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Plumeria only grows leaves

azmom
11 years ago

Please help!

I have two Plumeria plants, one has pink rainbow color flowers, and the other one has white flowers with yellow center that produces heavenly, sweet apricot fragrance. I would appreciate if someone could share the name of both plants.

I put both plants in regular black plastic plant pots, leave them on the backyard patio, water them regularily.

Thankfully, they grow really nice surviving the AZ weather. The pink one has been constantly producing beautiful flowers. The yellow one flowered once.

This spring, I repotted the yellow one with all purpose potting soil mixed with some cactus potting soil. I really did not know what I was doing, just thought the cactus potting soil would provide some drainage.

Now the yellow flower plant has became a large, healthy, strong plant with lots of branches and huge dark green leaves, it looks happy, but has not produced one single flower.

What did I do wrong?

Comments (8)

  • DelWH
    11 years ago

    I'm a newbie here, but from what I've read so far is that plumeria's don't necessarily bloom every year, often every other year, if that often. Also from your description, it sounds like the type of fertilizer you use has a balance that promotes stem and leaf growth over flower production. I'm sure some other more experienced growers will chime in here with more specific info.

  • houstontexas123
    11 years ago

    how large and old are your plumies? until they're more mature they won't flower every year.

  • jandey1
    11 years ago

    Azmom, it's almost impossible to identify a variety based on appearance. There are dozens of named plumeria that fit the descriptions you've given us. A picture might help, but since plumeria flowers can vary a lot according to growing conditions, it's still hard to say.

    Del and Houston are right. Sounds like the yellow bloomed and is taking this year off to put on some more growth. Next year it should bloom on those new branches. If it's healthy and mature enough it will bloom.

  • azmom
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank all of you very much for the responses.

    I have both plants for more than 3 years. They both are about 5 feet tall. They had same size of leaves until I moved the yellow one to a bigger pot. Its largest leaf now is about 16 x 5.5 inches long does not count the length of leaf stem. The average leaf of the pink one is about 11 x 3 inches.

    May be the potting soil I used encourages stem and leave growth as DelWH suggested? Should I start fertilize them when the weather gets cooler?

  • houstontexas123
    11 years ago

    no need to wait for cooler weather. for my potted plants i fertilize at half strength once a month when its warm/hot (march thru oct for me).

  • azmom
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Houstontexas123, What kind of fertilizer do you use? The temperature we have now is above 105 degree F. during the day, and Night temperature is 85 degree F. Is it too warm to use fertilizer?

    Thank you.

  • jandey1
    11 years ago

    You really want to fertilize spring through fall and let them rest in the winter. If you encourage new growth as the temps start falling you run the risk of tip damage. Rule of thumb for most of us is stop fertilizing by Labor Day.

    They don't actually like triple digit temps, so perhaps giving them a break in high summer would help. If you nest your black plastic pots in larger ceramic pots the roots won't get too hot. Otherwise, it's just a matter of time. Unfortunately they require patience.

    I'm looking at a single branch plant now that's four-feet-tall and still hasn't bloomed once for me. Like yours, it has gorgeous leaves and is obviously healthy, but not ready to flower--not unusual.

  • houstontexas123
    11 years ago

    my current daytime temps are around 95-98, and night times are around 79-82. i use the plain Miracle Gro fert. i've never heard of being too hot to fertilize. as long as your plumies are healthy and growing and getting plenty of water, you should be fine giving them some fertilizer.