Q&A for How to Grow Plumeria from Cuttings

The best time to take cuttings from your plumeria is during the late spring or early summer.

Plumeria are sensitive to the number of hours of sunlight each day. You can "force" them with a grow light in northern latitudes but it will start growing when it gets about 10 - 12 hours of light per day. It will be fine while there are long summer days, but may lose its leaves when the days get too short. Don't panic it will grow again the next summer. It is not uncommon to have to wait two years for flowers in northern latitudes.

This probably means that your cutting has started to rot from the inside. Some other visual signs of rotting are wrinkled grey sections that are easy to press and mold.

As long as they have not totally dried to a crisp. If your cutting is only 1" to 2" though, it might be too late. The best way is to get the biggest branch possible and let it dry for about a week and then put it right into the ground. The bigger the better, since they take so long to grow to a large size.

Transplant it to a medium size pot. The pot is not the permanent place for the plant; it is just for a short time until the plant grows enough to be planted into the ground.

No. The cuttings are too small to be put in the ground, and they would be vulnerable to dangers like the wind. The pot allows the cuttings to develop a root system. After they've been kept in the pot long enough for those roots to form, you can plant them in a bigger pot or directly in the ground.

This depends on how cold it gets -- it is not frost hardy. If there is frost or freezing temperatures are occurring, then it will be killed as it is a tropical plant.

No, you should let the cuttings dry for about a week before planting them in potting soil. You can dip the cuttings in water and rooting hormone powder before planting though.

I gather you can as long as you retain the lower rooted part of the plant. However, it may take longer, up to two or three years, for the stalk to develop shoots. I don't think you will be successful in planting the top three feet and expecting the plant to survive. Take cuttings of the top shoots, let them scar, and plant them; as soon as they start growing, the growth is quite vigorous and you will soon have a good size plant.

The chances of success are not great. Any cutting surface needs time to scar to avoid necrosis (fouling up) when planting. Then the plant first needs to grow roots to grow in length and produce flowers.

Yes. You can propagate from the middle of a cutting if need be. Just be sure to seal the fresh cutting on top with a silicone sealant from a hardware store. This prevents rot, which will in turn allow new growth.

No, this is not a problem. This is most likely the sap that all plumeria plants secrete.

The scab will be withdrawn where the cut occurred, and you will see the dry scab recessed up into the bottom of the cutting. Sometimes the scab appears as a concave recession.

In my experience, yes. I've had a soft cutting in the past, but I planted it just like the others into pots that had some rooting mix at the base. It took a lot longer, but eventually the cutting that was soft grew new leaves. They're tough plants!

Yes, I have done this myself. I planted it directly in the ground though, as I wasn't aware of drying the cutting first and growing it in a pot until the roots develop. The plant has flowered a few times; however, there are no signs of it growing taller into the small tree that it should become. My only thought is that direct planting into the ground is too harsh for the cutting to develop well.

You can try if the leaves are very small, but your best bet would be to clip them off prior to drying the cutting. Plants lose moisture through the leaves. The bigger and more numerous the leaves, the more can be lost. For a plant with roots, this is a normal part of its day to day life, but for a cutting of any kind, leaves can dry it out before it can support the leaf growth. Think of cuttings like seeds. Before you see leaves, the plant will need to work on roots.

If you tug on the stem lightly and it doesn't move, you can transplant them.

Ours began to fork out during its third year quite nicely! For the first year, it was a single branch about two feet tall. At the end of the first year, a small fork began to develop. Now at year three, I have two main forks of three branches on one and two on the other! We bring ours in and put it under a grow light for the winter!

Do not attempt to propagate plumeria in water. It will rot. Make a cutting at a 45 degree angle so that the parent plant does not collect water and rot at the cut. Leave the cutting on the ground out of the sun for a week. Plant no deeper than 3 inches.

Place the seeds in between paper towels and keep them very moist in a warm place. Within 7 days, they will have roots. Plant them in potting soil and you will have new trees.

You can leave it in the pot, but still regularly water it even when it's in dormancy. The most important thing is that it isn't exposed to freezing temperatures.

When pruning a healthy tree to maintain size, it is important to prune only in the winter or early spring to avoid causing damage to the blooming cycle.

Yes, they need well-drained soil. They are heavy feeders, so be sure to fertilize regularly with a fertilizer high in phosphorus (middle number) for best results.

Transplant in spring as soon as nighttime temps rise above 50 degrees. These are heat and sun loving plants.

Yes. I started my plumeria from a cuttings I got in Hawaii five years ago. The pots are 18 inches across. The tree is now about 8 feet tall and doing fine. But I live in a cold climate and need to bring them in in winter. I am trying to learn how to prune to keep them smaller. The pot growth is easy.

Yes. You can be successful with either method.

Plumeria branch at the point where the flower, typically three branches. The more sun the plant gets. the more flowers and branches will form.

My cuttings in Central Florida will grow about a foot per year. They drop all leaves in the fall, so don't worry.

I'm going to suggest it is rotting. You will lose it. There are many outlets in the continental US where you can buy cuttings.

They will bloom eventually. I have some cactus that took 3 years to finally produce flowers.