If it was mine and you had a sunny window with only four trees, I would spray then down well to get all of the insects off of the trees. I would leave the leaves on and let them drop naturally. Having just four will make it easy and you can watch them . Keeping them in the sunny window could keep them a little active and then the tree can decide what it wants to do. ( dormant or not) you will know

those of us that have many to put away, I have to trim and put into a back room.

you can watch your trees and give a little water once a month or so during this semi dormant period. Maybe one cup a month. Don't keep them damp or wet.. Water around the outer edge of the container. Some don't water at all, some do..

i hope this helps.. Good luck!!

laura

I move mine when we get into high 40s. I like to keep them out for as long as possible. Extended forced dormancies are stressful on them.

I will repeat here what I learned when I started growing adenium and plumeria:

Dormancy is bad. If you can avoid it, try to. Basically, the rule is that these plants can "grow through" virtually any ailment. However, when they're dormant, they're really susceptible to death from something that they would have survived if growing.

I recommend additional lighting if you have it available. LED's or florescent will be fine, and I've even had indoor blooms in the middle of the winter.

Some people here will tell you to allow them to go dormant. These same people can tell you how many they lost last winter.

I lost zero.

jedoba: I completely agree with you.

Plumerias are often touted as a plant that can be 'stored away like patio furniture'. To some degree that is true in that they can 'tolerate' a dry dormancy period. But for how long is an important part of the equation. In Hawaii, the plants rarely lose ALL their leaves. There's usually a somewhat active growing tip and usually inflos are developing during this time. In southern regions, such as south Texas for example, one might get away with bare-root storage due to higher humidity and short dormancy. I could never do that up here.

I have to 'store' my largest plants in heated, but cool garage over winter. I try to keep it above 50 degrees. It's really a bit too cool for them there -- 55 to 60 would be better -- but it's what I have and I don't want a $400 per month electric bill for heating.

But, I usually leave at least a half dozen to a dozen leaves on per tip when I bring them in, AND I supply supplemental lighting. My theory is that if they can at least keep growing, albeit slowly, and photosynthesizing, they will not be forced into as long a dormancy. I let them drop the remainder of leaves on their own. Yes, it's messy, but I think it helps.

But you don't want to encourage a LOT of growth over winter -- that can result in lanky, soft growth, and spidermites.

In my indoor setup under lights, if I can keep lights at 14 hours or more, they don't really go dormant. Growth slows down and I do often get blooms. I do really hold back on water though.