June 28th, 2012: Plumeria 'Teresa Wilder' (Plumeria rubra) by Clare_CA

The Bloom of the Day for June 28th, 2012 was Plumeria 'Teresa Wilder' (Plumeria rubra).

View the bloom of the day here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/botd.php?date=2012-06-28

Oh Clare, all your plumeria photos are so special!

Thank you, Kell. Please come visit me this summer and see all my plumeria flowers in bloom:-)

I have Brad, FlyboyFL, to thank for this one as he sent me cuttings from his tree in Florida a few years ago. He is such a dear man.

Oh, I would just love to!

PS And to see your variegated bananas too! Even though you convinced me I am too old to plant them in my garden and then keep them under control. But I still would love to see them!

LOL, Kell. I didn't mean to convince you of that. I must have been projecting because, even though I am only 48, I have decided that I am too old to maintain these bananas! They are so lovely when they are little, and then they grow big and tall and spread. Yuck. I just took out a huge mat of Raja Puri bananas, which took weeks, and I had to dig and dig and chop and wedge and pull just to get the massive corms out of the ground. Never again. All my tall bananas are coming out this year. I still have plenty of variegated youngsters if you are still interested though. They are adorable when they are young. My garden gate is always open to you

Sadly, I am so much older than you! So my days of " dig and dig and chop and wedge and pull " are long over!

I had a huge Ensete ventricosum that dropped seed all over and I now have about 4 of them growing, about 4 ft now. I so need to cut them down before they get much bigger. The huge one I had I grew from about 1 foot. It took my husband quite awhile to slowly hack it down and cart it away after it flowered.

Someday I might just come thru that garden gate! LOL

Yeah, both our backs are messed up if I remember correctly. The fruit is yummy on some of my bananas, and so I'll probably keep a couple of them, but they will be short ones.

I have a big Ensete also, and it is a monster. I intend to hack it to the ground before it has a chance to spread seeds.

I just harvested these the other day.

That is so exciting! So many! I am sending my parrot to live with you. He loves bananas. Will you eat them all?

LOL! I have enough life forms to take care of, but thank you! LOL! My chickens will have some; we'll eat some; and the rest will be frozen for smoothies. I give some away to family and neighbors too. They're good, but still not worth it when you have to dig them up:-) Yesterday, I got the rest of the Dwarf Brazilian dug up, and today, the Ice Cream mat is getting removed -- or some of it anyway. It will take about a week to get it all out of the ground.

What will you replant in the space, Clare?

Hi Kell! Happy 4th to you, my dear.

I've had to dig up and move some large plumerias lately. I had some growing between my Michelias, and the Michelias were getting so large that they were smothering the plumerias. And so I moved two up on the hill where bananas were. I'm thinking of digging a couple more bananas out and putting plumerias in their place. I've also been planting a lot of cycads and palms, but cycads are so expensive, and they rot on me sometimes because I water too much. In the front of the hill, I'll probably put something variegated and low-maintenance like a flax or something. Hubby likes grassy-looking things to cover up the bare stems of the plumerias.

Here are some pictures of the areas that I'm talking about. You can see the corms that I dug out of the ground yesterday and the hill area that I'm talking about. The last one is the row of Michelias that once had plumerias between them.

It's ironic that, in the first picture, the 'Teresa Wilder' tree is in the center, and that's the tree that the bloom of the day came from. That was one of the ones that I just moved.

Your yard looks great. I do love the look of the big bananas, Clare. Too bad they make such a big matted mess. And you have such a nice lawn! LOL I bet it is easier to have a lawn there then more plants. The older I get the more I appreciate things like lawn which I hated in my younger years.

Don't you wish the powers to be would have made the multiple picture posting here so you could just click sideways thru all the photos? So much easier. So much better. It is not like they do not know how to do it. I assume they never use the site themselves or they would have a clue.

Thanks, Kell. Sorry for the delayed response.

Yeah, if I had more room and didn't have to do the mat maintenance, I would probably leave the big bananas, but since I only have so many places for fruit trees or plumerias, all my tall bananas are coming out. There are still a couple of plumerias in pots that I would like to have a place in the ground, and they are a lot less work than the bananas.

I'm not a fan of the lawn really because it is fake grass, and it gets super hot in the summer, and so you can't walk on it with bare feet, not that I should walk around with bare feet since I am allergic to bee stings, but the dogs like to run on it, and I guess it's better than dirt. I do like the look and feel of real grass, but our water bill was really high when we had real grass, and John always hated having to mow it.

I agree with you about the pictures. I hate to say it, but I'm going to let my subscription expire this year again. I just don't visit here enough to make it worth it to shell out the money for the annual fee. We'll still chat on Plant Files though and in emails. Are you on Facebook? I'll look for you and friend you if you are.

Just beautiful, I love plumeria, grows better south of me, can freeze here too easily. Such a lovely pink color.

hi Clare: Thank you for the information on "cuttings" vs "grafted cuttings.

So, If I understand it correctly, a cutting grafted on a plumeria tree of a different color will always be the same color as the mother tree it was cut from???

I buy cuttings from Florida Colors Nursery and they always make sure to tell me that they are sending me "grafted" cuttings.

I don't understand why they would go to the trouble of "grafting" a plumeria stick, when they can save themselves from the work of grafting the stick, and just send me
the cutting once they've cured it??

What am I not understanding here?
Thank you for your help
Angie

hi:

Can anyone identity this cultivar for me?

Although the eye looks orange, it is truly very yellow

Thank you
Angie

The petals have lots of veins.

This message was edited Sep 17, 2012 10:24 AM