Tag Archives: frangipani

In A Vase on Monday -Frangipani, Foccacia and Friends

 

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Sunday morning found me baking bread to make Pulled Pork sandwiches for a friend who came down with shingles. While the bread was rising, I toured the garden to find the components of a vase. The Bridal Bouquet Frangipani (Plumeria pudica) has just started flowering in earnest and the scent wafting through the air in the early morning stopped me and my clippers.

I clipped a stem of the Bridal Bouquet Frangipani and looked around to see a Pink Desert Rose (Adenium) flowering and cut one of those to add to the vase. What vase? A small red glass one from the GoodWill (thrift or charity shop) seemed in order. Then a bit more red in the form of foliage. A few leaves of Pie Crust Croton (Codiaem varigatum “Pie Crust”) The Pie Crust Croton foliage has the unlikely color combination of red, black, green and a bit of yellow. The shrub will give you a bit of a pause when seen in the garden. The Copper Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpurea’) has come back with the rains and I added a bit of that for deep grey foliage, then found some errant Asparagus Fern to complete my vase. Here is a close up.

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I punched the Foccacia dough down and set it into the oven to rise again and finished the arranging the vase.  Here is the finished Foccacia:

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This is a Parmesan Crusted Low Sodium Foccasia, my specialty. Here is the bad news.

I woke up the other morning feeling I needed to check on the Night Blooming Cereus:

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The bud was no longer on the plant. During the night something knocked off the bud! Maybe next year.

Propagating Plumerias

I have a Bridal Bouquet Plumeria I like so much I decided to plant a hedge of them to screen my neighbor’s monumentally ugly fence. These are evergreen Plumeria with an upright habit, when planted about three feet apart, they are perfect for a six foot height skinny hedge.

Bridal Bouquet ready for a lei

Bridal Bouquet Plumeria

Given the plant’s reputation for ease of propagation, I decided to try growing the new plants from cuttings rather than buying them. I had such good luck with the plants I gave some as gifts.

Propagation is simple, clip 4- 6″ long cuttings from the tips of the branches:

Cuttings

Cuttings

Next, strip all the leaves with the exception of the two or three at the top:

Stripped

Stripped

The cuttings tend to ooze white liquid so, put them on some cardboard and let them dry in a shady area until the stems appear to have healed.

Drying Cuttings

Drying Cuttings

After drying place the cuttings into 4-6″pots and keep moist for several weeks. The cuttings will start to produce leaves when they are rooted. Then they can be planted in the garden.

Potted

Potted

I have three left from my original six, one succumbed to unknown causes and two were gifted to other gardeners. I still need six for my hedge – so it’s time to get the clippers again.