I'm not that far from you. I'm in Maryland, just outside of DC. I take my plumies in when the nighttime temps hit the 40's. I'd be even more cautious with young seedlings or newly rooted plants. I've had some seedlings decide to go dormant and others continue growing over the winter. It wasn't necessarily the larger seedlings that went dormant either. There was really no way to figure out who was going to drop their foliage until it actually started happening.
Karyn

Hi, Sheila, I'm right next door in Ohio. Karyn is way braver than I am! lol I've already brought newer cuttings in a couple of times in the past week when the low got close to 50! lol September and May is crazy here. I take them out if it's a warmer, sunny day, then bring them all back in in the evening before it gets too cold. I have maybe 110 plants by now. I should have fantastic biceps muscles by now! lol Crafty

Crafty...you LITERALLY take in and out 110 plants???? I will wait until temps go below 50 to bring mine in. I have wanted to ask you how you store yours over the winter.

Crafty you are nuts! lol I wait until the last minute to take them in as well as bring them out in the spring. Once they've been moved that's it. I have well over 400 container plants, many in 20-30 gallon pots and they don't get moved more then twice a year. Besides that many of them go into the big greenhouse at the farm (I have small GH's in my yard) and have to be transported by truck. I don't think my DH would go for moving them back and forth.
Karyn

Shelia, Up till now I thought I was the only Plumie lover in WV. I also got my Plumie in the islands about 7 years ago and it is now 6ft tall and has bloomed the last three years. I bought my Plumie at a gift shop and the picture was white with a yellow center, but when it bloomed it was lavender with a orange center. I take it in when the night temps average 45 degrees.

Hi, Shelia and Karyn, Of course I'm nuts! lol Nuts for plumeria!!!!! ;o) The majority of my plants are 1 year old seedlings and new seedlings. At the present moment they are in trays, so I'm carrying many at one time. I have nine big plants that are kind of heavy to take in and out. But, they are the older ones, so they need the sun and heat to flower! Then I have approximately 20 smaller plants that are too big for trays, so those go out and come in 2 x 2. lol I'm very sure my neighbors think I'm totally insane as they watch me go through my twice a day routine in the spring and fall. When they all get lots bigger, I may have a problem, but with the seedlings, I'm planning on waiting till they bloom, keep the prettiest one, and selling the rest, so that will cut my inventory down considerably. There really is a method to my madness! lol My hubby is having a fit about all these plants, but he'll get used to it. Storing them over winter isn't that big of deal. I stack the bigger ones when they go dormant, and I have tables with heat and light for the smaller ones to keep them going over winter. Also, I try really hard to stick with more compact plants when I buy. Oh how I wish I could get a green house!!!!!! That would surely be awesome! Maybe hubby will see the need for one when he can't move in the house anymore! lol Crafty

Thanks everyone for your advice. Vorlonwolf where do
you live in WV? I live about 25 miles from Charleston,WV.
I'm trying to be patient for my first bloom. Since living in zone 6, we have mild winters. But I do not want
my plumeria to get frost-bite so I will probably move it into the garage. I have my new seedlings under grow lights.

Shelia: I live in Charleston. The weather this year has caused my plumie to only have one flower at a time. Last year when it was hot and dry it had two or three flowers blooming at a time. I have never tried seedlings but I have two cuttings rooted. One has really taken off,but the other one started to leaf out but stopped. I have had to watch the night temp starting the last week of Sept but generally I don't take them in until the night temps average in the high 40`s. I don't know where you live, but here the temps run higher than in the outlying areas. Be patient as my plumie took 4 or 5 years before the first bloom.

Vorlonwolf, I live only 30 miles from Charleston. I live
in Milton that is in Cabell County. I just got two more
seeds that germinated. I am so excited to see what color they turn out to be because they say that they are usually
different from the parent plumeria. I had a black tip
problem in May with all of the cold rain so I cut off the tips and successfully the leaves came back very healthy.
Do you have an email on your profile page?

I also live in West Virginia, I'm closer to Tazewell, Virginia than Charleston, WV. I have 4 plumerias now, and all are doing great, bought 2 in Daytona Flea Market late July of Last year, and a singapore pink in July this year, and a fruit salad in may last year, but out of all of them the fruit salad was the most expensive, and I just couldn't pass one of them up in Daytona Flea Market, it was a healthy 28" tall plumeria, and only $20, and now since I got it it has got 3 more tips and more on the way, because it has an inflo, and is now 4' tall. I've never tried the seeds, but I think I have a couple that are started from seed, because one is 2' tall and not a trace of blooming, and my other one has no trace of a bloom below 30" tall, and I've found a website, and found that most plumerias started from seed doesn't bloom till about 3' tall. I don't bring my plumerias indoors until the lows keep hitting the 40s, but plumerias are hardy to freezing, but below 40 degrees they can have problems with black tip. It has been rainy here all year, but it didn't rain much this month until Fay came, and then got needed rain from Fay, it rained constantly nonstop for 29 hours, and got 1.50 inches of rain, it rained slow enough for the ground to soak it all up, and it has been raining almost every day since, only one day after didn't get rain, and the plumerias are enjoying it, and don't have to water this week, because nature provided the water, but at least its not drought because in 2005-2007 it was dry not a drop of rain for 2-3 months at a time during the summer, in 2005 their was no fall color, just crispy brown leaves, but places around here got full fall color that year.

Lee

Hi Lee,
That's great that we are finding out other West Virginias
are having success with plumerias. When I was in Hawaii
I saw so many plumerias on their streets and the wonderful
fragance. I went to the ABC store and even bought perfume
and hand lotion that was made with the plumerias. I used
to live in Princeton and attended Concord College. I'm
originally from the southern part of WV.(Summers Co.) I
know you guys get harsher winters than we do. That's one
thing that I don't miss about living there all of that
snow. I remember the drought last year that's why we
created a rain barrel system to help water all of my plants.

I've seen a pink plumeria at buffalo botanical garden, in Buffalo, New York, and its fragrance was wonderful, smelled like tropical fruit, with lots of sugar, it was the first I've seen in real life, and it had a strong fragrance, and then I saw some white ones at Daytona, and they had hardly no fragrance, and had long narrow leaves.

I've to get the fragrance oils when I see them. I bought some fragrance oils at Daytona Flea Market, and they are so strong, if you use some for about 15 minutes, the odor will stay in the air all evening, I got the fragrance oils from Scents Of Nature, their website is www.scentsofnature.com , and don't burn the plumeria oil to where it is almost gone, because it will start smelling like Flea Powder. I also like one called china rain, it smells almost as good as the plumeria, but they cost more than most oils, I bought a few and for a 1/2 oz bottle it was $1.99, but if you buy them in a box of 18 online, they cost $.92 per bottle, but I think they are worth the price.

I live in Summers County, and the winters are harsh here, the record low here is -17 degrees, and the cold winters are returning here. I don't know how long I'm going to be in zone 6B/7A, it might turn back to a zone 5B, like it was in the 1980s, and got the most snow since 1999 last winter. I've noticed that the leaves on the trees in Charleston, WV come out about 2 weeks before here, and gone 2 weeks after here, but I couldn't live in Charleston, WV Because of all the chemical plants, I've been through there a few times and it was so hazy, because of the chemicals.

I need to create a rain barrel system, because I was lucky to have water last year, all my neighbors didn't have water, but somehow their was water here, and I had to water my plants 2-3 times a day, and I usually water them 2 times a week.

Lee

Hi Lee,
I bet those oils smell wonderful. I grew up in
Sandstone, WV and went to High School at Hinton. Isn't
this a small world.
I love trying to grow flowers from different areas that
are not available in WV. I'm also growing Texas Star
Hibiscus from seeds. I first saw them at Brookgreen
Garden in Murrells Inlet near Myrtle Beach.

The oils do smell wonderful. It is a really a small world, I lived in Sandstone, WV all my life.

I also love growing flowers, and other tropical looking plants that grow in different areas. I like to try to grow plants in the ground, that many people don't think will survive the winters here, like banana plants, and palms. I got a Hardy Musa Basjoo Banana last year, and it survived the winter, and so far this year it has grew 13', and summer of 07 it grew 8'. I've got a Hayes Stiffie Windmill Palm last year, and it survived almost zero degrees, for a few days, and it was unprotected, and had no leaf burn, and then about 1 1/2 months later the deer killed it, they got to it so bad that it couldn't survive, but I sprouted some different types of Windmill Palms tracycarpus fortunei, and they are growing well, but took 4 months to sprout. I've got a plumeria that has an inflow that is about 5 weeks old, and it could bloom soon, and yesterday the inflow grew 1/2", and it is 1 1/2" now, and the inflow is spreading out. I just repotted it, and it was rootbound, so it likes its new pot now, and out of that other pot. I can't wait to see the color, I've had 4 chances to see blooms on it, It produced one last year, but it couldn't bloom, because it didn't produce the buds to bloom, and this year it branched 2 times, but the inflos were absent, and now I might have a chance, the inflo is finally growing properly, instead of something missing, this plumeria has alway been a strange one, This year I've seen 2 leaves growing together on it, but they were connected at the branch of the plumeria, I've never seen that happen on a plumeria.

I've got got some hibiscus plants, but I've seen the texas star hibiscus in pictures, but I haven't got any yet, I've seen a 3-in-1 hibiscus at a Home Depot near Daytona Flea Market, and it was pretty, the flowers had about 3 colors in one flower, and it was $30, and it was all one grafted plant, and the whole plant had at least 9 different colors.

Lee

Hi Lee466,
My family still lives in Sandstone. My sister works at
the Sandstone P.O. She also has 2 plumerias that she got
while in Hawaii. This last two weeks I have been so
busy making salsa from my tomatoes. When is the best time
to make the plumeria go dormant and stop watering them?

Most of my family lives out of state. I'm the only one in the family that grows plumerias.
I stop watering my plumerias in early October, and let them go dormant, it seems to work best for me.

Lee

Hi I'm in springfield,ohio and I've had plumeria f o r 15 years, mine must be ok with the weather here they have frequently been 100 percent fine down to 28 degrees, no die back at all I wouldn't let seeding get t h at cold but the trees were j u st fine

I also grow dragon fruit, citrus, figs and many other tropicals

Hi, I really learned a lot from those comments. Right now, I have successfully growing 9 plumerias trees. I am trying to grow a pitcher plant now. I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can take care my flowers in my flowers beds.

I'm in coastal California and I leave older and seedlings out all winter and they have survived 30 and into the upper 20's. I don't cover mine or sweat it.

Their pretty adaptable.