Here we see Plumeria Obtusa "Singapore Evergreen" - acknowledged as the world's favourite frangipani. Its perfume is unforgetable, evoking for so many of us, memories of those glorious tropical nights at our favourite holiday destination. Once it was presumed that seeds from these trees would produce much the same as the mother-tree. WRONG!

Here we see a seedling from a local Singapore Evergreen tree, surrounded by many colourful rubras. I grew on four seeds from half of a pod, and five years later, no plants from these seedlings are even slightly alike! It is surprising how many dwarf seedlings are created from seeds of the Singapore Evergreen. Many also produce very thick, dark shiny foliage, often with a crinkly edge to the leaf.

Here we see another tree from those four seeds, though this time, the tree is much taller, standard size, really, with long thin pinwheel petals, which are pink, with an orange centre. This new cultivar has retained the gorgeous Singapore Evergreen perfume, though now has a sweeter overlay of something closer to vanilla. My original idea when working with Singapore Evergreen seeds was to work towards creating evergreens of colour.

I've managed quite a few pinks and lemons, so will be working towards bringing back into these seedlings, stronger colours, using the pollen from very vibrant rubras, and growing on once more, any seeds that are produced. It takes a few years before the results can be seen, but it's also very interesting, and rewarding when you finally get to see the fruits of your labours.

Singapore Evergreen is not the only evergreen frangipani around, however. Some have been given different species names, though there is a school of thought that subscribes to the theory that ALL evergreens are actually only sub-species of one original tree. Having seen first-hand some of the amazing things you can get by growing from seed, that in no way resemble the mother-tree, I think this school of thought is a logical one.

Here is my six-petal beauty from a tiny stenophylla seed. The mother-tree is a weedy, perfumeless nonentity, but when I grew two seeds from an opened single pod from this plant, neither of the resulting trees look vaguely like mama at all! One has a gardenia perfume, and the other, a very bright white, with six petals, has a very strong Lily of the Vally perfume. True! The one pictured also flowers throughout the year, producing pods continuously. As the tree gets larger, so do the blooms, pods, and therefore, also the seeds. I am told this looks rather like 'Hong Kong' which is not readily available in Australia at the current time.

Here again is the first of my 6-petal stenophylla seedlings. This plant produced blooms at 18 months, even while the plant itself was still quite a small shrub - see the close proximity to the ground! Seedlings from these first pods are now being trialled around the country with other Frangipani Society members, to see if someone can get evergreens of colour from these seeds, as the mother tree is surrounded by lots of vibrant rubras. The gene pool from these seeds is now potentially HUGE.....

...not love this one. It was the eighth Singapore Evergreen seedling to flower, from the half pod I collected and put in soil, on 7th March 2003 (label still attached). This image, taken with my old Sony Mavica, perhaps does not do it justice, but it is another dwarf, though this time with regular-sized foliage. The blooms are a pale lilac with a scarlet-to-orange throat. Great perfume too.