Thanks, Fruitnut My sister got a job nearby last spring and her family moved here from out of state. They stayed with us for a few months and we had two extra big dogs, too. We had to rotate some of the dogs around the yard every day to keep them all happy, and put up fencing to keep a couple of them from uprooting little trees. At least they didn't bring the 11 horses with them. Still, we were more busy than usual. Had an interesting wildlife experience while walking some of the dogs: saw several crows harassing a big owl in the daytime. We got some excellent apricots, Apriums, Pluots, plums and Independence nectarines. We got a few Celestial figs, which were wonderful, though small (not recommended for this area) and some Texas Everbearing figs. I like figs with closed eyes to keep the little bugs out, and I'll probably try Excel next. It's supposed to be similar to Kadota, a variety often grown in this area. The Red Fuji apples were fabulous. They hung on the tree for a while after they were ripe. The later-ripening Pink Ladys seemed a little dense and dry. We slacked off thinning the peaches and nectarines and our crop was not impressive outside of Independence. Our Rio Oso Gem peach tree died, but I think it's not really well-suited to this area. We got a few grapes, and I've decided that I should take out the American types, which are probably contributing to the seediness of our seedless varieties. I like the foxy flavor of some of the American varieties, but they don't like the hot weather here and fruit quality is not good. I'm keeping the Muscats, though, even though they have seeds. Hope to do better this year with fruit care. I'm planting a Geo Pride and Flavor Grenade pluot, a Queen Anne plum for old time's sake and for possible canning, a Red Silk pomegranate and I'll try again to get a second cherry tree going. They're hard to start around here. It's spring for sure, because suddenly the cats are bringing us dead gophers.

Hi Dave, humidity is relatively low in the winter here. However, being this far south and close to the Gulf, I am sure it is higher than your humidity. The black tip and stem rot are associated with only a few specific caltivars. I have close to 80 varieties and only a few have problems. What I have observed, is that those that are growing (not fully dormant) are the ones that have problems. The ones that are growing and have green stems are due to caltivar and/or fertilizer late in the season. Once I fertilized young plumerias mid September and I lost a lot of them to stem rot. I kept on cutting them back to healthy wood and the stem rot kept on coming back till the plants were killed. Now, I never fertize past mid August. My plumerias are mostly dormant when I put them in storage at Thanksgiving and have not had any problems. Just a few cultivars that have long green branches, like Vera Cruz Rose, Ted Chinn, California Sally get occassionally stem rot. I got rid of three Singapores I had this year. Every single tip on them got black tip every year and never bloomed. Eulas Stanford has a Singapore planted in the ground inside his greenhouse (heated in the winter). It never gets black tip and blooms like crazy. I think the black tip is associated with very cool temperatures and plumerias that are not dormant. Some varieties like Lemon Drop, that goes dormant early, never ever has any problems. With respect to water, I have never lost a plant by not water it. The temperatures stay pretty moderate so the plumerias in storage do not loose much water. They never shrivel in storage over the four months period. All the stems have sap in them but I do not think there is much water uptake the roots. For cuttings i think people mist them because they are in full sun and loose moisture by evaporation (have no roots to replenish the moisture). I root my cuttings in semi shade all the way up the early October and I never mist them. I have never lost a cutting the last two years. I am developing a new method to root hard-to-root reds, which prevents any moisture loss from the cuttings during the callusing period. When the cuttings are planted, they look like they were just cut off the tree. tc, George

FYI. I'm in the Portland area. You can have plumeria's here (heck, I've been growing some from seeds), but as others have stated, you can let them go dormant during the winter, or bring them indoors 9 months out of the year (Oct-June), or have a heated and insulated greenhouse (not enough sun to really keep it warm). Plumeria's need to stay above the 40's; they will go dormant if temps get under 65-70. I've let my adult tree go dormant, it starts sprouting leaves come April (indoors). The babies are all on heat mats and under light year-round. My plumeria's thrived in direct sun during the summer (I no longer have that, so the adult hasn't bloomed). I keep them under a T5 light while indoors (12 hours) and the seedlings or rooting ones are on a heat mat and they're doing okay (not thriving, but alive). I'm actually thinking about moving to the coast. I would think they would need more protection and kept warm. I think a greenhouse would be best. I figure, if my friend can keep her plumies alive in Minnesota, we can do it Oregon. :) If you want, I post pics on my Instragram account. Just look for #plumeriasinpnw. Good luck!

Hello There!! Welcome to the plumeria forum.... Andrew and K mentioned, most of us will have things to offer In The spring. Trees are becoming quiet and trying to rest for the winter. So the springtime will be the best time to post again for seeds or cuttings. I see you are in NC? Where are you located in "Carolina?" Nice to have another Plumeria forum member on the east coast! Lots of great information here and many helpful people too! Good luck, welcome.... Laura