Beginning when our children were in preschool, we started taking summer road trips, and by the time they were in high school, we had visited all 48 contiguous U.S. states. We didn't make it to Alaska and Hawaii until they were in college, and I will never forget the fragrances that greeted my nose when we first got off the plane in Maui. During our week there, I took great delight in learning about the flowers that contributed to those fragrances, one of which is plumeria, also known as frangipani. Plumeria is often used to make leis, and to me, it smells like Hawaii.
We tried bringing back some cuttings, but were unsuccessful in rooting them. Several years later, our local Lowe's started selling small plants, and so far, we've managed to keep them alive. We have four plants in three different colors, and keep them in big pots in an area that receives partial shade during the hottest part of the day. We move the pots into the garage whenever their is danger of frost, which doesn't bother them since they drop their leaves and go dormant in the winter anyway. They start putting out leaves in late spring, followed by clusters of fragrant blossoms like these.
It may smell like Hawaii in this part of our backyard, but the heat tells another story. It's supposed to hit 117 degrees this week...ugh!
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