A couple of plumeria problems

I mentioned a while back that my plumeria seemed to be having trouble, the tiny new leaves turning black and falling off. I've since learned that was most likely due to "black tip fungus", and have been debating what I should do about it.

In the meantime though, I've found another problem.

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It's a minor one, but since there are so few leaves on this plant this year it stands out:

Something is eating the leaves!

It's that caterpillar masquerading as a stick!

He really does not want to let go, so maybe I'll come back later and try to catch him in the act. There can't be any local butterflies or moths that use plumeria as host plant...

Anyway, back to the black tips. My slow reaction has quite possibly solved the problem for me:

As you can see, the plant has decided to branch!

There are two or three branch buds swelling on this branch...

...and two or three on the other one!

I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens, but I should have realized that damage to the growing tips would trigger branching. Some debris when the roofers were here in 2014 caused the first damage that gave me three branches...

...so looks like a few more will be coming soon!


I don't know what's taking this plant so long to get going this year...

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