When a frangipani is in a pot or bag and the soil is bone dry, you can water it as much as you like and to saturation and your frangipani will enjoy the drink.

While giving too much water is not a problem, giving too much water too often can be a problem. Frangipani roots need air and if they are too wet for too long, the roots will start to rot.

Alternatively, if you are worried about your frangipani not getting enough water, keep in mind that it is very hard to under water a frangipani. Hypothetically speaking, if you wanted a frangipani to die of thirst, you would need it in a pot, bag or very well drained soil, it would need to have a lot of leaves to lose moisture, it would need to be in hot and direct sun for at least several hours a day and you would have to keep rain and other water away from it for several weeks or longer.

If you’re uncertain whether to water a frangipani or not, dig or just poke your finger a centimetre or two into the soil and if the soil has moisture, don’t water at all.

When frangipanis are dormant and aren’t producing new growth, the soil should be kept a little moist for soil health but the frangipani doesn’t need water.

How often do I need to water my frangipani?

 

 

If you want to improve the appearance of your frangipani, the first part to think about are the frangipani’s leaves. If you frangipani is small and has old or damaged leaves, you can cut them off with a pair of secateurs. If your frangipani leaves are damaged by fungus, consider spraying a fungicide. If your frangipani has leaves which are smaller than they should be, check the health of your plant and think about how much sun, water and fertilizer it’s getting.

A healthy frangipani will have healthy wood and healthy leaves. A healthy frangipani and a flowering frangipani are NOT the same thing.

There are ways to try to get your frangipani to flower more but on this page, we recommend taking care of your frangipani plant so that it stays healthy and grows larger and stronger each year. As it grows larger, it will naturally produce more and more flowers each year.

Not really. Once a frangipani is in the ground, it usually does better with no care compared to too much care. The danger of too much care is over watering. You should however learn what to look out for and monitor the condition of your frangipanis trees.

How will I know if my frangipanis are doing well or not?
The easiest way to confirm that your frangipani is healthy is to squeeze the branches. If the wood is firm, the frangipani is healthy. Also, in spring and summer, frangipanis should produce fresh green growth at the tips and lots of nice green leaves. There are many factors which can reduce the attractiveness of the crowns and leaves but the larger the frangipani, the less likely this will affect the health of the whole frangipani.

The amount of fertilizer required for a frangipani will differ for every situation.

Established frangipani trees in the ground get sufficient moisture and nutrients from most types of soil.

If you put good quality potting mix under the root system of a new frangipani plant in your garden or yard, there will be plenty of nutrients available.

If you feel the soil lacks nutrients, sprinkling some slow release fertilizer around the trunk will help.

It’s best to make sure you do not over fertilize. read more…
Why are my frangipani branches green and floppy?

 

Over Watering

The most common mistake people make with their frangipanis is over watering.

Sometimes, people check their new frangipani everyday and just because they are thinking everyday “Does it have enough water?”, the frangipani roots never gets a chance to dry out enough to breathe.

Sometimes, people plant a frangipani in a gully which takes forever to dry out and sometimes people have irrigation for the groundcover plants surrounding the frangipani.

Frangipani have evolved in hot dry climates so they like hot dry environemnts.

 

Established frangipani trees almost always get enough moisture from the ground without hand watering. If they are in well drained soil, the weather is hot and there is no rain for more than a month, they will really appreciate the next downpour or hand water.

Small frangipani plants have smaller root systems so they will be not as efficient in extracting moisture from the soil. If the soil dries out in hot dry periods, the first sign of lack of moisture will be drooping leaves.

Frangipanis in pots and bags more attention. Soil in bags and pots heats up   and dries out more quickly than the soil in the ground. As a general root, if the soil is dry a few centimetres down from the top, it’s worth watering the frangipani. If the soil all the way to the bottom is dry, the frangipani is likely to be suffering and as time goes by the frangipani will be weakened and start to shown signs of dehydration.