Too bad you are not local. I bought a 5 gallon from Mathew at Island Plumeria last year. I am hoping it will bloom this year. If my memory serves me right he had a 15 gal but was too large for me to haul home. This is the same place that Simidude bought a lot of his plumerias too. You might want to see if he has something smaller?

No-Clue I just looked at Island Plumeria and says they only do local business, no mail order. Thank you for the reference.

Mindy

That's right, no mail order BUT he has fabulous stuff at great prices and is so nice and helpful. roxanne

Mindy, why don't you order a grafted one from Florida Colors? It's only $25 and it'll be on a very established root stock. They also guarantee their plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hilo Beauty

Mindy, if you write to Kara at The Plumeria World, they offer some rooted plants, you just have to contact her to see if they have that rooted - they sell the cutting though so they should.

Also, Michelle (plumygirl on here) has rooted Hilo Beauty as well.

Good luck!

Hi Minderella,
I got a few 4 and 5-tip rooted Hilo Beauties. However, they root slowly and I do not want to ship before mid June. They all have leaves and some have inflos on them. If you are willing to wait I will sell you one for $30 plus shipping.

George

George that's a great deal! Mine only has 2 branches and around 3 ft tall... just now waking up and I paid $65 for her last year. Not sure when she will bloom though... but worth the wait I'm sure.

I got a 1 foot tall 5 tip Hilo Beauty from Derrick for about $7. One tip is blooming.

George I will take you up on it. Just let me know the shipping and address and will send you the money. Thank you everyone.

Mindy

I was gonna say, that pink flower doesn't look anything like my Hilo Beauty! Mine is very dark red. And when the sun shines thru the petals it just glows.

George, I do want the dark Hilo Beauty. Is yours the dark one of the light one?

Mindy

George,
The description on the PSA link states that Hilo Beauty's color as "Strong maroon red,". and "Dark Red" under the Hilo Beauty title. The picture of Derricks Hilo Beauty Spiecial does not look Maroon or Dark Red. I am posting a link to a sample color of Maroon. I may have a rooted Hilo Beauty you can have but it was a broken branch I shoved into the mother plants pot. I will have to check and see if it rooted.

Hilo Beauty if infamous for rotting and that is the case with mine also. Ive tried water rooting, conventional rooting and bag rooting, air layering and it never works, only thing that works for me is to root it int he same pot as the mother plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Maroon Color

I too lost a big Hilo Beauty years back....over watered and it did not like the winter that year and I left it on the deck in Ventura, ca. I have also found that when limbs break off....for some reason they root and take off faster when shoved in next to "the mother ship"... :-) roxanne

Ok I'm confused. George never posted the photo but rather it was DelWH who bought from Derrick. What am I missing?

Mine is barely waking up. Leaf buds (for lack of a better term) are much darker? So what do I have? :)

Hey guys thanks for the heads up. I have Hilo Beauty from 3 different sources, FCN, Hawaii, and Derrick. The first two are grafted and have very dark leaves, The ones from Derrick have lighter color leaves and inflos and should be blooming soon, They do appear to be different. I bought eight of them from Derrick to study rooting them. They did not root for 6 months, they just sat there. At the end I lost half of them; the other half are rooting. Based on what I learned I can think I can root them well now.

Mindy, it does appear that these are not the dark red Hilo Beauties. It is a shame because they are such nice plants with inflos. You are better off finding another source for them if you want the dark red. Sorry about this.

George

Thank You for your offer. I appreciate it. Mindy

After searching around on the web, I agree that what I have, although nice looking, doesn't appear to be a true Hilo Beauty. I found a pic of one by Clare Corre on another site and it matches the descriptions I have read.

Clare Corre is about 15 minutes from where I live. She is wonderful! Not sure if she is selling right now... roxanne

Emerson told me he had a dreadful time with Hilo Beauty. Very hard to root the cuttings and the mother tree would have sudden collapse and die for no apparent reason. I have a cutting from Derrick that is taking off and a cutting from the plant swap this past weekend-it is the dark, which I will try bag method of rooting for.
Good luck! If you don`t find one let me know, I will check at the plumeria sale for a shipping sized one.
Tally HO!

Hey Rox,
Love Clare, didnt realize she was still local and that you were near her (thought she was moving a while ago.). I use to pass her house on the way to the strawberry farm I get my berries from every season, would see her plumies from the road..lol. Clare is very knowledgeable with some great imported plumies, there is one from Kukiat named after her also.

I just bought Hilo Beauty from Sun Harbor Nursery last fall. My Scott Pratt didn't root either and I really wanted a red. It's probably a bit of a drive for you though to the Melbourne area.

astrl

Del - I love the color, and the reflexed petals of your HB. When I ordered from Derrick he sent both Hilo Beauty and Rare Hilo Beauty. His site also calls Rare Hilo Beauty BLACK Hilo Beauty. I would not see your color as black. Could you have received a mix-up, I'm wondering? Whatever, I think it's beautiful!

On a side note... I dislike all the problems we run into with names and like it even less when we now see the Hybrid whatever or Rare whatever with only a slight variation from the original cultivar.

Good question. I had ordered both a HB and a Rare HB. The Rare didn't root and croaked. Perhaps this one is what he calls the Rare HB? I agree, whatever it is, it's nice.

Monie_57,
the Hilo Beauty that Derrick sells has no resemblance to the Hilo Beauty other sellers sell. The leaves are lighter and the red color of the bloom is lighter. Whatever it is he is selling it is definitely not Hilo Beauty and he should not be calling it Hilo Beauty. A lot of people that bought this from him will be upset when their plant blooms.

George

It would be a shame if Derrick gives himself a bad name but at this point I can only judge him from what I have received and to this point am happy with the cuttings, of which none have yet bloomed. :)

The new leaves of the Rare Hilo Beauty has a lot of red veining/ribs. Could someone please check this against what you know to be HB, please.

Moonie,
The claws on HB come up like a burgundy blackish color then open darkish with some veining. Inflos also are also dark almost black when they come up

Monie_57,
I also bought 3 Rare Hilo Beauties. Their leaves seem to be the same as the Hilo Beauty from FCN. I would wait till it blooms to make judgement.
George

Thanks, Freak and George.

Freak - I only hope to see those almost black inflos! :)

Here's my Hilo Beauty. Buds are nearly black. Flower color dark, deep red. Really nice when backlit by sun. New growth is distinctly reddish.

This plant, in my limited experience, seems to not like really intense heat and full, full sun. I let mine get a bit of afternoon shade. It seems to appreciate being kept more moist in summer. In winter dormancy, I've seen it shrivel more than most of my other plumerias and it seems to accept more winter watering, for some reason.

Also, I have had no problems rooting this one. But I've only rooted two...the first cutting I received on Ebay (can't remember from whom) and I rooted a section that broke off. Both with no problems. Could be the plant requires more humidity to root than others? Not sure.

Dave,

That looks like the color I would like. I will wait till I see one rooted or in person to know for sure.

Mindy

Mindy,

I bought a Hilo Beauty cutting from a grower on the Big Island last February. I didn't start rooting it until March, while rooting, it has an inflo developing as well and today, I found roots!

This is the first time I've ever had an inflo on a Hilo Beauty. Here it is next to Derrick's Rare Hilo Beauty:

I think the young leaves on this newly rooted cutting are a lot darker than Derrick's.

Here's one more next to Doug's (Maui Plumeria Gardens) Hilo Beauty. You can kinda see the resemblance in the new dark leaves:

This is from the same plant with newly opened leaves, you can see the red tint on these leaves with the acute tips.

The grower I bought from is fairly new to eBay and the fact they are using someone's bloom pictures makes them seem a bit sketchy. But for less than $7 I was thinking I can have another Hilo Beauty cutting. Their selection is pretty limited and they've always sent me extra cutting with my order.

The 1st Hilo cutting they sent in October was not well callused at all, I could tell something wrong with it and it later rotted from the bottom up. So they sent me another one in February, and this is the one that has rooted just recently.

I will wait for the inflos to open in another few weeks and let you know if this is the "true" Hilo. For our sake it had better be because wasn't Hilo Beauty originated from Hilo, HI?

Dave, did you get your Hilo from Doug? Do you see any similarities between this newly rooted cutting and your Hilo Beauty?

Kenny

I sure hope you all have the darker Hilo Beauty!!!

Mine came from Matt and i am going to go and grab my flashlight and check it out very closely!!!!! ;-)

Mona.. i agree about the different names, we need to keep it to the original varieties. This is why it is so important to only have named trees from cuttings and not from seedlings. Or "Look a likes.." I am so sorry to those that dont have the true "Hilo Beauty" How frustrating...

Dave.. Beautiful!!! My Dark Reds root easily for me too!
Maybe it is the high humidity and heat in the summer. (Black Tiger and Scott Pratt) Both were easy.. Thanks for the beautiful Pic! How is that Waimea doing?

Take care,

Laura

Laura,

If you had bought from Matt (1-stop-aloha), then I would be certain that you got the real deal :)

We have considerable humidity here in Oklahoma that makes things root a lot easier outdoor than inside in the winter. I haven't tried to root Black Tiger yet but I learn it is a tough rooter like Hilo Beauty too. If only I can find a rooted Black Tiger somewhere, I'd like to add that to my collection someday.

Kenny

Hi Kenny!

Thanks! I have had mine for a few years and remember the blooms were like Dave's, but still makes you nervous when you start to see different blooms...

Once my Black Tiger has grown a little more, I will be glad to share a cutting with you! I gifted one to Dave in VA ( the other Dave in VA) and his rooted in three weeks ! I kid you not... When he told me this , I cut another cutting and rooted it myself and it rooted about as fast as Dave's.. I couldn't believe it!!!

I will make a note about the cutting for you!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Laura

Laura,

Oh! That is incredibly generous of you! I'm so grateful to hear you are able to share a cutting with me. Three weeks to take root is impressive! I hope one of these days my trees will be big enough for me to share cuttings with everyone.

Kenny

I have one "Hilo Black Beauty" available. Rooted,17" w/2 tips/tips broke this season/nice deep burgundy claws with the same coloured extreme tips. Cutting is two years old and came from one of the most respected plumeria growers in the US so no worries on the authenticity. NOT GRAFTED! Please let me know if you are interested.

I have a Hilo Black Beauty cutting that is just sending out new little white roots. Size is 12" w/2 tips. New long claws are extremely deep purple...almost black. Very nice cutting and very healthy. Let me know if you are interested as it is the only one small enough to ship.

I have another Hilo Beauty,this one from Emerson that I bought last fall. It will be interesting to see what the three of them look like once they all bloom.

Names are always a problem. Everyone that had a red plumeria in Hawaii sold them as Hilo Beauty.
Tally HO!

I can't wait to see the full leaves on this one let alone the bloom!

I can't wait to see the full leaves on this one let alone the bloom!

plumygirl,

Hi. I was wondering if you have any HBB cuttings available? Thanks!

Nguyet

Here is a picture of my Hilo Beauty that I bought a long time ago from Maui Plumeria Gardens.

p.s. You might want to wait until spring.

How far are you from Indian Harbor Beach? Check out Sun Harbor Nursery. They have a large selection of plumerias. sunharbornursery.com