About Us
History
Our roots in horticulture run three generations deep at fancy Frangipanis and Frangi Magic. It began with William James Thomson Mead who grew a successful fresh fruit farming business in Renmark South Australia and my father Micheal John Mead moved to Papua New guinea where he developed large plantation industries. On resettling in Australia in 1976 he began growing South African Protea for cut flowers and the rest, as they say, is history.
Having grown up absorbing a deep appreciation of flowering plants, I completed a degree in Horticulture at Gatton in 1983 with the intention of following in the family business of farming. I devoted 15 years of my life to supporting ornamental, vegetable and tree crop growers and industries in Queensland as a front line DPI extension officer before starting out on my own.
With training, experience and a wealth of family knowledge at my disposal, I developed Fancy Frangipanis. We’ve spent 12 years collecting samples from all over Australia to add to our breeding program which spans several sites. Our team has applied hard work, keen attention to detail and a genuine love for beauty to the development of over 150 new plumeria strains and counting. That is why we’re the home of Australia’s widest selection of frangipani cuttings.
Frangipanis only begin to flower about ten years after they’ve germinated so this was far from an overnight success. A decade of research, crossbreeding, experimentation and hundreds of individual plants have gone into the creation of the 1800 different frangipanis we currently have (with more on the way). They continue to be gradually named and catalogued then made available for purchase online and at our nurseries.
Browse our stock online or visit our nursery and see for yourself!
Points of difference
Training and Experience
The Fancy Frangipanis team, led by Andy Mead is highly trained with decades of experience in all aspects of growing and nurturing gorgeous, hardy frangipani trees. Our knowledge is at your service when we supply you with cuttings or plants.
Huge Range
Having worked on our new strains for over a decade, our 150 unique varieties of plumeria represent the largest stock of cuttings currently available Australia-wide. And we’re not done yet!
Customisation and Innovation
Feel free to make special requests for specific feature combinations on your cuttings. As you’ve probably noticed, we love to innovate and we’re open to new ideas.
Nurseries
Our frangipani selections are propagated at two small production nurseries in Tully and Bundaberg.
The Tully plantation was our first nursery site and it continues to expand. It features trees which have been sourced Australia-wide alongside those grown from international seed supplied from within The Frangipani Society.
Our Bundaberg nursery suffered a setback in 2011 due to cyclone Yasi which devastated its stock gardens and nursery stock. We responded to this by expanding to a second Bundaberg site to lower the risk of future losses and setbacks. The thriving collection there has supplied cuttings and potted plants since 2014.
At both sites, you’ll find plants that have been grown on and then planted in an open plan block design spaced 4 metres between rows and 1.5 metres between trees within the rows. Among these are over 100 named varieties with special characteristics (dwarfness, evergreen, flower type colour) that are in high demand.
We regularly release new varieties to the industry as they are evaluated and become available.
Testimonials
“Thanks Andy, you knew what you were talking about when you suggested the Singapore whites, they look amazing in our pool area! Andy was a pleasure to deal with, cannot wait for them to bloom.”
“Wow, what a collection! I was looking everywhere for a red frangipani and finally found it here. Healthy cuttings, awesome packaging, great prices, highly recommend.”
“My daughter loves her frangipanis, thank you very much.”
“Great quality cuttings, crazy variety, top notch packaging, and speedy delivery. Thank you could not have asked for better.”
“I had an issue with my order and Andy was amazing about it. Thank you so much, I will be buying again.”
“My princess in pink and sunset red cuttings have rooted and are already putting out new leaves. Cannot wait to order more, thanks again!”
“I saw you on the news! I did not even know that so many different flowers existed. Thank you for the cuttings, cannot wait for them to flower.”