About three years ago, I was at a neighbor’s garage sale and happened to see that she had a huge stand of plumeria. I bought some chairs and, as a bonus, she snapped off three branches from among her plants. She said she wasn’t sure what color they were, maybe white, pink…or red..she couldn’t remember which plant was which.

It didn’t matter to me. I was happy to get them, as I’d tried a cutting before, that didn’t do anything, did okay..and then up and died on me. I was hoping, out of three, I might get one to root.

So, lacking the time that day to do much but grab and go.. I stuck the three cuttings (about a foot long, each) into the first empty pot I saw. It HAD been full, of a stevia plant, but it had died for some reason. Sigh.. plants tend to do that.

BUT.. a strange thing happened. The cuttings all rooted and began to grow, a little. And, as they grew…the stevia grew with them. Surprised the heck out of me. But…now I had a bit of a problem. You see, that wasn’t my first stevia plant, and about 3 years ago they weren’t all that easy to find in nurseries. I’d been really disappointed when mine had died. Now.. I had three cuttings of a plant I really wanted, growing in a pot with a plant I REALLY wanted. I didn’t want to disturb any of them, for fear I’d lose all of them.

The overwintered that winter in the same pot….and passed into the next summer and fall and overwintered again. All the plants were alive, growing slowly and doing pretty well. I was still afraid of killing them by messing with them.

Then, this spring, I went on a tear. I’d been at my mom’s house and had cleaned out a bed in her side yard, and had been rewarded with a bunch of amaryllis. HUGE amaryllis, as in the size of one of those personal sized watermelons….or the size of a spaghetti squash. They were amaryllis of substance. I had to plant them, so I did. While I was at it, I decided that the odd foursome in the pot needed tending too.

I’d found another stevia plant this last spring and it was doing pretty well in the herb bed. I figured that the stevia in the pot could go there too. I gingerly emptied the pot, sifting with my fingers for the root ball of the stevia, and slowly disentangled it from the plumeria roots. The three cuttings were now pretty well intertwined and I didn’t try pulling them too far apart. I left as much of the dirt that had been in the pot with them, and dug a hole and planted the whole mess right about where the pot had been.

I figured, if they’d done so well in that light, maybe the fact that they’re in the same exposure would lessen the transplant shock. I was hopeful. Maybe they would grow.

At first, they grew only very slowly. They lost leaves and looked poorly during the hottest part of the summer, but they were in a small bed very near my front door, and it was almost always cooler, getting shade in the hottest part of the afternoon. I watered them, when I could..and then…they started to grow in earnest.

The stevia, meanwhile, was getting taller and taller, and I was worried that it was getting too spindly. But, I left it be. This was the longest I’d gotten a stevia to live, and I wasn’t about to mess with success. I’ve since decided that the plant must like growing a long stem, laying down and then sending up secondary shoots here and there, especially if it can reach the shade of a nearby plant and grow up through it. It, like most clematis, must enjoy a shady, cooler bottom and a sunnier top.

Back at the plumeria, the plants were getting larger, growing larger leaves and starting to lean out a little towards the sunnier parts of the bed. I had to rearrange the pots in that bed to let them have room. I usually grow things in pots there, because I have rampant (until this summer!) peppermint growing there. Pots give the other plants a fighting chance. I’m not sure what happened, but the peppermint didn’t do well this year. I still have some pieces, so it should reestablish itself, probably next spring.

I was really excited to see buds on the plumeria a few days ago. I was hoping they wouldn’t open too soon, and would be open for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. They missed it by one day.. but you know… I don’t think I mind a bit.

And here they are.. the two that are open, and they have little brothers and sisters. They’re not pink, as the buds had led me to believe. Rather, they are a soft, creamy white with a rich butter yellow center. They smell divine. The other two plants are budding too, and perhaps I have a pink in one of them. If not, the white are just fine with me.

Two views of the newest stars of the garden:

YIPPEEEEEEE!