Just wanted to share a photo of Hula Girl, which opened yesterday--officially my first bloom of 2012!

The color strikes me as a little pale...but it hasn't been terribly warm of late. But I'm not complaining ;) it smells lovely, too!

Hope this brightens everyone's day...winter will be over soon!

Greg

WOOOOHOOO for the "Hula Girl".... She is one gorgeous gal!!! ;)

Congratulations on a beautiful bloom to the start of "2012"

I love the dockage that you have. Those intercoastal waterways are the best location to relax by the water...

Do you have Plumies in all of the yellow containers on the deck in the background? Awesome!!!

Thanks for showing us your "First" of the season!!!

"Here's to having a wonderful year full of gorgeous blooms"

CHEERS!!!

Laura

Glad you enjoyed the photo. It was a treat for me to have even a single flower at this time of year (although just today, I saw an Aztec Gold across town that was literally covered in beautiful blooms!). As pretty as HG is now, I can't wait to see it once the Florida heat starts to kick in.

To answer your questions:

It is a lovely dock, but no, it's not all mine. I do live in a condo building with only five units, though, so it's usually pretty quiet down by the water.

And Laura, yes, there are 16 urns on the dock, and as of last fall each one contains one of my trees--in the gritty mix :) (I convinced the other owners that the Home Depot shrub-things that had been in them were just boring...and they went for it LOL)

Anyway, the sun exposure out there is the best it gets on the property, so I'm looking forward, hopefully, as you said, Laura: to a year of many beautiful blooms. (I had the "Inspector flashlight" out earlier this evening on the dock, and noticed a tiny inflo on Waimea--SO psyched about that!!!)

There's only one problem...something has been eating the new leaves on those trees...it's not an insect...whatever it is is eating the entire leaf and just leaving behind the leaf stem...it is really making me mad. I suspect those hateful iguanas that sun their ugly selves on the dock...but I have not actually witnessed the offense. ARGH! Many of the trees were fully leafed out, and then picked clean...

Has anyone else out there had this problem?

Bye for now,
Greg

What a shame about the eaten leaves. I can't imagine any animal thinking they would be tasty. Even our deer don't eat them up entirely.

Looking forward to pics of Waimea!

The smell, to me, is sweet, like gardenia or frangipani. and it's stronger than I had expected. It's quite lovely.

Oh, it is such a shame about the leaves--some of the plants seem to be in a bit of shock from it, almost like they've gone back into dormancy. I LOATHE iguanas...I'm sure the trees will be ok, though...they're pretty tough. And once they grow out some more, we'll have a plumeria promenade along our dock--I'm psyched.

And you can believe I will post pics of Waimea when it blooms!!! Can hardly wait!

Take care,
Greg

I heard that the grower that supplies Lowes with plumeria will be offering a greater variety this year... I am interested to see what they have even though I don't need to buy anything else.

Enjoy the early blooms!
Brian

But it looks like they're going to be really happy. I'm tickled at the number of tiny little inflos that are starting to appear.

As for your news about Lowe's: God help me! LOL it's going to take more will power than I probably possess to keep from buying more, especially if they have new cultivars! Yikes!

Here's HG today:

Best,
Greg