Plumeria

9 February 2025

Well, I managed two in a row!

As I said last week I have a Frangipani tree in my backyard. It's not big, but it has done remarkably well, especially lately. I grew it from a cutting that I took from my great grandmother's tree at home in Normanton. I spent many hours playing under that tree and the fragrance always reminds me of Nan and Pop's house. The old house is gone now, but the tree is still there and is quite big, despite not being carefully tended. I took some photos of it at Christmas time for an assessment.

My pink Frangipani tree out the back is smaller, but doing just as well. It came from a cutting I took from another tree in Normanton. I have some other Frangipanis that I'm pretty sure will be different colours, but they haven't flowered yet, and I'm thankful that they survived the massive hail storm we had at the end of last year.

Frangipani (Plumeria rubra) is sometimes referred to as the "tree of life" because of the way it continues to survive when not even in the ground. I can testify to its hardiness - I had cuttings sitting out the back for weeks before I remembered to do anything with them and they didn't seem bothered by the neglect. That's a definite tick in the plus side of the ledger!

Plumeria fragrance is so distinctive and exotic that it inspired a perfume created by an Italian, the Marquis Frangipani in the 16th century. The flower then became known by his surname. It is native to Central and Southern America and the Tropics, including Australia. For Buddhists it is a symbol of immortality and can be seen planted near graves.

As I said, I wanted to see what I could do with them, so I thought about the kinds of designs that lend themselves to wired flowers and kept coming back to florals that you wear. It's a variation on a corsage, and since I didn't have any suitably delicate fern in the greenhouse it is all flowers and ended up being less delicate than I anticipated due to the pink flowers being bigger than the white and yellow ones. I will definitely be making more of these so I can iron out the design flaws. For starters, I need a longer piece of decorative wire than the pre-cut one I found on the shelf and re-used. Secondly I need some foliage to give me a shape to work within more easily, and to cover the mechanics more effectively. I may also need to buy another orchid for the bathroom. I will be interested to see how long these wired blooms last, and I will be enjoying the fragrance while I do that.

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Turns out they were cactus on the second night (out of the fridge the whole time). I trundled back out to the yard and picked what was left in bloom and decided to make something else. There wasn't many left, so I have to wait for the next flush to do another experimental wrist/arm design, but there was enough for Bo to have a flower collar, which we wasn't the biggest fan of. He looked lovely though, don't you think?