A plumeria is like a thin plastic pipe filled with water. On that veranda it would quickly freeze, expand and crack the pipe. You can protect a plumeria from an hour or two of slightly below freezing air by covering it with a cloth that does not transmit cold or will not get wet and freeze on the plant, but that veranda is the angel of death. Only a closed container with some form of heat inside would have any chance at all. If snow is seen by daylight, it is way too cold. Winter plants really need to be maintained at above 50 F (10C) average to be healthy. The closer you get to 32F (0C) and the length of time at that temperature, the greater the chance of some to much damage. Tip, stem or root damage depends on how cold and for how long. Once the pipe cracks, only the roots can re-start the plant and if the roots freeze, the game is over. Good luck. Plumerias need to come into the warm house in that environment.

I have a few large plummies planted outside and have tried unsuccessfully the past couple years to protect them from any freeze damage. Last year I put socks on their tips and then covered them with blankets, kept tight with rope and bricks. All the tips still froze. Does anyone have any method or suggestions as of a good way to protect them? I've quite decided not to plant any more outside and just leave them in pots. Should I maybe just dig these up?

John, definitely bring your babies inside since you can!

Lauri

Tried a "frost cloth" covering ?? Your cold damp wet socks & blanket transferred all that to your tips.Your "coverings" can't touch the plant. You'd need some sort of heat INSIDE your blanket or tent. You might dig them up, bare root them over winter... I think bare rooting them sets them behind a bit in the spring. But setting them behind a bit could be better than losing tips to freeze, running the chance of losing the whole plant. These beauties drive us insane !!!

Cali~

Lauri,
Most of my plumeria in the ground were severely damaged last winter in FL. I tried frost cloth, but the covers were too small to extend all the way to the ground, allowing the cold to get to the plants. If you can get frost cloth to extend all the way to the ground, the ground will help keep the temps under the cloth higher. Another option if the temps are going to be really low (under 30) would be to put an incandescent lamp under the cloth. Doesn't work well if it is wet, although I have done it with an old uplight attached to a plastic milk crate. It probably needs to be 75-100 watts depending on the size of the tree. This method worked for me in CA when it got down to 30 a few nights.

I have also built PVC frames that enclose the plant and I cover them with tarps so that the plant is covered with no tips touching the tarps. Then I put a lamp under the tarps to get some heat in there.

You definitely can bare root them. A lady I read about in Texas does it to 50-100 plants each year. She reports they perk up pretty quickly each spring when replanted. Just make sure you store them off concrete and at 50 degrees or more.

Mike

Hi all,
I thank you for your answers, I am waiting answers from others also.

Mike, If you could upload a photo, I shall understand better about yours method, if I can contact the lady reffered in your message, I shall be very glad if I can found her email.
many thanks
John

John,
I don't have any photos of how I did it in CA. They were on a disc that got lost in the move to FL. But, the other posters are right. There really isn't a way to keep your plumeria alive outside with the weather you show in those pictures. My methods were to keep the plant alive when we were facing a few hours of low temps (~30) overnight. Not freezing for days, weeks, months.

I don't have the email address of the lady in Texas, but her method is quite simple. She digs the plants out of the ground, washes off the roots, and lets them dry. Then, she hangs them in her garage and closets, usually upside down so the roots don't contact anything cold. When the spring arrives and the soil warms up, she replants them in the ground and they come out of dormancy. Note that she does this after the plants have gone dormant, lost leaves, etc.

Mike

Mike
I am very glad with your last answer and I thank you for that.

I heared about that method a few months ago, now I received one more confirmation, that this method works well.

In my next trip at North Greece, I shall inform all my friends there, I suggest them to grow plumerias and to plant them in ground for summer ( first 2 years in pots for rootball of course).
First time will have tropical plants at their garden on this area and specially this amazing plant.

many thanks
John

Hi Mike,
I have bought frost cloth the first time, it is 83" x 50', have two.. I am going to take it and go from the bottom of the plant n the ground and over and then cut it...hopefully will hold down with concrete bricks. my problem is high cold winds, cool temps and possible of two months of rain. frost cloth is suppose also to be water proof.. have a plumie friend that says it works. My plants in the ground are about 5' so hope will work. Rest in pots will go on my covered patio, covered with the cloth and tarped in a corner to keep warmth and no wind. small ones, cuttings and first year will take in the house. pray will work.
Karen B.

Hi Karen B,
take care about high moisture content, this is the most important at greenhouses, they use Ventilation systems to throw out the high rate of humidity.

2.Most important is ground (soil) temperature than air temperature, so put on the ground more than two inches straw or scobs or a piece of fefzol, so that to keep the ground temperature at high possible level for root protection.
Good luck
John

Hi John,
When you mention "high moisture content".. do you mean if I use the frost cloth can pull moisture?? then can be bugs.

when I tarp the corner of my patio, is open at the top and bottom.. mostly just to break the cold winds. We get very windy. My area does not get snow, but can get in the 30's early morning. First time I am going to leave most of my plants outside.

Karen B

Karen B,
I understand about the rain concern. Try to set up the frost cloth so that rain cannot collect in the cloth between branches. One year in CA, I constructed a PVC box around my largest plumie and covered it with a tarp. We had a good rain and the rain collected in the top of the tarp creating enough stress that the box collapsed and broke the plant into many pieces. The next year I made the box higher on one end so it had a sloped roof and the water ran off instead of collecting.

With the frost cloth, you may want to put some poles under the cloth and between the branches to tent the cloth in such as way to encourage the rain to run off, rather than collect. Water is heavy enough to break branches if it collects. What I do is to spray some water on the cloth after I install it to see if there are any places it collects, then put a pole under that spot to raise it up enough.

Good luck.

Mike

Karen B,
sorry, I thought that you cover all the plant till the ground to protect from low temperature.

Many amateur growers in Greece cover all the plant with a transparent nylon bags, to protect their plants from freezing, but they have problem from large percentage of moisture, (yes can pull moisture)so they open small holes to get out most of humidity.
thanks
John

Hi Mike.
I have a steel set up from craft shows around my plants. could totally tarp top and bottom to protect all my plants. butttt. with the rains hitting on the top, yes dropped it dangerously..got it to let off water in time. Tough to try and angle water..Winds of 40 mi hr..cannot use. So hope what I have bought will work, freeze cloth. don't know until this fall, new for me to try. I have several in the ground, want to save, have lost some to freeZe.
Karen B

I have grown my plumeria inside under a grow light for a year and a half as it never did well when I brought it out. Recently it is losing leaves and I hope that is because of the time of year, but for a short time a yellow mushroom appeared and then disappeared in the soil. Under the grow light recently the leaves dried up, but since I turned that off, they are doing fine. How should I winter it? Remove the leaves or no? Water- how often? Should I keep it in the darker areas? Is that mushroom going to be a problem? Thanks.

Hi Plumieglove.
I have never grown plumeis under a growlight..I am responding to you question, to get it back up on top where some one can help you.

good luck,
Karen B

A couple things. In response to my question about freezing tips and all, I think this season I am going to either dig up, or just cut all mine back and bring them into the garage to sleep, or might water root over the winter.
I've used a grow light in the past and haven't had a problem with leaves drying except sometimes the little ones that were on the top shelf. Would it happen if it was too close to the leaves?
Lauri

do your grow lights give out alot of heat? if so, i would think the heat would cause the leaves to dry out. last winter I had mine in the basement under fluorescent grow lights and did not experience the leaves drying out. fluorescent lights don't give out much heat. there is alot of info on the web about winter protecting fig trees, maybe the same method would work for plumerias.
sue