Valentine's Day started during the ancient Roman Empire.  February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno, the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women.

The 14th was the eve of the holiday the Feast of Lupercalia. One tradition included  placing the names of young women into a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome tried to do away with this feast by substituting the names of saints instead of the young maidens. The Feast of Lupercalia began in the middle of February, and it appear the church chose Saint Valentine's Day, the eve of the festival for the celebration of this new holy day to make it the more important holiday. That is where the custom of young men choosing young maidens for valentines, or in this new church the idea of choosing saints as patrons, came into being.

Imagine the warm breezes that blow across your skin feeling thankful. You run your hand across your forehead to wipe a little bit of perspiration thats beaded up on your skin.  The ice cool lemonade glass is now empty as the last sip of sweet sugar washes over your tongue.

You close your eyes for a moment & listen to the waves roll in with their thunderous crash to the shore.  When you open them you look behind you and see the mountains smiling back at you, "Good Morning." 

The scent of the salt water cleanses your nostrils as you drink in the ocean.

Mmmm...another day in paradise.

Tropical Plants in the Northern Hemisphere

Imagine the soft petal that kiss your skin at the touch. You run your finger across the fleshly picked stem to wipe a little bit of white nectar that has beaded up on your skin.  The fresh coffee from the island farms gives you the last taste of the earths sugar as it washes over your tongue.

You close your eyes for a moment & listen to the rattle of the wind blowing through the branches.  When you open them you look behind you and see long leaves & flower bouquets smiling back at you, "Good Morning." 

The scent of the white & yellow petals cleanses your nostrils as you drink in the Plumeria.

Mmmm...another day in paradise.

The Plumeria

There is no other flower like the sweet smelling Plumeria. When you grow your own in the northern Hemisphere you must get to know your stem.

First of all when it dormant, in the winter it becomes what I like to call "a stick plant."  I find that when the outside temps drop to 60 it knows winter is-a-coming and begins its shedding.  One by one the flowers will fall off. Put these fallen flowers in to a bowl.  They will brown over the week but the scent they give is very strong.  Next the leaves will dry up & fall off.

Warning:  This is when you should not over water. The natural inclination will be to water your plant it is dying.  These plants are seen more on the drier side in the tropics you will not find them in the rain forest.  Do not water more than 2x's per month small doses (like a cup for a 3 foot tree.)

Another warning: Do not fertilize; it's like pouring acid on skin.  Add already fertilized dirt to & around you plumeria for nutrients.  Crush up its own dried leaves to create a mulch around it, leaving space around the base so water or wet leaves do not collect there.

In the spring the leaves will begin coming back & with lots of sunshine the flowers will blossom for you.

Rotting: Plumeria is such an easy plant to lose to rotting.  Water is the first reason & fertilizer is the second.  Depending on where your rot is coming from you can stop it from continuing to turn soft & black.  Take it out of the soil & cut off all the rot.  Clean it like a would with alcohol & get it into some new moist, not wet, dirt.  If the rot is on the top of the branch, cut it off till all the black is gone & it's clean white innards are showing, whip with alcohol & put cinnamon on top to help it dry out.  As long as  you cut all the ugly out your plant will use the cinnamon to dry out & you have saved your Plumeria to bloom for another year.