This was a broken tip. It had a tiny bit of hard wood on it and i was encouraged to try to root it. It has rooted, as I cannot pull it up easily. The leaves have been in a state of suspended animation for months. The cutting is green but has been shriveled also for months. Any suggestive as to what I should do for it?



This is where it came from. It's sister branches grew a good 6-7" this season.

The only way to tell whether it has truly rooted is to remove it from the perlite. Is it still in 100% perlite? Your stem is badly dehydrated and that is due to either no rooting or lack of moisture for the roots. Let us know what you find when you remove the plant. If there are roots (heck, I will re-pot mine in potting soil with 3-4 short, stuby roots, but with few roots, I simply water it sparingly) get it into regular soil. Leaf growth will be the tip-off that everything is going well. Without leaf-growth, something's not right.

It's in mostly perlite and about 20% soil. I will pull it up now and let you see it.

Hrrmpph! Nothing under there! The way it was cut may have made it hard to pull up in the bit of soil.

lay it in a bucket of water with some superthrive to rehydrate it; then start again..... bottom heat will make it root!

Ok @Hetty. It has been sitting on a sunny brick window sill outside sheltered from rain for about 3-4 months even through those weeks of 100 degrees. You'd think that would do it? But like I said, it only had a tiny bit of hard wood on it, the rest new growth. I won't stop working on it.

Good luck, Cheryl. I haven't had much luck with these.

For my information since I am such a klueness newbie ... when trying to root a Plumeria, is it a good idea to have it in full bore 100 % sun at such temperatures? thanks

Rooting should not be done in full sun.

I rooted it correctly with the right exposure The sill is shaded by eleagnus bushes. I had hoped the heat of the brick beliw it would have done it. Except for 1-2 reds and that Pink Pansy, i have been successful at rooting 8-10 cuttings thus far. So successful, I'm going to try another red! I think, as i said before, this was not an ideal cutting in that it barely had any hard wood on it, all new green growth, is why it struggles. It's not dead after 4 months. I will work on it while we continue to have unusually warm temps. This cutting/broken tip is from my 30 yr old vintage NOID white tree from my friend who passed. I thought i would give it my all.

There is hope for that cutting Cheryl. I agree with Hetty's suggestion of rehydrating it. Just be careful that once you see it hydrated, move it to a proper media. I had a cutting before that has been extremely stubborn to root, ended up chopping it, really very small part left. At that point, I was just experimenting if it can come back. It did, but I made the mistake of keeping it in water longer than it should, so eventually ended up rotting it, got too moist. Too bad, I thought it will be a good recovery. And I think I was already lacking time, it was already Fall then. But it was sure nice to know it can be done. Just got to watch the temps and changing seasons. I think I should have just allowed it to naturally rest afterwards or moved to a drier media then rest. Good luck on your cutting!

My little struggling cutting late August 2013:


First week of Sept 2013:

That's interesting, Tarev.

Thanks @tarev. I won't give up on this one.

@Hetty I have the root end of the cutting in a drop of Super Thrive and about a Tbsp of water. Then it occurred to me, did you mean to soak the entire length of ??

I actually did mean that....

Good luck Cheryl, hope this little gal can make it

Outside. In the warm air. In the shade. In a butter dish cover. Taking a bath.

Just a thought. Do you think she has ink poisoning? I've never written on a cutting before but I've seen other's do it.

I have used permanent ink markers on plumeria for many years and never experienced any problem in doing so.

Ditto