Oh, no James! My heart is breaking for you. Is there a dislike button for when things like this happen? I am so sorry that happened to you. I can see how gorgeous the blooms were. Can you try to put the broken inflo in water? Ill bet you can coax that bud to open up.

My plumies are not quite as far along as yours are. I have some with claws, some with a few leaves, others just starting to drop leaves, and some that never took a rest! Weird, right! This weekend is supposed to be in the 90s, so that should help things along.

Well, heres to no more drama in your patch! My heart couldn't take it.

Take care! Wendi

Hey Rox :)
Did you get any JJ's plumies yet? I am going to Camarillo to the strawberry grower maybe on Friday, with all the nice weather they opened early in Feb.

Wendi aka Gidge :)
Thanks. My Tobas fire and some other plumies have inflos up but no leaves while others are pretty leafed out, go figure. So because of the crazy warm weather I am assuming its accelerating the blooming.
The Tobas Fire blooms smelled gr8 but the colors faint.
I put the inflo back in the trash with the flowers, I live about 45min freeway drive without traffic to my patch, with traffic can take 1 hr 10 min to 1hr 30 min drive. So I am not going back for the inflo as its probably in bad shape now with the heat yesterday.
I have to go and get some pots from the Nursery Supply store I go to in the South bay so maybe I'll go get them and drop them off @ my patch on my way to San Diego tomorrow, but won't go back just for the inflo lol.
Hope all your plumies are waking up and popping.

My source of info at Lowes said maybe May again, he will call me on the JJ news. BUT, my list is with me at all times now... :-)

Rox,
Your too much..lol. I may go to see John while in SD, but I dont know how much time I will have so it might not happen. If I do go to JJ's would you like me to check on anything or pick up anything for you if I go, we can meet in Camarillo Friday. Let me know and if I can make it to Johns I will.

Cheers

OMG!!! What a nice offer, problem is I think we are headed to the islands on Friday since it is to be so hot all weekend. You are very nice to offer though. BTW, went to Saint Catherines w/ the McGraths.. :-))) Mahalos

Hi James, Roxanne and Wendi!!

I'm so sorry to hear about your inflo James.. That is the only " Plumie Drama" allowed for the season. No more.. ;-) It still looks beautiful to me, but just a little flat.. Lol! I bet the trash can did smell nice tho.. Toba's Fire to boot? Argh...

You will have plenty of beauties blooming in no time! Roxanne and Wendi will have them as well.. You guys are so lucky to have southern Cali temps.

I am working down south today and the temps are warm.. Loving the sunshine too, but will head north later tonight. So it's back to cooler temps for me.

My trees are waking up inside the house and I do have inflos pushing on four or five trees. I'm hoping they will slow down to let the heat work their magic on the coloration. I just don't want them to abort early. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks for taking the picture of TF for us James.. It sure is a beauty and we can see the vibrant colors even it it was being pressed by the garbage.. We still love those pics.. We all love blooms in Any shape or form!!! ;-)

Have a great day everyone!!

Laura

Been thinking of you in the cold Laura. You need to get out here for a boat ride again and snoopervize the plumeria in Cally. Bring some melted snow when you come.....roxanne

Laura,
Yes you do need to come out for a vacation to visit all the plumies and your friends who are awaiting you...
I ended up going to my patch today as I decided I wouldn't have enough time tomorrow to go get pots from my Nursery Supply store, then to order my EB Stone Cactus Mix.
I ended up ordering 100 bags of mix to be delivered.

Pics from 2013 when I was stupid enough to pick up my own mix and got about 20 something bags to fit in my SUV each trip, made 3 or 4 runs back and forth for EB Stone Cactus Mix. Should have saved my sweat equity and just had the bags of soil delivered in 1 trip back then also lol.

Filled my plumiemobile with as many pots as I could, and had to order 15x 30gal and 10x 40 gal pots to be delivered, as maybe 4 stacked 40gal pots would fit in my biggest SUV so its worth paying for delivery vs. making multiple trips back and forth to the hood.

I ended up driving off with 4x 25gal pots 10x 10gal and 12x 5gal in my plumiemobile. Now I just need to find someone to do all the re-potting and root pruning.. any volunteers lol ;P Oh Laura did I see your hand pop up....lol
If anyone is in the So Bay area and needs pots and supplies Yamada is 30 percent plus cheaper then nurseries and other places. I noticed today that I didn't see the perlite or the bark or the Coir, might be downsizing...shame. I get my Super Thrive here, as it is really inexpensive vs the nursery. The only thing is Yamada's in da hood, so you may want to bring a friend or pack mace or pepper spray. There is a Ghetto School across from it also, so come before or after school hours.

Packed Plumiemobile...should have brought my SUV, barely could close my trunk.

In Da Hood.. but keeps the prices low ;P : (loving the Immigration attorney sign lol)

So I am stocked up and ready for the 2015 season....

Cheers

Tragic, James. If my TF blooms this year I will photo for you as uncle James. Does Yamada make wide 7s or wide 10s? BTW OCFS has a copy of Superthrive by Grow More that is about half price ($70 @ gal.). Let's do lunch soon. Miss yacking with you. Hope your health is better. Next time cut the stem of the inflo at a steep angle and put in water- sometimes the inflo will continue to bloom for a few blooms or more.

Hey Bill,

Hope your doing well. I saw your pics of your patch and its looking good.

Ill have to ask the people @ Yamada's as they use to have flat/wide 5's and tall 5's, I bought tall 10s, but again will ask them about the wides, they have had the tall and flat/wide 20g, 25g. I had purchased tall 7's from them years ago, but prefer to go from 5 to 10's, but never saw a wide 7.

I noticed today that even the plastic nursery pot selection seemed diminished. So when I receive my pot delivery I'll ask the guys who bring them.

Maybe we an catch up this weekend. I am going to Carlsbad tomorrow, but will be pressed for time and will have my mother with me. Will talk to you later

Thanks

:)

James - my heart is breaking for your Toba's Fire! Yes, drama packed event! Can't wait for mine to bloom. It doesn't look as if it's grown any at all since I purchased it last summer. How long were the branches before yours pushed an inflo?

And, just curious if you put the top up so your moms hairstyle doesn't get in shambles. :)

Rox,
Well good thing we didn't make plans to meet in Camarillo, or near by. I went to San Diego on Thurs and had to drop my mother off at my sisters house in Carlsbad, then run to La Jolla to my cousins (dad's nephew), after met some friends in the Gas Lamp area of Downtown San Diego, then headed back to Carlsbad to go out to dinner with the family.
Was 85 in Carlsbad, took a pic from my sisters place of the lagoon across the street from her house, gorgeous day, perfect temp.

I could not believe how HOT it was in Camarillo on Friday, 95 @ the Strawberry farm, was 91 degrees on the freeway just before I descended down to Camarillo area.

Made it to the best, sweetest strawberries in the area, close to you:

Hope your having a great time in the islands with the hot temps.

Mona,

So glad to see you back and posting :)

TF blooms similar to Aurora, usually a good bloomer. Dosn't need a lot of growth to bloom, so I hope it may bloom again this season :(

I was laughing so hard when I read your comment about my mothers hair..lol. My mother had me in her 40's, she is 91 and has Parkinson's Dementia, has shrunk down to 4' 10". Even with the dementia she is like Goldie Locks and the 3 bears as she knows whats comfortable to her and whats not. I have 2 different 2 seater cars and she really does not care for either, but will occasionally ride in 1 as long as the tops up, usually If I drive her I take one of my SUV's as she seems to be comfortable in them...I guess she likes the space. I have a smaller 4 door sedan that I got for her to ride in when our PA drives her around, I am 6'2'' and it's not that comfortable for me so I rarely drive it, so my mothers hair is not in shambles..lol.

Well I hope Bonnie is doing well also. Hope you have a gr8 season.

Cheers

Freak, yes, it has been way too hot. We were at the islands paddling around and beach combing. Really hot out there. Ready for some fog I am. Yes, McGraths have fabulous strawberries but they don't need the heat either. roxanne

Rox,
I didnt know Camarillo or Ventura got that warm, even Carlsbad further south in San Diego was 85 the day before. Even on Sat around 3 13pm, the temp got up to around 98 degrees near Beverly Hills area, but when I checked the weather for my patch at the same time it was only 88 there.

I agree with you, I am over the heat and the horrible traffic caused by the Obama visit and the LA Marathon. Next time I am checking for events that may close streets, off ramps, detours before I go anywhere. It took me 3 hrs on Fri to get home from Camarillo (2x the normal drive time). With this heat your plumies should be up and growing well. Glad to hear you had a good time @ the islands :)

2nd DRAMA of the season!!!! I finally got down to my patch again, this time to move a large (not huge) Mango tree that was in a pot. The tree was about 12 ft tall and kind of bushy, and surrounded by a wooden lath patio, 30 and 40gal plumerias that were bushy . I had a plastic coated clothes line supporting the large trees and intertwining branches. I untied the clothes line that was there to solely support the plants, when bang, everything started to tip and fall, except for the Mango tree that had a huge branch growing through one of the laths on the top of the patio. Well since the trees were so large and heavy there was a lot of cracking noises and broken branches. I had tried to gift my HUGE Purple Jack tree to a friend in Newport Beach, but she ended up traveling most of the summer thru Sept., I also felt that she did not want to have to pick the tree up or pay someone to haul it to her. Obviously even though I have known her since I was 20, she must not know me that well as I do not do that kind work, especially if I am gifting (free) the plumie. Go figure rich people :P

Well the Purple Jack, which had some mango branches intertwining its branches, a 21 yo Guillots Sunset, and my Aurora Borealis which I have had since 1979, all crashed down on each other. I ended up picking up some of the broken branches, kicked the smaller ones and tips away out of my path.

You can see a Plumie branch and tips under the cut Mango branch (The branch was growing thru the lath/wood, so had to cut it to move the pot).

The Beginning of the Purple Jack Pile of broken branches:

Beginning of Aurora Borealis Cuttings:

Mango plants have pretty green foliage, new leaves are a pretty red color. Flowers are actually fragrant., light clean floral perfume/fruity (almost like Freesia), wood smells like Mango fruit without the sweet scent...yum.

After moving all the plumies and the carnage, I noticed that most of the plumies I moved needed pruning and shaping....grrrrr. I ended up throwing away the Guillots branches as there were a bunch of them and tomorrow is trash day, felt that Guillots not worth trying to root or callous. I would have tried to take more pics but I had some kind of nasty brown sap/resin on my hand from the Mango tree along with plumie latex, so did not want to gunk up my Iphone. found the best and easiest way to clean and remove the resin and latex is Natures Gate Tea Tree/Rosemary hand soap, usually only use this soap after dirty work like gardening.

Now all I need to do is prune and shape, root prune and repot :( I also have to dig up some sunk huge plumies in the front of the Apartment complex, then plant the Mango... I hate spring LOL LOL Guess I'll have to try to get back to the patch tomorrow or in the next couple of days...

I said this earlier, but hope there is no more drama... This was 2nd strike for the season, 3 strikes and ........

Happy growing

Cheers

would you like to sell one of your Aurora Borealis cuttings? :-) roxanne

Oh James...

No more disasters! You can't have a third..

I'm sorry to see the damage from your trees and I know it made you sick. Just hope that you didn't get hurt in the mess..

Hope your day is better!!

Chat later!!

Laura

Aye Caramba!

With your recent plumeria related incidents, one has to wonder if you upgraded your household insurance policy to cover plumeria loses! Yikes - that's a terrifying sight.

By the way, that mango looks absolutely fantastic, James! I didn't realize they'd thrive this far up the coast. Definitely need to get my US zone game up. lol

Rox,

Hello. If you would like I can add your name to the waiting list as there is a line of people waiting as I rarely cut the tree. Seems like every time I get one person off the list there are 10 or so new people who want one. Let me know if you want to be added to the list, it is backed up about 3 seasons worth right now.

Hey Laura

Thanks!!! Anytime there's added major work to my day and I get to it, is a good day lol

When I left the patch and was locking the side gate I noticed that the Purple Jack had fallen down again, so I left it as is. I can only imagine how many more branches I will find now..

Plumiejunkie,

Long time no see… Welcome back and happy growing.

David,

OMG… Look what the wind blew in..lol Hey stranger. As for the claiming on insurance, since it is an apartment complex I own and I do not live there (I use the mailing address there sometimes, or a Mailing service as I do not receive mail @ home), I think the policy might be a bit different from a typical home owners in terms of what I can claim, I also did not have a separate insurance binder added to the apartment insurance to cover any plants(do they even have such a thing), it also was my fault. If I had a helper then I doubt I would have had the issue. I guess I didn’t think the plumies and pots would weigh as much as they did.

As for the Mango, yes it thrives grows almost wild with no care (no water either as I am bad about going down to water) and the fruits are super juicy and sweet.

Manila Mango from 2013 season

My tenants pick from the tree. I do not like fruit trees or plumie at my house as they attract vermin and insects and can be messy with the dropping of leaves, flowers, fruits(I am a bit OCD), etc. My patch is located in coastal zone 10 and its pretty temperate all year, no drastic changes. I check the weather for my patch couple times a day especially during the winter @ night. In my patch I have never had any frost, in 2007, during the big freeze my patch got down to 37or 38f for the 1 night. I also have a microclimate as there are mostly 2 story apartments on the street like the one I own next to my patch also that helps with the cold and wind a bit. So in my patch and around the area I have seen Solo Paya’s growing and fruiting, Pineapple, lots of huge old Mango trees (all Varieities), lychee, Vanda orchids, etc., so because of the coastal influence and topography and location, it never gets too cold or hot and has a nice amount of humidity.

PS. The package I sent you with the Aurora you won on MPG years ago to Germany with a bunch of other plumies also came back. Actually to be exact, received it over a year after I had mailed it to you…lol Might have even been like 18months later. The package looked as if it had been examined (opened) then resealed, box looked worse for wear, all the cuttings where hollow….basically skins..lol.

Good to see your still active with the plumies and forums.

Cheers

sure...absolutely...add me to the wish list for AB..can send cash... :-)))

I have come out of dormancy enough to grunt at all your trials and tribulations, James. :)

It's going to be 60 tomorrow, 70's Thursday, but then a cold front moves in. If things continue, my plumies will not be growing. lol <-----(really not laughing, just trying)

Send warmth!

Gee, James. What a mess. I am so near being done for the spring with planting and repotting and my back is so happy to see the end.

Heart sinking at the sight of your broken branches...I am so sorry that happened to you. OMG - you must have been so sad! Don't you hate when you see something about to happen, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Well, your plumeria and mangoes look amazing. I've always joked that I would be happy sitting under a mango tree, eating until I popped! What a nice little ecosystem you have at your complex! Your tenants are lucky to be surrounded with such beauty. Take care! #nomoredrama!

James, I was mostly kidding with my insurance comment - not to mention that insurance companies just KNOW how to wiggle out of every possible scenario of them covering any damage, disregarding the circumstances, but that's a different topic.

I have been pretty active in a lot of the FB groups and just recently, while searching for some old threads containing valuable information back in the MPG days, I came across a gardenweb post that lead me here and I thought, wow, I have a Houzz account, so I logged in. Good to see you in here!

Those mangoes look delicious! They remind me of my favorite Thai mango Nam Dok Mai (sp?). Not super big like Kent, Haden or Tommy Atkins but extremely sweet, no fibers. Mangoes never made it past three ft. in height in my superb climate. LOL (Which, in hindsight, might not be the worst thing, looking at the damage they've caused to your patch.) :-/

Oh, yeah, I still have the customs declaration and every time I look at it, I feel so ashamed of this country. I went to their offices with the announcement that I indeed won them and our conversation that followed, called the supervisors, grasped every possible straw but they would not clear the package because you so generously packed it full of cuttings. They told me in the face, if there were just three, they would have let it through, but your generosity caused them to hold the package hostage until they ultimately had to send it back. My biggest fear was that somebody took advantage of the situation and stole the cuttings. Now I'm kinda relieved they were sent back, even though they never had a chance.

Happy growing! It feels good to be back!

NOOOOO!!! Oh, double tragedy! What a roller coaster ride through this thread: first, upset at the TF break, then happy at the photo tour through SoCal, then upset again at the trees falling over!

We all know that I-could-burst-into-tears moment when we break off an inflo or branch, James. I totally feel for you. And now all the extra work to move and repot, ugh.

Well, at least a few people who get AB cuttings will be over the moon :) A little silver lining for the SoCal plumeria crowd.

By the way, mine is looking awesome. Just starting to wake up, and as soon as Easter rolls around it will be outside in the heat. I love this time of year!

Jen,
You are too funny, but thanks. I actually do not get that upset with the breaking of branches, but its more of a work issue ( I am lazy..lol). I look at it as branches to pick up, re-cut, wash, callous, then figure out who gets what then try to make arrangements to get it to them or meet them half way to give it to them. Sometimes, like with the Guillots branches, I feel like throwing them away as it would be easier and less stress. The pics of San Diego and Camarillo are rare trips out, as I rarely leave the house for more than an hour. I am going to the patch today to plant, re-cut and saran wrap cuttings, prune and try to organize some pots.
Hope I can get it all done today.
Great to hear that your Aurora is doing well.
Cheers

Oh man, you've had all this plumie drama and most of us have barely (if at all) gotten started yet! Sorry to hear about the extra work this created for you.

I always like reading your posts and find it so interesting that you've been growing them for so long - I also cannot believe you manage these offsite from your home, that's a lot of dedication! I've managed to rip off branches from two of my seedlings that I love and that hurt. My bf also accidentally ripped a branch off my Divine a year or two ago right after I told him to be careful around my plants. Probably a good thing since I can throw it in his face if he's being too clumsy around them HAHA!

Here's to a great season and like Gidget said, no more drama!