seem to be more nurseries in California with plants than elsewhere from what I've read.

Bill, that's very encouraging about Intense Rainbow--thanks! Here's a photo of the beautiful inflo I had on my unrooted Makaha cutting that I eventually got grafted:

I was THISCLOSE to seeing blooms! With those colors I can totally see why it was named "Inferno" by some. Of course, the inflo came off during the grafting process, so I still have never seen flowers. Can't wait to see your photos, Bill!

Jen,

LOL....its being grafted as we speak....great minds!!!

Ill let you know when i receive it...

Also, if the person that sold me this cutting wants to sell anymore..i will pass along the info... i need to ask her permission first, of course...but i will definately let you all know...

Im so excited...

Gift to myself...LOL!!!

Laura in VB

Jandey- I did root my MS. One thing is that if a rooting cutting puts out an inflo without any leaves I always break it off because it takes the energy away from root production and usually prevents rooting. As long as leaves are growing I have left the inflo but if the leaves stall in growth I break it off. Bill

Wow... it would be torture to me if I owned a Makaha Sunn branch with an inflo and had to break it off!!

Laura, any lead would be appreciated very much! I finally got to talk to the person who I was told might have a M.S. but he doesn't have one :-(