The Handbook on Plumeria

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WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For many the love of plumerias has blossomed with a visit to a tropical climate, especially Hawaii or the Caribbean. A first glance at these extraordinary tropical trees and shrubs, bedecked with hundreds of scented blooms in a rainbow of colors, has inspired thousands to attempt to transplant this magical, exotic experience to the home garden. Who would not wish to have the beauty and fragrance of Frangipani flowers for arrangements, to wear in the hair or to admire in the landscape even as they fall and carpet the earth.

Thus, for many, begins a lifelong fascination and ambition, not merely to propagate and grow plumerias, often in climates that are anything but tropical, but to bring them into bloom so that we may delight in their many enchanting fragrances, their subtle or intense colors and color combinations and their surprising range of size and shape. To achieve this, we need to know all about caring for them; how to protect plants during cold weather (for plumerias are indeed true tropicals and cannot tolerate a freeze); what fertilizers are most beneficial; which varieties are the most beautiful, fragrant, most floriferous, and so forth.

Our love of plumerias began at the other end of the earth, in Auroville, India. Auroville is an international township involving participation by people from all parts of the world, supported by public and private contributions and endorsed by three resolutions of UNESCO. Inaugurated on February 28,1968, Auroville is located on the east coast of India, a few miles north of the former French province of Pondicherry and about 100 miles south of the major city of Madras, on the Bay of Bengal. Auroville is a dream in the process of becoming a reality, a testing ground where the Ideal of Human Unity may be nurtured and allowed to grow; a model city where the higher ideals of mankind can find expression and fulfillment.

In 1969 I was invited to create twelve gardens to surround the Matrimandir, the spiritual and geographical center of the city. Each of the Matrimandir Gardens symbolizes a higher attribute of life with specially selected plants and flowers. The plurneria was chosen to represent the Garden of Perfection. From humble beginnings on a few acres of parched, overgrazed and severely eroded land with little or no water supply, the Matrimandir Gardens grew into a botanical paradise of tropical color and fragrance with pools of lotus and waterlilies, over 5000 specie and hybrid orchids,

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numerous hibiscus and more than 2000 other tropical plants collected from all parts of India and sent to us through the courtesy of botanical gardens throughout the world. We created 300 of our own hibiscus hybrids and had plants that produced as many as 600 flowers a day! The seasons were filled with the glory of tropical trees, the resplendence of cassias in bloom, the brilliance of the Flamboyant, the captivating fragrance of peltaphorum, the splendor of massive bouquets of bougainvilleas (often in such full bloom that not a leaf was visible), the luxuriant spikes of Crape myrtles, and fields and fields of plumerias!

From 1970 to 1981, Mary Helen and I and several of our colleagues travelled extensively to study and collect plumeria species and hybrids from many areas of the world. We journeyed throughout India, visiting major botanic gardens, agricultural and horticultural experiment stations, horticultural societies and private gardens. On a plant collecting expedition in Southeast Asia, we visited the Singapore Botanic Garden and were given many named varieties of plumerias through the generosity of the director of the Gardens. In fact, everywhere we travelled and searched for new varieties, colors, forms and fragrances of plumerias, we were welcomed. From parks and homes, institutes and temples, people graciously donated cuttings. We also collected plants from the wild and grew hundreds of seedlings from superior parent plants.

In all, we amassed more than 140 different cultivars, at least five distinct species and more than 300 seedlings for evaluation and selection and, on any day of the year, we had a minimum of 35-40 different plumerias in bloom! During this time we corresponded with numerous botanists and horticulturists, developed seed exchange pro- grams with more than 80 botanic gardens in 30 nations and were assisted by men and women of goodwill throughout the world.

Our special thanks go to the many friends who helped us realize our goals. A few we have met only through correspondence, some we have had the good fortune to visit often and form lifelong friendships.

First of all, our special thanks to Elizabeth Thornton, author of The Exotic Plumeria, and her husband Jim, for their generosity and encouragement and the many years of sharing experiences with plumerias. Through Elizabeth's efforts the Plumeria Society of America was founded. Her love and enthusiasm in promoting public awareness of plumerias is widely acknowledged and appreciated, as is her research in all areas of plumeria culture.

To Dr. James L. Brewbaker of the University of Hawaii for his assistance in helping us build the plumeria collection at the Matrimandir Gardens through the introduction of many Hawaiian hybrids.

To Dr. Richard A. Criley of the University of Hawaii for all his help during the past nine years; for sending us seeds of outstanding cultivars from his collection at the University; for his sharing of fundamental research and his prompt replies to our corespondence.

To Keith Woolliams and his staff at Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Gardens for their generosity in exchanging plant materials, their readiness to share information and ideas, and for their contribution of wild-collected species from the Dominican Republic which grow luxuriantly at the Matrimandir Gardens today.

To the Directors of all the botanical gardens who have given us plumeria seeds and plants and have graciously assisted us in research; especially to the Director of the

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Kebun Raya Botanical Garden in Bogor, Indonesia, one of the finest gardens in Asia;

to Mr. Hardial Singh of the Singapore Botanic Garden for giving us cuttings of their entire plumeria collection; to the Directors of the Lal-Bagh Gardens in Bangalore, India, and the Calcutta Botanic Gardens for sharing their collections with us.

To Mrs. Dorothy Fernando, our gracious hostess during our collecting trips in Sri Lanka and whose watercolors of plumerias are the finest we have seen; to a neighbor of Mrs. Fernando, the noted author, Arthur C. Clarke, who shared cuttings of his cultivars with us.

Special thanks to all our friends in India who share our love for plumerias (and all plants!); especially to Yagna Sastri of the Theosophical Society, Madras; Dr. T.A. Ramakrishnan of Trivandrum; Mr. R. Haresh of Madurai for his interest in collecting plumerias and other beautiful plants from all areas of the world and his willingness to share with fellow collectors; and to Sri Parichand, elder brother and mentor, who has tended the gardens of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry for more years than we can recall and whose love of light blossoms in him and in his flowers.

Our thanks also to some wonderful friends in Houston; to Nancy Ames and Danny Ward, for years of friendship and a shared love of plumerias that we mutually agree have chosen us and not the reverse, and the special warmth of an inner relationship that transcends time and the passing of years; to Lydia Hilliard for her kindness and generosity during her term as President of the Plumeria Society of America and beyond, especially in sharing the wealth of her garden; to all the members of the Plumeria Society of America for their love of plumerias and their friendship, their kindness to me during my terms as Vice-President and President, and to some very special friends in the Society, Betty Andrews, Dave Emison, and Abe and Mary Schonier, among others, whose love and interest in growing plumerias runs deep and true.

To the many garden writers and editors all over the world who have encouraged gardeners to grow plumerias through articles and radio programs; especially to Elvin McDonald, a true friend and plantsman, who has championed the plumeria in his numerous syndicated articles in the U.S.

To friends in Hawaii who have contributed to the growing appreciation of plumerias; to Jim Little who has studied the culture of plumerias for years and has contributed his own hybrids to the wealth of cultivars we enjoy today; to Mrs. Sam Cooke (Mary Moragne), daughter of the late Bill Moragne, for sharing with us a large body or information on her father's seminal work in hybridization. To those whom we have not met, or visited only briefly, but who have been instrumental in furthering the appreciation and preservation of plumerias; Donald Angus, whose generosity to the University of Hawaii has enabled numerous research projects to be undertaken, and who collected and donated many of the finest cultivars to the University of Hawaii; authors Donald P. Watson, James T. Chinn, Horace F. Clay and others who have contributed to our understanding of plumerias; and lastly, to the hundreds of gardeners around the world who write us regularly of their experiences with plumerias and other fascinating and rewarding exotic plants.

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