Some names in plumeria stay with you. Jim Little is one of those names for me.
I have followed his work for several years. His book, Growing Plumerias in Hawaii and Around the World, was one of the first I sat down with when this plant really took hold. I still recommend it to anyone who is falling in love with plumeria the way I did. It is not a stiff textbook. It is a grower talking through what he has actually done: types of plumeria, cuttings and rooting, soil and media, pests, and a clear look at hybridizing, naming, and registration. Mutual Publishing put it out with more than 200 color photographs, built on more than thirty years of his field work. For me, it was the book that made the whole thing feel possible here at home, not just in Hawaii.
Jim did not start as a full-time nurseryman. He was a photography instructor who taught in California and Hawaii, including Punahou School and the University of Hawaii. In 1973 he cut back a plumeria that was rubbing the side of the faculty house. He asked what he should do with the cuttings and the groundskeeper told him the pieces would grow. He just needed to stick the cuttings in dirt in coffee cans or pots. He couldn't believe it was that simple but he tried it - they rooted, and he sold them at a local store. That hobby became Jim Little Nursery & Farms on Oahu’s North Shore.
The hybridizing piece came from Bill Moragne, the Kauai pioneer who showed him how to cross-pollinate. Jim’s first success was JL Pink Pansy. From there came compact growers, dwarfs, miniatures, and color combinations you do not see on a common lei tree. The farm’s own story is simple and I like it: share the beauty, introduce collecting, and sell beautiful cultivars that perform.
You will see his stamp on the names. JL means Jim Little. Metallica is one of the ones collectors talk about: silvery-purple petals with an orange-yellow center, and his site calls it the first silver-purple plumeria he introduced. There are family names too, like JL Allison and JL Clark’s Wave. At our nursery we have carried JL plants, including JL Tropical Storm, JL Pink Twirl, JL Jefferson’s Gold, JL Thai Sambou and various others. I have been collecting his plumeria for several years. They are some of my favorites. Not because a label says they should be, but because they perform, they bloom, and they have that look and fragrance that made me hunt them down in the first place.
He described the hybridizing habit this way: “Once you find something that genetically shows an interest in the seedling, then you keep building on it, you build off that same lot.”
That is the opposite of rushing. A seedling can take two to five years before you even know what the flower will be.
The farm itself grew from a couple of acres to about twenty in Haleiwa, looking toward the North Shore. For a long time it was closed to the public. In 2023, for the 50th anniversary, the family opened Little Plumeria Farms to visitors. Three generations work it now: Jim, his son Clark (the shorebreak photographer many people already know), and grandson Dane. USA TODAY later named it Best New Attraction in America for 2024. They offer farm tours and lei-making tours, including a sunset lei-making walk through the hybrid garden. That lei class is on my list. One of my goals is to go to Little Plumeria Farm, walk through those trees, and take that class. I want to see the plants in the ground where they were made, not just in pots in Louisiana.
When the farm opened, Jim said, “It’s a labor of love. But the smile on people’s faces when they come here, that’s priceless.”
That tracks with how we try to grow here. What works on the North Shore is not automatically what works in Denham Springs. Heat, rain, and dormancy are different. His book still helps because he wrote it for Hawaii and for people growing plumeria around the world. We can take the principles and adapt them to Air Pots, our mix, and our season.
If you are new and looking for a first real book on plumeria, start there. If you already collect, look at the JL names and you will understand why so many of us kept following him. And if you ever make it to Haleiwa on the north shore of Oahu, go smell the trees. I plan to.
Come see us when we have JL plants at a sale or come visit the nursery and walk through my personal collection filled with many Jim Little plumeria. And if you have a favorite Jim Little variety in your yard, I would love to hear which one earned its keep for you.