Hi Plumeria fans!
I just returned from a vacation in Maui with my wife and we picked up many plumeria cuttings on our visit there. On return, I followed the advice of trimming the bottom, dipping in rooting hormone (dip n grow at 5:1) and sealing the bottom with parafilm to help form the callus.
The cut ends appear to be callusing nicely.

I am an experienced gardener and grow figs and other sub tropicals indoors under lights, I'd rather wait as I am leery about starting plumerias too early if it isnt necessary. How much can I wait? The cuttings are now about 1-2 weeks old.
Anyone growing Plumerias successfully this far North? Is it terribly difficult to grow plumerias indoors? I'd rather incorporate them into my living space rather than hide them away in a grow tent as I am doing with my fig trees.

Thank you

Can't answer all of your questions, but I successfully grow my plumeria in New York. My plant originally was growing indoors in my apartment in Manhattan for years. It grew well, but never flowered. Once I moved to Long Island, I was able to put her outside once temperatures got warm in full sun. She started blooming this year in the fall! https://garden.org/thread/view...

@ramv
Don't be in a hurry this time of year. Your plumeria sticks will be dormant and will not be putting out roots any time soon.
Leave them in the parafilm for at least another 4 weeks. Our plumeria in Southwest Florida tend to break dormancy around the end of February but this is of course influenced by increased daylight hours and warmth. You will have to fake it! Since you are experienced in growing tropicals, you will probably do fine.
There are many people growing plumeria in northern climates and it means nearly always supplying extra light in order to see blooms. Check back with us in a few months!!

Your Hawaiian Plumeria cuttings will just sleep it off for now. Just be very patient. Before when I hide my Plumerias indoors during winter, I have to wait till outdoor overnight temps are at least 50F before I can bring it out. So it will be about late April to May. When temps are tolerable already, I have them positioned in part sun/shade outdoors to acclimate it slowly to outdoor conditions. Your cuttings will grow leaf claws first, but you have to wait till it actually is able to open up that claw to be fully sure the plant is awake, otherwise it is so vulnerable to black rot at the tips when it suddenly gets chilled and overwatered. Our temps are still fluctuating high and low too much during mid to late Spring, so as soon as conditions improve, you can reposition the plant to a more full sun area.

Ideally Plumerias love lots of full sun, high humidity and warm to hot temps. It will be a nice challenge for you! Took me 3 years to understand it and lots of failed attempts

Just some photos for you to help you understand:
Leaf claw stage, cutting is still not fully awake:


Leaves finally open, plant is now defintinely awake so you can do usual watering and fertilizer application. The hotter the temps the more frequent watering it likes. In my area we go extremely dry and into triple digit heat, so I have to water everyday here. It may be different in your area if you have more rains, so you have much better humidity levels than we do:


Make sure you make the media gritty, coarse and well draining. I use cacti mix, compost, lots of pumice, sometimes some chunky lava rock, clay rocks or if I have kanuma and akadama japanese soil I use that too. Then I top dress with chicken grit (insoluble crushed granite).

Thanks all.
I will wait atleast 6 weeks to start rooting the plumeria cuttings. I plan to use the bag method 50-50 coco coir: perlite. keeping the moisture level quite low and applying bottom heat of 90F.

Can I root in darkness and expose to light after roots are formed. Or is light necessary for the rooting to occur?

You would be much better off with light. Darkness is not conducive to rooting.

emddvm said:You would be much better off with light. Darkness is not conducive to rooting.

Is it true that even in the early stages of rooting, light is needed? I thought most bag rooting happened in the shade/mostly dark.

I have never tried to root a plumeria in the dark and doubt if I ever will. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Thanks for your response.
From a different forum, I found that Plumerias can root in complete darkness -- actually that is preferred. Heat is the main thing required during rooting. Only after roots form is it necessary to expose the tree to light.