Newbie visiting Jungle Jacks this weekend

10 years ago

I just moved back to San Diego after living in Denver for almost 10 years. I fell in love with plumerias during my first visit to Hawaii. I never thought that I could actually grow my own plumeria plant until I moved back and rented a house with this large plumeria tree out front and after driving around the neighborhood and seeing large trees in everyone's yard.

I started doing some research on plumerias and found this forum and discovered that I am not too far from Jungle Jack's so I'm planning a visit over the weekend. What are some JJ favorites? I think I'm looking mainly for more compact plants but won't rule out any larger ones. I'm planning on keeping them in containers until we buy a house out here.

I picked up two no name plants at home depot that appeared to be relatively small and each plant had over 7 tips that branched out pretty close together. I did see some JJs at Lowes but they didn't look too good and had only generic "premium rainbow" and "premium white" labels on them so I passed.

I also want to start experimenting with rooting cuttings and planting some seeds just to see what the process is actually like. I ordered some seeds earlier this week. Maybe I can go around the neighborhood and ask to purchase some cuttings. It's too bad that I don't care for the flower shape on the tree in front of the house or else I would ask the owners for permission to cut off a few branches that is blocking the front steps. From looking at the tree, it looks like several cuttings have been taken from the tree over the years.

I don't have too much experience with gardening. When I lived in Denver, I only lived in homes with strict HOAs where all the landscaping was done by the HOA and every flower planted in the ground had to approved so this left me to mainly planting basil and hatch chiles in containers on the balcony. I guess I'm itching to start gardening because this house has such beautiful beds all around the house.

Oh and I found that there will be a plumeria festival in Balboa Park over Labor Day weekend.

I appreciate any advice from the experts here. Sorry for the long post.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (11)

georgecc
10 years ago
Blooker,

Welcome back to Southern California.

California Sunset and Desert Sunrise are amazing plumeria at Jungle Jack's, but there are a lot of other beautiful ones there. Check out Tiger if he has one blooming, TBred Tracy is a big bloomer. Have a great time checking out the blooms and let us know what you end up liking best.
moonie_57 (8 NC)
10 years ago
Maybe you could call John and have him give you a tour with some suggestions on what to buy.

You are sooo very lucky! Please report back with your experiences and don't forget to take a camera, please. :)
Related Discussions
Wanna see my jungle? :-P
Q
Comments (47)
What a great 'jungle' you have going there, pitimpinai! It has grown a lot since the last time I saw photos. Some of my hostas are in too much sun too. I need to move them. I don't understand how your Annabelle Hydrangea is upright, mine has been on the ground since mid June. All that rain and not enough sun. That Hosta in front of it is huge! I have a lot growing in my front, but you have me beat by a mile. [g] I think our front yards might be the same size. I still have some grass. :-) Your clematis look wonderful and I love that 'Betty Corning'. I didn't know it was fragrant. About your roses....I almost ripped out mine last year, they were so bad. I cut them down to stubs in late June, just to get rid of the awful foliage while I was waiting for someone to dig them out for me. They came back looking pretty good for the rest of the summer, so I left them alone, even though they never bloomed. I was given some advice from a friend who also gardens organically, that she uses organic fertilizer and alfalfa meal in the spring and then after the first flush of bloom. So I did that and added my own compost to the mix and the roses did very well this year and I have an abundant rebloom going on right now, with very healthy foliage. I couldn't find alfalfa meal, so I got pellets. .... I think the trellis that you found at a plant swap are so pretty! Very delicate looking. Iris ensata, 'King Pete' are pretty and your feverfew are so cute. Do they get away from you at all? Well, what fun to take a tour! Your garden is as magical as I remember. You must be getting a lot of pleasure from it this year. :-)
...See More
Newbie with questions....
Q
Comments (24)
Ken, Sorry it took me so long to answer - I wasn't online for a few days - buried in canning. Hey you are pretty close. My hubby has an Aunt & Uncle in Boston - I think the section where they live is called Brookline but their printing business is in Boston. I hope you used a charge card with that web site that cheated you. You should call them and do a charge back so you could recover your money. What crooks!!!! LOL Nope, got my own woodchucks here. Those critters sure do eat a lot. Between him and the rabbits nesting in the yard we lost not only veges but flowers too. Bob planted a dozen sun flowers for me so I could see the birds eating the seeds from my deck. Well, the very next morning there were 11 gone, eaten to the height of about 1 inch. And the next morning he got the last one. We also have wild turkey, deer, fox, coyotes, and a resident red-tailed hawk. Never knew they were so big when they were soaring over head, but the morning I got up to see him sitting on my deck railing and watched him take off I got a birds-eye view of his size and a new respect for him. I love living in the woods. My nearest neighbor (over a mile away) has a goat farm and makes/sells goat cheese. They love animals too and in addition to the normal dogs and cats they have a pet donkey (Nester), a pony (Bailey), a white turkey (Humphrey) and 6 assorted chickens in the yard. I laugh when they go for Sunday walks down the dirt road and take Nester the Donkey on a leash. Actually it's more like Nester takes them. He loves to come to my house to visit. I'm sorry to hear that you have to take Cytoxan, it's an antineoplastic belonging to a group of drugs known as alkylating agents. It's in the class of medications referred to as immunosuppressants, medicines that work by decreasing your immune system's response to various diseases. That's a potent one. I hope that it works well for your situation & that you feel better. Not sure if you're taking it IV or by mouth, but if you take it in pill form be sure to take it after your tummy is full. Ken and other canners who may have an opinion - When you've fermented your pickles and are ready to put them in the frig do you strain out the spices and boil the brine or do you make new brine and replace the old, or do nothing? In mine it looks a tad bit cloudy and has Mrs.Wages spices, dill, and garlic floating around in it. I know it should be ok, I have well water that is not hard, I cut both ends of, used Mrs. Wages Pickling Salt, used whole spices that were just bought, the pickles were fresh picked and I've only used glass jars and plastic measuring items, no aluminum. There is no odor and they're not slimy so I'm pretty sure they are ok. Happy canning everyone :-) Cheryl
...See More
Jungle Jack plumeria plants found in Oklahoma
Q
Comments (58)
I've been good Mike, how are you? My plants are doing ok, i suppose. Marjorie, is still the only plumeria blooming. I expected to have something on Penang Peach by now. My brug leaves aren't liking the heat so much, but they are all still blooming. I've got a noid brug that is putting out another flush of about 20, in this heat! Yea, I didn't really see anything that wowed me at home depot, but i thought maybe someone else would. I don't have much overwintering space, so anything that i buy has to be special. I'm really tempted to try and find one of the JJ Thai Jades that Kenny had the picture of. I'm trying to resist the urge, just not very successfully.
...See More
Jungle Jack's Plumerias at Home Depot & Lowes 2015
Q
Comments (158)
Congrats on the seed pod! I would go nuts if I saw a seed pod in the store! I went to Home Depot yesterday and used the last of my gift card balance on a 2 gallon Mandalay. I couldn't find any information about this one except on JJ's own website. I decided to take a chance on it because the description states very strong sweet scent. I'm realizing that I prefer plumerias with scent versus pretty flowers without scent. This flower is suppose to be pretty too. The tag photo of Mandalay kind of reminds me of a darker version of Desert Sunrise but with less veining. I also saw a Thai Splash but I had to limit myself to 1 plant. I walked around the store and saw there was another display table with various tropical plants and I saw some plumerias on it. These were 1 gallon size and $15.98 but they were not Jungle Jacks. There were pictures of various flowers on the tag and most of them had a white flower circled. They were infested with spider mites. :( It reminds me of when I went to the Lowes in Vista. They had a great selection of JJs not often available but they were infested with thrips. Now, I always carefully inspect the tips and underside of leaves before I purchase.
...See More
pcput
10 years ago
I'm so sorry for you, blooker. You just might go into plumeria overload by going to JJ's. Please let us know if you make it back home in one piece!
Peg
moonie_57 (8 NC)
10 years ago
lol @ Peg!
blooker
Original Author
10 years ago
SimiDude: I'll add those to the list to look at. I have a feeling there will be too many varieties that I will lose focus. I spent the day reading this forum and it appears that some of the crowd favorites are divine and CA sunset so I'll def have to check them out.

I think the two plant I bought from home depot are dwarf singapores. (At least from what I read on some of the older threads on this forum.) They are from a nursery in Fallbrook and labeled plumeria rubra but looking at the plant and leaf shape, I think they look like singapores. The plants had either white or pink tags inserted into the pots. I bought one white and one that was missing a tag so it can either be white or pink. I believe I only paid $6 each because when I got home and looked at my receipt, the clerk charged me for 3 gardenias when I only bought 1 gardenia.

Hopefully I don't get plumeria overload so quickly.
nauticalcoasts
10 years ago
You are so lucky to live that close to the nursery! I live states away and will unfortunately have to have mine shipped to me.
Anyway, here is a list of my favorites from them:
- Divine (miniature)
- Tangerine Dreams
- Scentsational (STRONG fragrance)
- Star White
- Fire Storm
- Aztec Gold (Peach scent)
- Tiger
- Gina
- Macarena
- Delightful (I've heard nothing but GREATNESS about the fragrance)
I don't own any of these, but I do love the pictures of them. You can also search around for better images of them on the internet as well.

Seedlings are so fun to watch grow and they grow fast. Well, it seems that way to me. However, you will have to wait an average of 3-8 years to have one bloom. Although I have seen some posts on this forum of people's seedlings blooming in one year. It will take three bloom cycles to know the final color and shape of the flower though. The coolest thing though is that a seedling is not a variety - it is a new one that you get to name!
Here's an example of changing blooms: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/plumeria/msg0812401421956.html

Glad you're loving plumerias! It's a fun obsession, haha. Don't forget to visit their website if you haven't done so already. I'll leave a link just in case. Have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: Jungle Jack's
georgecc
10 years ago
Nauticalcoasts, thanks for reminding me - Firestorm is awesome. Great color, scent - and the flowers even look cool after they've faded!

I didn't see Aztec Gold on JJs list - did you mean maybe Inca Gold? Blooker - if you can find Aztec, it's a great one. A number of plumeria smell like peach - this one smells like PEACHES AND BUTTER!! You may find yourself licking this one's petals, lol.

Tiger is striking - pink flower with what look like tiger stripes coming down from the sides. I regret I didn't get this one! Really unusual and beautiful.

Rhonda has a great scent, Scentsational can knock you out with its great scent, and Gina is a really beautiful flower that lasts for days when picked. Divine is a big big bloomer (of small flowers) - best I think in warmer weather when the pink shows, but beautiful either way.

Best of luck, but mostly I hope that a lot of flowers are blooming when you go, so that you can actually see and smell them!
blooker
Original Author
10 years ago
I just got back. I ended up getting a Divine and CA Sunset. I almost grabbed a J105 but I wasn't sure if I liked the blooms. There were no J105s in bloom so I couldn't tell based on just internet photos. I think I was saved from plumeria overload because many of the plants were not blooming. There were a lot of plants.

I also visited another Vista plumeria grower named JD. He had over 4,000 plants.

Here's Divine:
blooker
Original Author
10 years ago
I can't remember the name of the woman working but she was pulling several of the 2 and 5 gallon blooming plants for the Plumeria Festival next weekend.

CA Sunset was on my wish list and was blooming during our visit. I grabbed this smaller 4 tipped non-blooming one. I am attracted to small plants. The other Vista grower also had CA Sunset and Penang Peach. I liked the shape of the CA Sunset bushy tree he had in the ground. He told me that CA Sunset and Penang Peach were the same. I believe I read that CA Sunset is a seedling of Penang Peach so although similar, they are not exactly the same. Many of his plants were not marked.
blooker
Original Author
10 years ago
The other Vista Grower I visited also had an impressive collection and a large hot and humid greenhouse. I picked up this large Celadine for $10. He was having a special on his white plumerias.
blooker
Original Author
10 years ago
I also got this Nebel's Rainbow cutting. Hopefully I don't kill it.

I don't know how to upload more than one picture at a time.

Newbie visiting Jungle Jacks this weekend

Comments (11)

georgecc

moonie_57 (8 NC)

Related Discussions

pcput

moonie_57 (8 NC)

blooker
Original Author

nauticalcoasts

georgecc

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Newbie visiting Jungle Jacks this weekend

Comments (11)

georgecc

moonie_57 (8 NC)

Related Discussions

pcput

moonie_57 (8 NC)

blookerOriginal Author

nauticalcoasts

georgecc

blookerOriginal Author

blookerOriginal Author

blookerOriginal Author

blookerOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author

blooker
Original Author