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Plumeria garden

wintering Plumeria in the South

2 years ago

I am in Charleston, SC. When I was in Wash DC, I gave my potted plumerias dark (sorta) and a trickle of water to overwinter. They skinnied a little and dropped leaves and came back in spring.

Here in SC, I have no dark space to hold them in dormancy (if that is the right word).

Q 1) I have a sunroom (northern exposure - hard to call it sunroom) temp varies from high 50s to close to 80. Should I just "grow" them through the winter with limited watering and no fertilizer til spring? Or just treat it like year-round-growing season. Thay have dropped almost all leaves, but a few new ones have appeared.

Q 2) I am considering trying to overwinter one (I have three) outside in the ground using a cloche and a lightbulb on any nights under 45. (If it works, I will do the same with the others in following years.)

(They are all 4 foot tall and sentimental value, as I grew them from 2" cuttings from a friend in San Diego.)

Any knowledge or thoughts or ideas welcome. B Alan

Comments (4)

chadinlg Zone 9b Los Gatos CA
2 years ago
I have 'overwintered' them inside the house (65) near windows and they are fine. They don't have to go completely dormant. Even in Hawaii you will see some that lose their leaves in winter.

I have a cold greenhouse with a soil heating cable buried underneath the pots, and a string of xmas light bulbs, all connected to a thermostat set to go on below 50. Most have lost all the leaves when we hit 34, but some 'dwarfs' near the ground still have their leaves.

I left one out on the covered porch last winter, and it made it through fine, but took 2 months longer to start to grow than the ones in the GHS.
Bruce Romano
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you chadinlg! btw If you know Los Gatos, you might recognize where I was born and grew up - Lompoc! (as a young adult, I moved to DC for 40+ years before retiring to South Carolina).
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chadinlg Zone 9b Los Gatos CA
2 years ago
Bruce, one more tip… I had plumeria for years without getting any blooms on all but one, until last year. The changes I made in my GHS to add the soil heating cable I think made the difference, they started to show claws earlier and leaf out in April instead of June. They also seem to need to reach a certain height, like 4-5 feet.. branches only happen when they bloom.

If you dont want a GHSv, I would suggest using a plant LED light inside for the early spring time
Bruce Romano
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks for that. I'll try the light under a solar blanket for starters, and dig in a heating cable another year if that doesn't work. All of this isn't until NEXT fall, as I don't want to try to acclimate the poor things during the winter itself. I expect it would help for them to get more deeply rooted first. (I put a solar blanket on our (small) pool this winter and it works wonders (It's like a big heavy duty bubble wrap). my guys (or gals?) are already 4 feet tall.

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