Narelle's Frangipani Seedling Diary

From seedlings to flowering plants

Yves and I planted the 20 frangipani seedlings in late September. We filled 20 small biodegradable containers with a special soil composition especially for planting seedlings and cuttings. The soil is a mixture of sand, soil and perlite which are all very good for frangipanis.

Next, we drenched the soil with water and inserted each seedling about 1cm into the soil, leaving the feathered end sticking up out of the soil. We then placed each pot into a mini plastic greenhouse lined with an aquarium heating cable and closed the lid.

With frangipani seedlings the soil should be kept moist, unlike for frangipani cuttings where the less water you give them the better they do. In the greenhouse with the heating cable the seedlings self watered and kept in a tropical climate of about 28c which provides the perfect growing conditions for them.

About 3 weeks after planting, I was surprised to discover that two seedlings had germinated and formed healthy looking baby plants! We're thrilled and are now wondering if the others will follow suite. If they do, I have a feeling we'll need to build a giant glasshouse within a year... uh oh!

Update: November 20^th, 2005

A grand total of 5 seedlings actually germinated. Not a great success rate, 1 in 4, but I'm very happy that we had any success at all.

Interestingly, the seedling which we started outside at the end of summer in the greenhouse is the strongest looking plant out of the lot. It's shorter, but has a thicker trunk and firmer leaves. Our theory is that it got more light, whereas the other seedlings were in a small greenhouse inside and were probably growing so tall in order to find the light. Anyway, I wonder how it will turn out, compared to the others, when it is fully grown. I replanted it today and placed it inside with the other frangipanis.