Journey Thru Plumeria History with Florida Colors Nursery
We’re passionate about preserving Florida Colors Nursery’s history for you and everyone yet to come. We will share our history and Plumeria adventures.
This journey with Florida Colors Nursery will highlight Luc and Carol Vannoorbeeck's experiences as we showcase the Plumeria that made a difference to them and our community.
We will provide a window into the evolution of Florida Colors Nursery while focusing on the Plumeria we have introduced and developed along the way.
Florida Colors Nursery was formed in 1976 and grew Hibiscus until the pink Hibiscus mealy bug and other insects decimated Hibiscus. This was one of those defining moments, where situations in life steer us toward a greater calling. We can all be grateful for this tragedy as it inspired Luc and Carol to begin collecting and propagating Plumeria in the late 1980’s. So this is where the Plumeria adventure begins…
In another one of those pivotal moments, hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. This spurred Luc and Carol to put all their efforts into raising and selling plumeria. A couple of years later, in 1993, Luc and Carol purchased more than one hundred Plumeria from Jim Little in Hawaii. Then in the mid-90s they made a special trip to Hawaii and brought back over thirty 50lbs packing boxes filled with Hawaiian Plumeria cuttings. These two trips offered time to play and experiment, developing new propagation processes, honing skills, and creating new Plumerias.
As each year passed their passion for Plumeria grew. Luc and Carol firmly believed in providing the best Plumeria possible to their customers for fair and reasonable prices.
When sales began to pick up, they decided to start wholesaling. One of their first wholesale clients was Stokes Tropical.
Going wholesale presented more opportunities to hone their processes and skills. Their experimentation began by rooting cuttings. They quickly found the length of time it took to develop a good root system wasn’t always keeping up with the demands. This presented an opportunity for even more experimentation. Both Luc and Carol had years of experience grafting Hibiscus. They knew that grafting a Plumeria cutting onto a different rootstock would not change the characteristics of the cutting. They determined they could grow Plumeria seedlings and graft plumeria cuttings, providing a very robust root stock in a much shorter time.
Luc and Carol spent several years perfecting their grafting methods using pins, rubber bands and flexible florist tape. After grafting thousands of Plumeria, they felt comfortable that grafting was the way to go to provide the best possible plant in the shortest amount of time, giving the cuttings a head start.
Over the years Luc and Carol produced many fantastic plumeria that quickly spread to other Plumeria lovers all over the world.
This adventure is just getting started. Check back with us frequently to join us as we journey through the FCN timeline and showcase our Plumerias.