Frangipanis ... from Adelaide!

When you ask people what's the first thing that comes to their minds when you mention the flower Frangipanis, it's usually tropical holiday destinations like Fiji and Hawaii. But my aim is to add South Morang to that list!

Ok, so South Morang is not really a tropical destination, in fact the majority of taxi drivers in Melbourne don't even know where it is, but why can't we add a little tropical feel to the garden with the sweet smell of Frangipanis.

My beautiful wife has family in Adelaide, and I recently learnt that Leisa's Nanna has a 40+ year old Frangipani growing in Adelaide. Last holiday period I was able to see first hand the tree for myself, and while it didn't look exactly in the best of health compared to those I've seen on my honeymoon in Fiji, it still had clusters of flowers with plenty more on the way.

So I got onto reading how easy it is to root a Frangipani cutting. In fact it's so easy, that I've read reports of cuttings growing leaves and flowering even when they have been lying around and severely neglected!

The father-in-law had brought over some cuttings at the request of my wife as she wanted me to see if I could grow them, as I'd pretty much been able to grow just about everything else (except for Tomatoes, I suck at those big time). Low and behold, they were real easy to get going after I had stuck them in some coco peat pellets and placed in my germination chamber indoors.

The "crown" of the Frangipani plant is where the cluster of flowers form, and some of the cuttings I have already had a crown formed, so it didn't take long for these to start flowering:

From what I can tell, these are your standard Plumeria Rubra variety that are probably the most easiest to grow, even in Melbourne. Even though we normally have low humidity here, apparently there is less likelihood of disease, so there's absolutely no reason why anyone can grow them around here.

I have also some purchased Frangipanis that are probably nowhere near close to flowering, but they are all growing well. Leisa read online yesterday that Frangipanis generally only grow about 20cms a year, so you have to have a fair bit of patience when growing these before you'll actually see the rewards of looking after them for so long.

The problem I have now is that every time I travel to Sydney and Brisbane and spot a Frangipani tree in someone's front yard, I try to think of a way where I can cut a branch off and sneak it into my bag to take home!