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Growing plumeria from seed

 Is it possible to grow a plumeria from seed? My plumeria tree has a seed pod on it but I'm not sure what to do with it.     Gwen, San Clemente

It is easy to grow plumeria from seed, but it may take awhile before the seedlings are mature enough to bloom.  Rooting a plumeria cutting is the fastest way to get blooms and will give you a clone of the mother plant.  But growing plumerias from seed is easy and you could end up with a completely new variety depending on what other plumeria trees are around blooming at the time.  

We asked plumeria master gardener, Sunny Bailey to explain the planting process. She has grown hundreds of plumeria from seed and from cuttings.  Some of her flowers are featured in our Readers Favorite  photo section.    

Sunny:

1.  Start with a ripe seed pod.  You can tell the pod is ripe when it starts to split open. Leave the pod on the tree as long as possible while it ripens. 

Plumeria seed pods

Plumeria seeds

2. Take the seeds out of the pod and plant them heavy end down in a container with good potting soil. The "wings" of the seed should be sticking out of the soil. I like to use a cardboard egg container as you can plant one seed per egg cup.

Plumeria seeds growing  Plumeria seeds sprouting 

 3. Keep the soil moist and the seeds will sprout. In the beginning you can keep the container in a shallow bowl of water to keep the soil moist.

Plumeria seedling

4. When they are about 2 inches high replant each one into its own 4" pot and continue to keep the soil moist until they look sturdy enough to be treated as a regular potted plant. As you can see, any container will do, just make sure to punch drainage holes in the bottom.

Plumeria grown from seed  Plumeria from seed

5. When the plant matures (which can be two years or more), it will bloom. The best thing about growing plants from seed is that you never know what nature will bring you. The plumeria flowers above were grown from the same seed pod. The one on the left is ruffly with a yellow center, while its sibling has pink stripes with rounded petals. The mother plant was white with rounded petals.

Sunny and her husband Art root every cutting and plant every seed and sell some of their extra plants while the plumerias are in bloom. If you are interested in finding out more, you can contact them through     and we are happy to forward your inquiry on to them.