​     I purchased my first plumeria “stick” many years ago at one of those big fairs.  I was seduced by the many colors on the posters adorning the booth’s walls, and the promise that this mere leafless stick could become a real live plant with exquisite blooms and fragrance.  At only $5 each, I decided to splurge and give one a try.  I asked the vendor which might be the easiest to grow and have the most fragrance. I went home with the one that ultimately produced multi-colored blossoms and intoxicating fragrance that I call Rainbow. 
     Over the years, it’s branched many times and I’ve enjoyed its many yearly blooms and fragrance.  I also was pleased that it thrived in my garden’s all-day direct sun and needed very little water. 
     But when it grew so tall that I could see only the bottoms of the bloom clusters, I knew I’d have to trim it back.
     Although I’d propagated many kinds of plants over the years, I didn’t know whether I had to cut the plumeria branches at the base of their branching, or whether I could also cut in the middle of their 2-foot-long branches – whether they’d resprout or die back completely.  So I did both.  Luckily, both techniques worked.  So, I “evened out” my trimmings on the original plant so the branching would produce blooms on each of its remaining branches at about the 4-foot height, guaranteeing many more years of enjoyment and more cutting possibilities for future “sticks” to pass along to gardener friends and at plant sales.
     Cutting the branch straight across is necessary for a clean cut.  This will enable the main plant to resprout new leaves from the top surfaces.   Even with some dieback, the new leaves covered the unattractive spots.
     The base of the cut branch must be allowed to callous over completely before potting it up to root. Keep it in the shade, laid flat so the cut edge is completely open to the air so it can callous completely, and leaves are allowed to have their upper surfaces upright so they can continue their limited photosynthesis.  The sap will continue dripping for an hour or so, so you may want to put some newspaper or soil to catch the drips where they fall.
     It may take up to three weeks for the callous to completely dry and form a seal that’ll be impervious to water.  So don’t try to rush the process or pot it up too soon.
       I did initially pot up some branch cuttings as soon as I’d cut them, and while the leaves stayed perky for a couple of weeks, ultimately the branches did shrivel and rot without forming any roots.
      Once the branches are fully calloused, pot up the branches so the base – from which the roots will emerge – is about 2 inches above the bottom of the container.  I use gallon-size pots for short branches perhaps a foot or so long.  If the branches are multi-branched like in the shape of a “Y”, then I use a 5-gallon container and fill the potting mix to within an inch of the top.  While the roots will develop only from the bottom calloused area, having the rest of the multi-branched trunk buried in potting soil stabilizes it.
     I’ve found that staking and tying the branch will help keep it stable through waterings and moving the container until sufficient roots develop to anchor the plant.  Before I provided this support, even minor movement dislodged larger unbalanced Y-shaped branches, and I had to repot them up.  So, now I provide this support at the very beginning when I pot them up initially.
     Once potted up, place the container in a location in bright light but out of direct sun.  Water it several times to thoroughly moisten the potting mix and make sturdy contact holding the cutting in place.  Water again perhaps once a week just to keep the potting mix barely moist so roots can get well established.  

     We’ve been lucky so far this summer, with only a couple of uncomfortably hot days.  Most days have been thoroughly pleasant to work in the garden, especially after the direct sun leaves.  I’ve appreciated even the really hot over-90-degree days since I know the tomatoes are ripening and the summer bloomers are coloring up. 
     But I must admit that I’m waiting – as the saying goes – “for the other shoe to drop,” with more of those over-100-degree temperatures, to say nothing of the unwelcome possibility of a repeat of that 116-degree July several years ago that scorched everything and cancelled harvests for the rest of the summer. 
    And with the addition of water restrictions, planting anything new in the garden doesn’t feel like a good choice, at least for me in my “inland” Pasadena garden.
     So, what to do in the garden?  Here’re several possibilities:
 
Harvesting

• Harvest beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes at least every other day to encourage further production. If too many fruits are allowed to remain on the plant, the hormones will change so there will be fewer new blossoms to set new fruit.
• Pinch back herbs to encourage branching, and use the clippings either fresh or dry.
• My tomatoes have been bearing very nicely, with a total to date of 395 individual tomatoes, 325 cherry-size and 70 larger ones.  Yesterday’s haul was 148, 128 cherry-type and 20 larger ones.  Interestingly, a couple of the Celebrity and Cherokee Purple and Black Krim are producing nicely while the other plants aren’t.  Just as well that those will perhaps wait until after the currently-producing ones are close to done, to spread out the yield.  Of the cherry types, Sungold is the winner so far with 42, but Chocolate Sprinkles has 29 and two red cherry volunteers have 30 and 22.  All yummy!

 
Propagating

• Tip-root boysenberries by anchoring vine tips under an inch of soil and water in.  The tip will root, and you can transplant them in the late fall or early winter.
• Pot up succulent cuttings by removing “leaves” off an inch or so of stem, stick into potting mix or soil, and water in.  Roots will form, and you can transplant them later.
• Root cuttings of azaleas, fibrous begonias, camellias, carnations, marguerite daisies, fuchsias, gardenias, geraniums, hollies, hydrangeas, lilacs, marguerites, mock oranges, mums, and verbena.  Bare about 3 inches of stem, leave about 4 leaves on top, put stem into potting mix or soil, water in, and place in indirect light.  Transplant later.

 
Maintenance

• Encourage repeat blooming by pinching or cutting back alyssum, coreopsis, crape myrtles, dahlias, delphiniums, dianthus, fuchsias, gaillardias, lobelia, marigolds, penstemons, petunias, rose of Sharon, salvias, and verbenas.
• Dig and divide bearded iris clumps if they're crowding each other or didn't bloom much last spring.
• Strongly rip off - don't just trim - rose suckers off at their base with a harsh downward and outward pull. Also bash the base to further dissuade resprouting.  For more detail, go to Trimming and Rooting Blooming Plants - 7/13/16
• Rinse the undersides of leaves with water to discourage spider mites.
• Enclose whole grape clusters in paper bags or old pantyhose for protection from birds and wasps.
• Hold off irrigating melons about a week before you'll harvest them so their sugars will concentrate.
• Place ripening melons onto upside-down aluminum pie pans or cans to keep them off the damp soil and reflect the sun’s heat back onto the melon to help it develop more sweetness.
• If onion and garlic foliage has not yet slumped and dried, stop irrigating, and bend the stalks to the ground. You want the outer layers to thoroughly dry so they protect the flesh underneath.

 
Planning for your cool-weather garden

• Can you believe that the heat of summer is the time to start thinking about the cool of winter?  In fact, I prefer gardening through the fall, winter, and early spring because there are so many goodies to be eating, and they continue developing through the cool weather to provide many months of freshly-picked delectable produce without being hassled by summer heat.
• At the end of the month, sow carrots, celery and cole crops - broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (especially red and savoy types, which resist frost better), cauliflower, and kohlrabi. Keep the soil moist and shaded until they're up, and then gradually allow them more direct sun over a week's time.

 
What NOT to do

• Don’t prune tomato foliage.  In our bright-sun area, plants need all that foliage to accomplish their photosynthesis and to shade fruits from the burning sun.  In addition, our breezes keep foliage free of disease.  For more details, go to Why NOT to Prune Tomato Plants - 7/13/15.

 
For more monthly tasks, go to July.
 
For past blogs on many major seasonal topics, go to Home.

For many problems, go to Warm-Season Plant Problems and Solutions - 3/28/21

For specifically tomato problems, go to Tomato Growing Problems & Solutions - 6/17/20