Plumeria Odyssey...I call it as such since it took about 3 years and 4 attempts before I got a cutting to root.
Call it persistence on my part, but I simply cannot understand then how I can always fail to get cuttings to root, knowing that it is a succulent and I have been growing succulents for quite awhile now with good success. Plumeria had me blindsided quite a lot. A very long and winding learning curve..so frustrating that at times I wanted to give up. But I am glad in ATP we have very good friends who helped a lot in maintaining my interest peaked.
Anyway, just focusing now on this successful 4th attempt. To give a short background, after being miserable in my other attempts, I got this one in July at a Japanese bonsai store in San Francisco. So have potted it up, and kept fingers crossed. This time around, I added pea gravel on top as mulch. Have read somewhere it helps trap the heat below. So I figured not bad, I can do that. And have located a specific place in my garden where the cutting can get part sun and shade to help it acclimate and also a place where I can leave it alone. That has been one of my mistakes before, putting the cutting right away in full sun, or in having to move the plant in and out a lot in Spring. I guess the cutting did not like that amount of disturbance. So into that corner, behind the calamondin tree.
This was its initial set-up, had it acclimating for a few days, before going behind the calamondin tree. The very daunting tip I am going to watch for the next few weeks hence:
So it took about 2 months for this cutting to finally open one good leaf! Hooray!
The days of waiting comes with good outcomes at last! Rooting is in place and now I can really give the plant some good watering...been so eager to do that..have just been giving it some occasional misting or sometimes a slight sprinkle before.
Well the next goal is to get more leaves out, and of course get some blooms..but I am running out of summer. And I have read that most growers do not anymore give fertilizer in September so that the plant can gradually prepare to its slumber mode during the cold season..ah life! Just when things are getting interesting! Well, in the meantime, I will take it one leaf at a time..will see how far along this cutting will mature before it starts to sleep again.
For now..I count three open leaves...woohoo!
Ah but before I forget, during those two long months of waiting for the leaf claws to form and mature, I took a back-up of getting a rooted plumeria. I got it from another ATP member, Ken (thanks Ken!) and I got the Plumeria Celadine. This Plumeria is growing very well and is busy forming new leaves too. I am glad I got this plant too, I got to see how the roots look like, and how really mature leaves grow as well.
I am so excited to see how things fare out later on..I wonder which one will give me its first blooms, what will they look like, which one will go to its dormancy first, which one will come back better next year...ah..so many questions...so got to continue watching and learning as it goes..the fun continues!
Post a new thread about this blog entry:
