if you are careful you can lift them out of the pot, remove soil if needed and reset back into the pot at the angle you want. then stake them until they stay on their own. If they have a decent root ball you wont hurt them at all.

Mike

Mike, many thanks. It do it...with care.

"It do it"??? Can't even call that a typo!

I'd leave them be at this point. If they are rooting, you'll risk breaking off roots in the process of righting them. Plenty of time to upright them after they are well rooted.

I would stick rocks or styrofoam chunks in there to prevent any further leaning at this point.

This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Tue, Jun 18, 13 at 9:03

Dave, unfortunately, I went ahead and attempted the repositioning. As I gently removed the soil around the base, I did encounter root tendrils, which I tried not to break. But you are right, it's a tricky proposition to mess with the base, because the tendrils are long. At a certain point I could just lever the stalk, then replace the soil firmly enough to keep it plumb.

I think the cutting had been gradually leaning toward the sun, so I'd not noticed until it was nudging the rim. It'll teach me a lesson about either staking or firmly pebbling from the start.

This season was my first attempt to grow cuttings, which I had to cut, because the plumeria in front of my bungalow were growing over my picket fence and intruding over the sidewalk. No complaints, because they are magnificent trees, and passers-by are more delighted than annoyed. But still, one more year, and they'd have really got in the way.

They receive daily watering from an auto sprinkler even when dormant, and I don't think they know what overwatering is, because every year they grow bigger and more beautiful, with six months of blooming, until the California nights get cold and tell them time to go to sleep.

I'm sure they'll be fine. They're in growth mode right now!

It's not ideal, but like Dave says, at this point they're in growth mode and should recover from torn roots quickly.

I've managed to rip several well formed new roots off trying to remove them from their rooting bottles before the heat here begins to bake them. They seem to bounce back just fine.