I never saw your original post as a rarely go on Container Gardening.

I assume you live in a cold climate? I live in S. Florida so mine grow in the ground but I lived most my life in NY and grew Plumerias in pots. I don't know if my advice will help but I can share what I did in NY.

I grew all my Plumerias outside in pots starting in late Spring. I would bring them in in Fall.

They would start losing their leaves in September, if the night temps were dropping into the 40's they came inside. I would force them to go dormant by cutting off any leaves they had left and moved them to the basement. They had no light at all, just a ceiling light bulb when we had to go in there for something. I rarely watered, just a little bit. I let them go dry with only water when I saw their branches start to shrivel. They stayed in that dark room all winter.

Around March I would bring them into the upstairs in to the house where they would get sun and began watering again. They always started to bud. I kept them inside until danger of frost was gone and moved them back outdoors. If they needed repotting, I would do it in Spring as they went outside.

When we moved to Florida, we moved in October. I forced them into dormancy, pulled them out of their pots, wrapped them in plastic and drove from NY to Florida.

That was 12 yrs ago. I repotted them and they grew. We found a house and I put them in the ground. They are huge now, flower each year, I have to prune them to keep them to a decent size.

They are very easy to grow, just make sure they have light, well-draining soil. They grow in Florida in sandy soil (like beach sand). The only water they get is when it rains. They bloom and grow quite well.

Jane

I don't think I saw your other post, but I'm glad your plants are doing better!! (And i'm sure many of us panic sometimes. Plants can be confusing.)

Very nice of you to even try to apologize.

I never saw it either

If it helps..use Cactus soil mix. I did that for my Plumys in pots this year and got terrific growth.

Valdaquendë, I also did not see your original post, but am in a similar situation with my Plumerias. I'm in the central part of SC wintering in a "greenhouse" that is nothing more than half of my back porch covered in plastic and heated with an electric space heater. I opted to try putting the Plumerias in that enclosure for the winter and see if I could keep them growing at least a little through the winter. Time will tell, but right now I am beginning to see a good deal of leaf loss. I did not want to hijack your post, but did want to tell Jane (post above) thanks for her post, which was just the refresher course I needed to ease my mind as winter moves in around here. Let me also say, that Jane and i have "rubbed elbows" often on the orchid forum, and I can assure you that I have much respect for any culture advice she puts on the forum. Her suggestions may not work 100 percent for you, because each of us has a slightly different touch with our plants, but you can be sure it worked for her, and with a bit of common sense tweaking I'm sure you will find it was good advice, and will work for you.

I feel you have no need to apologize to any of us for your "stress relief" session, those are usually a good thing for all of us. We get a chuckle, knowing full well that we all have been there before, and you get the relief.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Bill

Thank you, Jane and Bill and others; I appreciate your perspectives and the time and energy you spent sharing them. My apologies for not responding sooner; work has kept me hopping and with little time to spare.

I live in Oregon, a land of warm summers and cool, rainy winters. Like you, Jane, I move my plumerias indoors for the winter but have never had the heart to force them into dormancy. I am lucky enough to have converted my garage to an office (I am a computer technician) and walled almost the entire south wall in glass. I did it because it makes for a warm office, even in winter, but a side-benefit has been that it is a spot very friendly to the plumerias.

In the beginning i was unperceptive about a number of things and did not realize the need to turn them in the winter; I kept setting them in the office facing the windows, thinking that that gave them the most light (which it did, of course). Hence their major horizontal growth over the years. I have now corrected that by re-potting them as shown in the photo above and the one I'll add below. As we change the climate, the weather here has become more unpredictable, so we are seeing very sudden changes in the weather. My original post was spurred by a sudden shift from 60˚-70˚ sunny days to 30˚s-40˚s pouring rain in the space of a week or so. My plumies went from happy and blooming to bedraggled and drowning in their pots. That, plus the glaring need to re-pot them led to the original, frantic post I mentioned above. Once I calmed down, I reviewed the excellent and comprehensive education I got on THIS THREAD, watched a couple of dozen videos and put that accumulated knowledge and experience to work. That was 2 weekends ago.

As you can see from the photo below, they are doing well. I reoriented them to make their trunks reasonably vertical and potted them in new soil (retaining their root balls, of course). The tree (you can hardly call it anything else, at this point) was side-heavy enough to start leaning in the soft soil of its new environment, so I used a latex exercise band to gently keep it vertical until the soil has settled and firmed. Another week or two ought to do it.

In the meantime, I realize that I will, before long, have to start pruning it to keep it from taking over the office in winter and to try to encourage it to become denser and more bushy, as it is now very leggy. I will, of course, watch videos, etc., but any advice as to how to best achieve that end will be greatly appreciated and carefully considered.

Bill, thanks for those words of sympathy and encouragement. As you can see above, I have found that with enough light and reasonable warmth, my plumerias have come through all of their winters without serious loss and have, on occasion, even bloomed in the winter. If you can arrange some room-temperature space for them with as much light as can be arranged, I think you have a good chance of enjoying them all winter as well as all summer.

Best Wishes to Both of You ... and to Everyone Else.

Valdaquendë

I am moving to North Carolina I want to grow my plmeeias in pots but will I ever see flowers. I never saw them in NJ.

What has worked for me is putting my potted plumerias in a warm room with a southern exposure, getting the most sun. As it happens, my office has an 8' sliding glass door, facing south; they live there and, as you can see, in the photo, they are blooming.

I put them outside when the weather is well above freezing (no colder than 40˚F. on the clearest, coldest nights) and, again, with southern exposure. It gets windy here and that can blow a potted plant with broad leaves like a plumeria over. To forestall that, I use an arborist's shade cloth hanging from the eaves of the roof to shelter it from the wind.

Click HERE to see such a cloth.

Best of Luck!!