Jungle Jack's Plumerias
A few months ago I wrote on my other blog about plumeria - especially the history and meanings around the world. Feel free to read my post here at any time.
Ever since then I've been really excited about finding and buying my own plumeria. Especially since Bryan and I started our window garden, I was really amp'd to get started on growing a tropical plant. I did my research beforehand to find out about how to grow a plumeria indoors, to winter a plumeria, the growing and dormant seasons, etc.
So when Bryan asked me if I wanted to hop a plane to California for a couple of days, I asked if we could go to a nursery and buy a plumeria and he agreed.
Since I knew we would be flying into LA and we would driving to San Diego, so I starting looking around the plumeria forums, Google, etc. to see what buyers were saying about plumeria growers. Everyone seemed to be talking about Jungle Jack's Plumeria and Palms in Oceanside. And his website was stunning! So many plumerias, varieties, colors, shapes. All so stunning and beautiful. Jungle Jack even has his own plumeria farm in Thailand where he breeds his own special species.
I knew a plumeria would not survive a plane ride from LA to Indianapolis (especially in mid-March) so I contact Jungle Jack via his website about coming to the nursery, picking out my perfect bloom, and having it shipped to me.
Jungle Jack (actual name John) wrote back very quickly and told me to stop by and check out the plumeria in the nursery and he'd be happy to ship it back for us.
So Bryan and I drove down to Oceanside to the nursery located in Gopher Canyon Road. John had told us before hand that there wouldn't be anything blooming and no 1 gallon pots (Jungle Jack offers pot from 1 gallon to 8 gallon) at the moment but more would be available in May.
Going there, I had searched through John's catalog and had set my heart on two very specific plants: Firestorm and Star White.
John was busy as a bee when we arrived on Tuesday, but he took time to meet us at the greenhouses and give us a few words of advice. First off, since Bryan and I were growing indoors, we should probably focus on dwarf trees. And despite how I had my heart set on Firestorm (and it was more expensive) John warned me that it was a tall grower and probably not be suited for inside.
With that in mind (an a gorgeous glossy catalog in hand) Bryan and I wandered through the greenhouses with free roam. To be honest, I was so psyched with the whole experienced, I really couldn't focus on picking out one plant. There were so many different types and sizes, some with lots of branches, some with a single branch. And the leaves! I was giddy with tag gazing that I completely forgot to focus on actually picking out a plant.
Out of the "mini" and "dwarf" plumeria, Bryan and I liked the Sunsplash (white petals with an intense yellow and orange throat) but we had a hard time find one that suited us. It was Bryan that actually spotted on he liked - but it wasn't a Sunsplash.
Bryan had stumbled (almost literally) upon a Jungle Jack's Mini White. It was a simple, elegant plumeria with white petals, a yellow throat and a touch of pink on the edges. The one Bryan picked out had 3 large, healthy stems and already starting to sprout a few bud points.
John was happy with our decision and said that the Mini White was a less fussy plumeria and would probably be less temperamental than other, more touchy plumerias when it came to indoor living and wintering.
It took several weeks for our plumeria to arrive but we had expected this because John had told us that the following week he was going to Thailand to his farm. He was also bringing along several enthusiastic plumeria fans so they could tour the farm and see how Jungle Jack breeds his own varieties of plumeria.
Our plumeria arrived packaged very carefully with peanuts and newspapers wetted down to keep our plant moist during its journey. We were especially excited to see that our mini white was already preparing to bloom.
Ever since then I've been really excited about finding and buying my own plumeria. Especially since Bryan and I started our window garden, I was really amp'd to get started on growing a tropical plant. I did my research beforehand to find out about how to grow a plumeria indoors, to winter a plumeria, the growing and dormant seasons, etc.
So when Bryan asked me if I wanted to hop a plane to California for a couple of days, I asked if we could go to a nursery and buy a plumeria and he agreed.
Since I knew we would be flying into LA and we would driving to San Diego, so I starting looking around the plumeria forums, Google, etc. to see what buyers were saying about plumeria growers. Everyone seemed to be talking about Jungle Jack's Plumeria and Palms in Oceanside. And his website was stunning! So many plumerias, varieties, colors, shapes. All so stunning and beautiful. Jungle Jack even has his own plumeria farm in Thailand where he breeds his own special species.
I knew a plumeria would not survive a plane ride from LA to Indianapolis (especially in mid-March) so I contact Jungle Jack via his website about coming to the nursery, picking out my perfect bloom, and having it shipped to me.
Jungle Jack (actual name John) wrote back very quickly and told me to stop by and check out the plumeria in the nursery and he'd be happy to ship it back for us.
So Bryan and I drove down to Oceanside to the nursery located in Gopher Canyon Road. John had told us before hand that there wouldn't be anything blooming and no 1 gallon pots (Jungle Jack offers pot from 1 gallon to 8 gallon) at the moment but more would be available in May.
Going there, I had searched through John's catalog and had set my heart on two very specific plants: Firestorm and Star White.
John was busy as a bee when we arrived on Tuesday, but he took time to meet us at the greenhouses and give us a few words of advice. First off, since Bryan and I were growing indoors, we should probably focus on dwarf trees. And despite how I had my heart set on Firestorm (and it was more expensive) John warned me that it was a tall grower and probably not be suited for inside.
With that in mind (an a gorgeous glossy catalog in hand) Bryan and I wandered through the greenhouses with free roam. To be honest, I was so psyched with the whole experienced, I really couldn't focus on picking out one plant. There were so many different types and sizes, some with lots of branches, some with a single branch. And the leaves! I was giddy with tag gazing that I completely forgot to focus on actually picking out a plant.
Out of the "mini" and "dwarf" plumeria, Bryan and I liked the Sunsplash (white petals with an intense yellow and orange throat) but we had a hard time find one that suited us. It was Bryan that actually spotted on he liked - but it wasn't a Sunsplash.
Bryan had stumbled (almost literally) upon a Jungle Jack's Mini White. It was a simple, elegant plumeria with white petals, a yellow throat and a touch of pink on the edges. The one Bryan picked out had 3 large, healthy stems and already starting to sprout a few bud points.
John was happy with our decision and said that the Mini White was a less fussy plumeria and would probably be less temperamental than other, more touchy plumerias when it came to indoor living and wintering.
It took several weeks for our plumeria to arrive but we had expected this because John had told us that the following week he was going to Thailand to his farm. He was also bringing along several enthusiastic plumeria fans so they could tour the farm and see how Jungle Jack breeds his own varieties of plumeria.
Our plumeria arrived packaged very carefully with peanuts and newspapers wetted down to keep our plant moist during its journey. We were especially excited to see that our mini white was already preparing to bloom.
We've been moving our plumeria back and forth from our patio to our house due to the weather (we had a very strange cold snap at the end of May that brought the temperature down to the 40's) and it had been doing very well. While we did lose 2 of our buds to the bad weather, we have 7 new buds already growing. More to follow soon!
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