New here, figured I'd introduce myself.

I've been keeping Plumeria for twenty years, give or take. Mostly small stuff- I've always had them around. When my grandma passed I got her monster, a beautiful towering 10-ft mother. It has white/yellow blooms. It was mine, it was always mine she promised. It's been with me for several years now.

In years previous I've tried different wintering techniques. Some winters they are uprooted and stored in the garage with a small rootball secured in burlap sacks, some I simply stored them in their soil- of course watering sparingly keeping the area clean of debris etc. This year, however, was different.

Last fall my wife and I arranged for a trade of some goods (her scrapbooking "excess", bonus we're cleaning up that area!) for ten more large plants, for the most part labled with bloom colors etc- from someone who wanted to pare down her well-cared for collection.

So this year I wanted to do something different. Rather than allowing the plants to go dormant, which significantly delays spring growth and reduces summer bloom, I installed two T5 High Output 4' 8-lamps to keep them awake, with a heater and fans. The results so far have been very positive!
At first I did loose nearly all of the leaves, just like when the go dormant. A part of this was due to waiting until the very last minute to bring them inside as we do every year- and then the two week delay until the fixtures were installed, since I had not planned this. My other thought was that the T5 lamps were not a good choice for a species with such high light needs. Slowly but surely, new growth appeared, and with a careful watering schedule they are looking like 2019 is going to be phenomenal!

I hope you'll be along for the ride. I'm new here, and haven't read any discussions on this forum. That will change. I'm mostly a lurker on forums, but I'll chime in when I have something to share. This thread is about my 2019 Journey, I hope we can upload lots of pictures- comments and suggestions are welcome!

This picture is from last fall, the day all of the plants were homed for winter storage.

RootRunsDeep

Today was another maintenance day. They had not been watered in several weeks this time, and everything got a good soaking. I also sprayed down the leaves with water, and then a light application of Dr. Earth Insect Killer. I discovered our Hawaiian Scheflerra was infected with something. That's been removed from the grow area and received a heavier treatment. It will not return, and other arrangements will be made for the remainder of the winter.

Beautiful Lush Growth ! You're doing something right

Thanks BBQNBLUES. Good to have you along.

This girl is trying to bloom. Overnight she bumped into the lamp and I raised it about two inches.






Unfortunately when I zoomed into the original I found the infestation on the inflow in a bad way. I don't know what they are but they were treated yesterday, another application planned for Monday or Tuesday. I'm too new to submit another thread in the bug ID forum, hopefully that restriction won't last too long because I'd really like some help with the identification.

Where are you located?

Austin, TX.

I usually don't bring the Plumeria out until April. Here in Central Texas the weather can change on a dime, and that late freeze is always a threat. Unfortunately I lose some valuable spring growth. I may chance early to mid March this year.

My first bloom of 2019!
I already have at least four more inflows started. I can hardly wait to bring these outside this year.

Very nice!! The first one is always special each year!