The red plumeria or also known by the name of Frangipani, it is a shrub or small tree of tropical origin that is cultivated in all warm regions around the world, and in slightly cooler climates its extraordinary beauty is used to decorate the home during the warmer months. cold.
It is a very popular plant that needs specific care to make it look beautiful and healthy throughout the year. If you want to discover all its secrets, do not take your eyes off your monitor: I will explain what needs to be done to make it grow and develop without any problem.
Our protagonist can reach a height of about 9m, but in cultivation it rarely exceeds 4-5m. The leaves are deciduous, which means that they are dropped in fall / winter. Its beautiful flowers, which can be pink or white, fragrant are undoubtedly the attraction of this plant, and sprout in spring or early summer.
The red plumeria it is very sensitive to cold, so it can be grown outside only in warm climates. Still, I have to tell you something: the acutifolia variety withstands low temperatures quite well. Of course, as it is a plant of tropical origin, we cannot ask much of it, but it can endure with hardly any damage down to -2ºC, as long as they are short-lived frosts.
Where do you put it? Whether you want to have it on the patio or at home, you have to find a sunny / bright corner. It does not like semi-shade too much, and in fact its flowering will be poor. During the colder months it is convenient to protect it from inclement weather if you have it in an area where frosts are frequent.
In general, these plants have a tendency to rot if they are planted in a very compact substrate, so it is highly recommended to mix black peat and perlite in equal partsand put a first layer of volcanic clay of about 3cm inside the pot. It must be kept drier than humid, that is, we will water twice a week in summer, and 2-1 / week the rest of the year. You can take advantage of it to fertilize it throughout the growing season -from spring to early autumn- with a liquid organic fertilizer, such as guano for example.
And if you want to have a new plant, in spring you can make cuttings with leaves of about 20cm, impregnate their base with rooting hormones and plant them in perlite or, better, vermiculite. In about two to three weeks you will have a new seedling of red plumeria.
Do you have any at home?
