As we walked out of a favorite Vietnamese restaurant, the manager asked my partner to wait a moment.  I headed for the men's room and when I returned Francine was carrying a stick (or something).  "What's that?" I asked.  "A cutting from a red plumeria ...  they're hard to find," she responded. "Looks like a dead stick to me! What's a Plumeria?"  "Well," She replied: "It's a plant commonly found  in S.E. Asia but they will grow in Los Angeles."  Hmmmn.

For the next several months I watched that stick sitting by itself in a big planter next to the dining room window.  One day, she said she thought it really was dead and maybe it was time to toss it.  Bravely and with great wisdom, I stepped up and said: "Well, why don't you wait a bit longer.  It won't hurt." (LOL, like I know anything about plants)   :)  

And then it happened ... little green buds appeared up and down the stick.  They got bigger and bigger and finally turned into leaves:

And then other stuff (a botanical term I must have picked up somewhere) started happening and all of a sudden, we had a plant:

Red buds turned into pink and white blooms:

That turned into red flowers ... 

with exquisite shape and form:

Recently looking while looking at images from the trip to Myanmar I spotted this image of white Plumerias!  I certainly didn't know what they were at the time ... but even then, they had caught my eye ... just as they do now!

And they say that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds!  Ha!  I'm happy I was consistent ...  at least this time.

:)

Bye for now,

Adam