Post #67909 by Kava Dan on Tue, Jan 6, 2004 11:38 AM

diesel tiki,

The Plumeria will do fine in the summer and can handle the heat, they like full sun and the same fast draining soil I described above. They will not handle the winter, at the very least they defoliant if not die altogether. I have two, one is planted in a large pot that comes indoors for the winter, make sure when you over winter them they are in a sunny spot. They do well in pots. The other one, I plant in spring and dig up before the first frost, it's also over wintered in the house. You can also put the Plumeria in a large 15 gal. bucket and plant the entire bucket, this has less shock on the plant when you dig it out for over wintering.

The Foxtail palm is bitchen, one of my favorites. They can handle temp into the high 20's but not for very long. One thing you can do for winter is to hang Christmas lights on them and leave them on all night when temps start getting in the lower 30's. Think of it as a Christmas tree tiki style! :wink: You can also run a mister up a long pole and run it all night, that will also keep the temps up a bit, but if you turn it off during the night, the water could freeze and kill the frowns. When they are young and not to tall, you can also cover them with a sheet during the cold nights. Also, you need to amend the clay you have or replant it in a raised bed. Use the same mixture above, but add more clay, about half the mixture should be clay. Palms have small root balls, if the soil is to loamy, it could fall in high winds.

Another misconception that applies to most palms is sun. When a palm is young, it needs more shade until it's established. This applies to nearly all palms with the exception of the California and Mexican fan palms.

To build a rock boarder 12"-18" high, dig a trench about 6" deep, select a mix of large and smaller rocks. Place the larger rocks first then start building up with the smaller rocks using the large rocks as a sort of key to hold things together. As you start building up the smaller rocks, back fill with your planting mix and lean the upper rows back just a little. Think of it as a large puzzle! :D It will seem unstable at first, but with time, rain and watering, the soil will start to fill in-between the rocks and hold the whole thing together. Don't use mortar, this will defeat the fast drainage of the rock. In the winter, the rock will retain heat from the sun and radiate it at night, this helps protect the roots.

I also forgot to mention, when everything is planted, add some shredded redwood or compost to the top layer. It will help keep the frost off in winter and keep the soil from drying out to fast in summer. I use about 2" here, the colder the winters, the more you should add.