I don't have any particular fondness for rodents, but I just don't have the heart to kill an animal. For me "exclusion" is a much easier method. I just keep all my roses in gopher cages, and have no problems. But I do laugh when I see a ring of gopher mounds around a caged rose. On a related subject, I was going crazy with my son's cat who is a rat killing machine. There are weeks when I end up with 2 or 3 dead rats in the house, or patio. So, I came up with a new program called "Rats for Roses" Each time the cat brings me a dead rat, I bury it under one of my rose bushes. I have about 30 roses, so I just keep buring them , eventually all 30 roses end up with a nice little bonemeal/bloodmeal treat. By the time all 30 have been given a rat, the first rose is ready for another one. It's good for the roses, and it gives the little fellers a decnt burial.

I've never actually tried this but I've been researching cross pollination for the past few weeks. I found a video where the guy cuts out a little box shape in the base of the flower (a little above where the flower connects to the info) and removes the anthers (male parts) and then he puts them inside the other plumeria. So basically he removes the anthers from Plumeria #1 and then he also removes the anthers from plumeria #2. He then puts plumeria #1 anthers inside of plumeria #2 and that cross pollinates the plants. Once he replaces the anthers he take a little tiny paint brush and brushes the anthers around in plumeria #2 to release the polline. He then gets a little piece of tape and seals the open box shut that was cut open in the flower. He did say that this doesn't always mean that it will produce a seed pod but it was the most effective way to hand cross pollinate plumerias. I've been practicing removing anthers on my yellow plumeria and seem to have it down now. I'm just waiting on my Mardi Gras buds to open so I can start the process. I'm going to use my oldest plumeria tree as the host plumeria, I figured I'd have a better chance of getting a seed pod that way. I'm in the need for some seeds really badly so I figured I'd at least try this method a few times to see what it produces. I live in Alabama so I don't think my conditions are the best in the world but during the winter I take all my plumerias inside and put them in my indoor greenhouse so maybe it will work. Good luck PlumeJunkie. If anyone has any extra seeds left over I'd love to be on the mailing list and would be happy to pay for postage/shipping.

Hi Tammy, I know you are amom so being busy and not answering is more than fine. I got an email from Roger and he said the same about there hardiness. He told me they could handle temps in the 20's so that is very good news for me. I am thinking maybe this fall I will get one of those pop up greenhouses so I can etend my mangoes, avocado, citrus, charimoya, wow I need to stop! I will need a huge house at this rate. Roger told me they can grow fast and to make sure that I am good with pruning so the tree will have a good srong frame work of branches to support the fruit. I feel better about growingit. I have got a lot of advice here and I really appreciate it. Temps are going to drop really low tomorrow night. They are talking 30's and snow!! My apartment is going to look like the garden of Eden now! Well I am done with buying more fruit trees anyways. I am now trying to root a bunch of plumerias that I got from Mimi the moderater of the Aloha plumeria group. She sent me 4 very nice cuttings, 2 gold pineapple tops and I am getting a dozen passionfruit seeds. I really have my hands full now. If anyone wants to try growing plumeria she is really worth getting in contact with. I saved big bucks and got awesome stuff! Andrew

I'm not sure you are still interested, but just in case, here is my experience with Cherimoya Polination: I love cherimoyas, but due to their expensive cost, I don't think I ate more than 4-5 in my life, so a few years ago I planted a seed and it germinated and now I have a 3.5 ft tall tree. It germinated many years ago, I think about 6-7 years ago, but I didn't take it too seriously, and it's still in a 2 gallon pot, instead in the ground. Last year it was the first time that it flowered. I was so excited and searched a lot on the internet and read many forums about how to pollinate those flowers. I followed instructions just like you did, and no luck. All flowers dried out within days after the petals fell. This year, it made again 5 flowers, but I did not even bother to try pollinating them again. I noticed that 1 flower did not even open fully, but remained in the female stage for a several days. Eventually, the petals fell but the stem with the tiny ball left from the flower, did not dry out, nor it grew further, just remained like that small till 2 weeks ago when I left on vacation. Before leaving on vacation, I put miracle grow to all my plants in the backyard, including the cherimoya tree which I still have in the pot. Yesterday I returned from my vacation, and noticed the leaves of the cherimoya tree were huge, about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide, which was not the case before. I said to myself, it must be due to the miracle grow fertilizer, and while admiring the leaves, I discovered that the fruit grew and it was now 1 inch in diameter. I have no idea how it pollinated, since I only have 1 cherimoya tree, I did not bother to manual pollinate it, and the 5 flowers opened many days apart. Moreover this particular flower did not even open fully to ever become a male, but remained at the female stage. It is a mystery to me... Maria