Plumeria in SoCal A Photo Essay
K. W. Bridges & Nancy Furumoto
2025 © K. W. Bridges & Nancy Furumoto www.kimbridges.com
All photographs were taken by the authors.
Enjoying SoCal Plumeria Flowers Plumeria trees are popular ornamentals, known for their fragrant and abundant flowers. Though visually striking in clusters, individual blossoms have a short lifespan, lasting only a few days. As old flowers drop, new ones emerge from the terminal tips of branches, where terminal buds develop multiple flower stalks and bracts. This continuous renewal process results in dense inflorescences, often with a dozen or more buds per cluster. This cycle of renewal contributes to an extended flowering season. Plumeria trees can bloom from April to November, providing nearly eight months of floral display. The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden is one of four major public gardens near the San Gabriel Mountains. Located in Arcadia near the Santa Anita Racetrack and known simply as The Arboretum, it spans 127 acres (51.4 ha). The map below shows the locations of the public gardens.
The focus in this document is on the garden’s Plumeria collection. It’s a wonderful place to see flowers that show the wide variety of Plumeria colors. The diversity of varieties is expected as this grove, with over 100 Plumeria trees, is the largest public collection of Plumeria trees in the Western continental US. The lower tree limbs are left unpruned. This allows for closer flower viewing. You might miss The Arboretum’s Plumeria Grove if you are a casual visitor to the garden. The trees are situated on Tallac Knoll, approximately a 15-20 minute walk from the entrance. Our route took us along the path above the Bauer Fountain, around half of the Historic Circle, and then up through the oak trees of Tallac Knoll. The Plumeria trees are just off the main path. This places the trees at about the farthest point from the garden’s entrance. It’s worth the walk!
Maintaining the Plumeria collection requires careful management. Plumeria thrives in USDA Zones 10 and 11, which limits their growth in the continental US to specific regions in southern Florida, Texas, and California. The Arboretum, situated in Zone 10, represents nearly the northern limit for these trees. The curatorial staff pays particular attention to watering, especially during the hot, dry summer months when temperatures can exceed 90°F (32°C) and rainfall averages less than 0.5 inches (13 mm) per month. The Arboretum’s annual Plumeria Festival, a two-day event held in July, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024.
Technical Comments The photos in this essay were captured using a Sony ILCE-7RM5 (A7R V) camera equipped with a Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens and 2X teleconverter. While the teleconverter was not needed for this application, it remained mounted because of a concurrent hummingbird photography project. All images were shot in Manual exposure mode at f/14 and 1/1600s. These settings, though not particularly suited for floral photography, were a carryover from the hummingbird configuration. This resulted in elevated ISO values and consequent noise. Based on prior Plumeria photography experience, exposure compensation was set to -1.3 stops to preserve highlight detail in the white petals. The field session in the Plumeria Grove spanned 27 minutes, beginning at 9:46 AM, yielding 494 exposures (each saved in both RAW and JPEG formats). This translates to an average capture rate of about 18 photos per minute (one every 3.3 seconds). The actual shooting pattern consisted of three to six frame bursts per specimen, effectively documenting a different Plumeria variety approximately every 30 seconds. This high capture rate was facilitated by the dense spacing of the trees. Initial image selection was performed using Camera Bit’s Photo Mechanic 6, which excels at managing hybrid RAW/JPEG workflows. Selected frames, typically one per burst sequence, were processed in Photoshop 26.3. The RAW files underwent individualized adjustment via Camera Raw filter to establish baseline tonal characteristics. Images’ dimensions were cropped to three formats: • Full-page portrait: 2550 x 3300 pixels • Double-page landscape: 5100 x 3300 pixels • Half-page landscape: 2550 x 1650 pixels Post-processing included significant distracting element removal on six images using Photoshop’s Remove tool, with minor spot cleaning performed on nearly all frames. High ISO noise was reduced using Topaz Lab’s Photo AI 3 Denoise tool, which also provided selective sharpening. Final tonal adjustments were made in Nik Collection 7’s Color Efex tool, primarily utilizing the Darken/Lighten Center filter. The accompanying text was composed in Google Docs and refined through Anthropic’s Claude AI. Final document assembly was completed in Adobe InDesign version 20. The standardized dimensions of the edited photos facilitated efficient image placement in InDesign.
Postscript These photographs document a short visit to the Plumeria Grove at The Arboretum. While brief, our encounter revealed the Grove’s potential at showing the diversity in Plumeria flowers. Though we couldn’t thoroughly photograph the flower collection, these images provide a glimpse of what visitors can expect. This photo essay serves two purposes: to document our need for a longer, more comprehensive visit, and to encourage others to explore the garden’s remote corner and discover these trees themselves. Take the walk. Look for the sign. Enter and enjoy!