The Handbook on Plumeria

Ellen#15 - One of the many spectacular under trial at various testing grounds in Hawaii

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The Moragne Hybrids

A significant breakthrough in plumeria hybridizing was made by the late Bill Moragne former plantation manager for Grove Farms Sugar Company on Kauai. Gardening was' a lifelong hobby for the Moragnes, and Bill and his wife, Jean, grew numerous anthuriums, hibiscus, heliconias and plumerias.

Bill Moragne's daughter, Mary, has kindly shared with us all the publications she could gather on her father's work in controlled hybridization. We quote her own words from an article published in the Garden Club of America Bulletin, Vol. 63, No. 2, April 1975, entitled "A Special Plumeria".

Twenty five years ago while my father William M. Moragne Sr. was manager of Grove Farm Plantation on Kauai in Hawaii, he had a very interesting thought. How do you cross-pollinate plumerias? He knew that small insects helped pollinate the flowers, but that process was only occasional. He could find no written records on how to cross-pollinate plumerias, and no one he talked to knew how to go about it. He decided to experiment.

Since the plumeria gives off so much milky juice when cut, he immediately ran into trouble. Another obstacle in his experimentation was that the pistil is located at the very base of the flower. How was he to get the pollen all the way down the very thin stigma and style?

He wanted to cross the large light pink, . . . (Daisy Wilcox), plumeria that grew in his yard with pollen from the dark red Scott Pratt. He tried  various techniques, including cutting off the leaves and flower petals to make them bleed before putting pollen on the pistil. This was to prevent the milky sap from getting into the cut when he was trying to cross-pollinate. In order to get down near the pistil, he made a diagonal incision into the base of the flower, exposing the small green pistil with pollen grains above it. He removed all the existing pollen, being careful to get all the dust out, and placed pollen grains from the Scott Pratt on the pistil. He then sealed up the incision with tape and waited . . . and waited . . . but nothing happened.

He could not understand why there weren't more seed pods produced naturally, let alone by his experimental method, because the pollen was so  close to the pistil. Finally he decided that the pollen tubes must go

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down the side of the pistil, because nothing happened when he put the pollen on top. By putting the pollen under the edge of the pistil, he found the secret to success. Four seed pods began to develop and in about three months they were mature and ready to plant in seed boxes.

From four pods, 283 seedlings grew. They were transplanted into cans and, in approximately three months, they were ready to go into the seed- ling nursery. They grew there until they flowered, some within three years and others not until they were almost twenty years! He culled out all the duplicates or ones with poor flowers. One had flowers a foot in diameter with petals almost as narrow as a pencil! The blossoms ran the gamut of colors from white all the way to dark red. All had a pink edge on one side of the back of the petal.

..Besides the collection in his own garden on Kauai, he added to the collections of the Foster Garden in Honolulu and the University of Hawaii. He also planted his new seedlings along both sides of the Nawiliwili Road for about a mile, interspersing them with kukui trees.

He chose thirty-five of the best flowers—those that would make the most durable and beautiful lei flowers and named his seven favorites for the girls in his family with Moragne names—Jean (his wife), Mary, Sally, Katie (his daughters), Jeannie (his son's wife) and Cindy and Kimi two grandaughters (his son's daughters). All the rest were given numbers.*

My plumeria, the Mary Moragne, is growing in our yard in Manoa and has lovely large pink flowers with yellowish centers. How many daughters have such a clever father who could develop a new new floral variety and name it after her!

 *I asked myfather if he registered the information. He said, "No, there was no plumeria society."

In addition to the excellent article by Mrs. Samuel A. Cooke we have some personal notes from Jim Little from conversations with Bill Moragne:

Pollination Information Demonstrated by Wm. Moragne

Wm. only pollinated the first thing in the morning and chose newly opened flowers. He used a small brush or forceps and pollinated underneath the edge of the pistil (not the top).

He used his pocket knife to make a slit (incision) in the lower middle of the flower.

He then covered the pollinated area with plastic tape rather than use a plastic bag.

Seeds appeared within the first month.

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Eleven months later he picked the mature open pod

The seedlings flowered in 4 years.

Little continues in another article: "I was doing some photography for Donald A <ms who has collected plumeria plants from all over the world. He knew I was interested in hybridizing, and he introduced me to Bill Moragne. Bill taught me how

to hand pollinate...."

.  Hopefully the above information will encourage an entire generation of  plumeria

hybridizers to achieve wonders in a field that has barely been touched.

"Beautiful gardens are fine things, but the fierce addiction of gardeners goes far beyond pretty pictures made with plants.

A fellow who delivers the mail has written me that he must have seen pretty gardens—he guesses—but it was only when he became a mailman, late in life, and traveled by foot, that he began to notice the great differences that exist among roses.

Leisure, slowness, contemplation: in an age of presumed efficiency and professionalism, these amateur virtues are perhaps despised but they may under- lie the greatest joys of gardening, and of life. It is not enough to grow the most beautiful things. It is even better to explore them, to identify with them, and to grow into a rather new consciousness of them . . . ."

Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman

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