Bill,
All your flowers are just beautiful. Do you just have them in your yard or are they in a greenhouse? I know it is warmer down south and it is probably easier to grow everything there. I miss the Bay Area because you could just about grow everything there also. Mar

No greenhouse. Everything is outside. About 30 in the ground and the rest in various sized pots. My favorite spot is our wine bench under a natural umbrella of purple and red trumpet vines with the smells of tuberoses, plumeria, gardenia and jasmine drifting on the wind. Sherry and I like to sip a glass, smell the air and watch the butterflies play dogfight through the yard. A wonderful excape from the city. Bill
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What a nice retreat Bill, so peaceful looking.

It looks like all your pots are arranged close together, are they? I seems like the pots aren't getting a lot of sun because the folige is protecting the pots. Maybe it's just the way the picture was taken or the time of day it was taken.

The picture was taken in June when the plants were just starting to leaf out. Pots are close together because this is about one sixth of my plants (50 here) so I have no room to spread out anymore. I use center stakes and ties to keep the plants from spreading wide. They get plenty of sun as about 20 are flowering now and more are putting out inflos. My main flowering this year should be in August and September as we are running a month late. Bill

So Bill, sounds like you have your own Plumeria Nursary??? !

What do you do to winterize your plants? I don't suppose you get any frost down there do you? Do your plants go dormat during the winter? Do they loose their leaves? What do you do as far as watering during the winter months?

Hi Bill,
Glad your 2 year plant bloomed, pretty one. Nice plants there, bet your fence is a "doggie" fence. LOve your wine bench!
Karen B.

Teri- Your do not start wanting a nursery but when you must have one of those and that one and maybe one of those- and soon you have lots of babies that like teens grow big and want more space. I used to cover and protect for winter but now I put the young under the patio cover and sweat out the few nights that are near frost (give sulfate of potash in fall). This year a whole hedge of 7' plants got frozen and I lost 3' off the top and probably 4+ plants. I do not water much in the winter and most of my planters are raised which drains fast. Where I am in S.Cal we only get 14" of rain a year (this year maybe 2") so cold is my biggest worry. I have many ideas but no progress so far.
Karen- you are correct about the fence- got to keep the hippies out of the plants. Bill
Peace and love Chelsea the flower eater:
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Yes, love the wine bench. And Chealsea!!

Kase

Wow! It sure looks like a peaceful spot. A little spot of paradise. I've got 2 of those little critters too. Although I shouldn't say little, mine are labs, but the cats are the worse. When I bring the plants in I have to make sure the cats can't get near them. I'm thinking of getting an old macrame pot holder to hold them up in the bathroom. For sure the cats can't get to them there??? It must be nice to just sit and enjoy the smells and the colors of all the plants. Even the few I have (that the deer don't eat) I enjoy and go out everyday and just check on them. Have you ever tried to grow giner plants and there is another that smells wonderful I think it is Pakaki?? the lotions don't do it justice but when we were in Hawaii got to smell one had the ginger and Pakaki together and it was wonderful.

Maril, your idea of hanging your plants from a macrame holder sounds like a good idea. Does your bathroom get a lot of window light? What direction does the light come from. I'm no expert but if you do that won't that prevent the plants from going into dormancy? Maybe the experts can advise.

I also love the Ginger and Pakaki. I haven't seen either sold around here. I went to Honolulu last summer. I wish I would have purchased some plumeria, ginger and pakaki cuttings at the time.

Both ginger and pakaki are very cold sensitive. The pakaki died the first winter and the ginger lasted about 3- so I cut them out. I have better luck with the tuberoses which have a fantastic smell. Also around here we do not talk cat. My neighbor's cats have inflicted many broken plumie arms, Just last week I found a six foot G.sunset branch broken off and a young celadine knocked from its pot. Ugh.

When I hear stories like that I'm glad I don't have any cats around. My little doggie seems to keep away from any of my plants. Sometimes she'll dig a hole and bury her treats but never near any plants. I guess I'm lucky.

Ok, so today I went to HD again. I came home with another Plumeria plant. I'm going to leave this one alone and let it do it's own thing. I also bought two Hibiscus plants. I'm going to keep those in pots so I can move them around the yard with the sun. Then I bought a Arabian Jasmine. From what I've read on the internet it is basically a Hawaiian Pikake. The tag said "Full Sun to Partial Shade". Everything I've read on the internet says not to plant in full sun. Now I'm debating if I should just put that one in a pot also.

I'm having a hard time figuring out where to plant things. It seems most areas in my yard are either hot sun or all shade.

Bill, Chelsea is darling. I can't believe she can be a flower eater! She looks so innocent!

Yesterday I picked my first flower on an old Tangerine that had suffered for several years and finally flowered with a pretty little orange bloom. As I came back, I noticed a branch that needed to be retied so I put the bloom on the lawn and began to retie the branch. Teri- little miss innocent flashed by scooping up the prize and raced down the grass with me in hot pursuit. Fortunately I recovered the bloom but it was damaged so no picture. Must wait for another. She is "not that innocent." Bill

Sounds to me like she is just looking for attention! I can picture her little brain saying "ok, since you are paying so much attention to your plumies and tangerines I'm just going to steal that sucker from you. Maybe then you'll pay attention to me!" Noticed she got you running after her! ;-)