Planting Plumeria

For the last few days, I've been clearing out the back yard. There was a big stack of bricks under the mango branch that toppled when the west fence fell. Those are not only picked up, they went down on the ground to make sort-of sidewalks. This is NOT bricklaying.

Let me repeat that: This is NOT bricklaying.

What it is, is horizontal storage of bricks.

Until such time as I can actually lay them, nice and smooth and where they belong.

Okay?

Thank you.

Where was I?

Oh!

So in clearing the back yard, my biggest messes are the fallen fences, fallen bricks, stacks of wood for epiphyte mounting, stacks of rescue plants to plant, stacks of empty plant pots, around 500 gallons of fabulous compost, and a lot of yard trimmings that just can't wait to become the next batch of compost.

The fences are propped. The bricks are cleared and put down so I have paths through the piles of Stuff. The compost is corralled into large empty plant pots and old back yard garbage cans, and stacked under the glorybower, on the east fence. The empty pots are in front of the compost containers.

The wood is slowly getting sorted by type.

The rescue plants are now going in the ground.

And the first big bunch of plants planted? Plumeria.

Frangipani.

Lei.

These are the beautiful, gorgeously scented flowers that go into making leis in Hawaii.

And I have several thousand pieces.

Plumeria is funny stuff. It's tropical. It goes through extended periods of dormancy where it just sits there in your yard with no leaves, doing nothing. The trees have a strange branched habit that makes them look like something out of Dr. Seuss - and k just LOVES Dr. Seuss plants.

The branches break easily, but then the pieces that break off root easily. Those pieces can sit around for months if you like, and almost never die.

After the hurricanes, huge amounts of plumeria bits were laid out by the roadside, waiting for the trash haulers to come get them and chip them up to nothingness.

So the ksquest Plant Rescue Department came to the rescue, and packed the Saturn full of plumeria pieces over and over and over, until they made a huge pile in the back yard, and the first wave of hurricane debris removal was sort of complete.

Here in Florida, it's spring. Time to plant stuff.

So into the ground they've gone. No rooting hormone, no special soil preparation. Crammed in as tight as I could make them without having them lean against each other. I figure I'll root them first - and make space in the yard, meanwhile! - and the ones that root successfully can go into pots down the road.

A few especially big fine pieces will go into the front yard, and maybe become permanent yard plants.

This is the sort of activity that makes my life such a joy to live.