"maybe 1 good soaking a week as opposed to couple times a week" Yes, all the experts say infrequent long soakings is best. It may be something like nematodes in the roots. rare, and unusual, but it could be that. As your watering seems fairly normal. Usually every spring compost should be added around the top. Mix 1/2 compost with 1/2 peat(which is really a compost too!) to loosen soil and improve drainage, and feed the plants! I also use a mulch, I can get all the pine needles I want so I use them. They are also great for potted plants. My in-laws live in upper Michigan and have hundreds of pine trees on their property. When visiting I also bring a bunch of yard waste bags to stock up. What I don't like about mulch is you can't see the soil, you have to feel. I don't use it around my potted cacti, I need to see the soil.

Whatever you do, I hope you try and use native plants. Especiall since you are on edge of state park. Try firefush, not dwark with small leaves, but true native firebush. Next to my house and about 10 foot tall in 2-3 years. A good place to start http://www.floridayards.org/fyplants/index.php Nice PDF file. You can also order this book from the state for free. Finally, taxes put to good use. http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/publications/files/waterwise_landscapes.pdf Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Waterwise Book

Hi Robert, I am an expert on plumeria grafting and I am going to try to explain what is going on with yor plant and what the prospects are. In grafting plumerias there are two important things: a) making cambium contact between the scion and the rootstock so sap can flow from the rootstock to the scion, and b) maintaining the cambium contact over time. A rubber band (elastic) is generally used to make contact. A plastic tape wrap is used to maintain the cambium contact. Sometimes in plumeria grafts the cambium line contact between the scion and the rootstock is broken for different reasons (no sap present, scion surface has dried, etc.). What happens then is that the scion acts like a cutting trying to develop roots. It center soft white core swells out to form a callus. If the graft wrap stretches some, it pushes the scion and rootstock appart and cambium contact is broken completely. Eventually the wrap stops stretching and the soft center cores of the scion and rootstock fuse together. In the picture below I show an example of this. I used clear fruit tree grafting tape, which is designed to stretch on purpose to avoid girdling of the graft. As you you see the scion was pushed away from the rootstock by more than 3/16". I eventually put a cable tie on it to keep it from stretching any more. To prevent this from happening I use a thick green tape that does not strech much. I use duct tape to secure the end and two cable ties for safety (picture below). Luc at FC uses a similar green tape but puts a rubber band over the green tape. The rubber band (special elastomer for grafting), is design to disintagrate in a few weeks. He does this so he does not have to go around to remove all the tapes. This is what typical grafts look like. Note how the cambium line is completely healed and filled with callus all the way around. There are no gaps in good graft unions. These are some grafts from Florida Colors, when I received the plants. Luc's tape stretches a little like mine and creates a small scar. As you can see, typically Luc does a pretty good job grafting plumerias. After I remove the green tape, the gap between the scion and the rootstock continues to become bigger. I have tried to put cable ties to hold the scar from getting bigger. It helps some but the ends deform and grow out (not very pretty). That growing callus just exterts a huge force. I developed a new technique that gets around this problem and makes pretty grafts with very small scar every time, as the picture below shows (two weeks after grafting). Note how the cambium line is completely healed all the way to the bark in just two weeks! Now your plant broke the cambium line contact and the swelling soft white center of the scion pushed the rootstock away and broke the cambium line contact. So the grafting has taken but it is healing slowing from the center out. It will take a while to fill the gap. When this happens, it is possible to leave a gap somewhere in the graft. I would take a thin flat metal piece and go around the graft and measure the depth of the open area, to see if there are any open areas, especially at the top of the graft (generally heals last in this type of graft). The rubber band that is on the graft is not the original rubber band they used in grafting. It is a new one (much thicker and stronger than used normally for grafting) and it is used to hold the graft union together until it heals fully. Do not remove it. The rubber band stretches and the scar will become bigger. If it was me I would put two cable ties on the ends of the graft cut to secure the graft union. Now, what are the prospects for this graft? It is bad? The next picture shows a one year old graft with a large scar. It looks fully healed from the outside. The next picture shows a cut-away view of this graft. The top tip is still open, it has not fully healed. However, the bottom part has completely healed and new wood has formed over the scion and rootstock original woods and has connected the two. The cuts have line up with solid wood and the bottom half of the cuts have fuse together. The bottom line is that it takes time to heal but when it does the graft union will be the storgest part of the plant (it will be solid wood). Here is a more extreme example of a really large graft scar. The angle was too large and the scar kept on growing. On the surface it looks weak. It looks like one can break it appart easily. The next picture shows the cut-away view of this graft union.The cut is fused together with solid wood. The scion and the rootstock are connected around the perimeter with solid wood. This graft union is the strongest piece on the whole plant! It cannot be broken appart. The bottom line is that your plant will be fine. Eventually it will make a very strong connection. However, it will take time. The fact that the plant is growing leafs shows the graft has taken. Now, do not get me wrong. I would prefer a plant with a "normal" graft that has healed at the cambium line first rather than this one that has fused at the soft white centers because the graft union heals quicker and makes a much stronger union much faster. I hope I have answered all your questions. Good luck Robert. Regards, George

Caladiums are winding down for this growing season. I put mine up on top shelves and don't water them until March or April. I start looking at them around the middle of March and if any have sprouted, I take them all down and water lightly to wake them up. They don't need a lot of water until it is hot and even then, not that much. April 17 this year. Not sure exactly when I took them all down for observation and light watering. The one on the right front corner is not a Caladium but rather a Globba and I treat it the same way as Caladium - no water all winter. Same pots for most of them with a little potting soil added to the top each year. August 10 and this is the majority of them. I just moved all my caladium pots in last week waiting for them to dry out before putting them on top shelves. Globba blooms from last year - August 25 - thought I had taken pictures of it this year but can't find any.