Adenium

Easy care and pretty blooms. Crazy looking caudex. I love them

I'd love to try some from seed, but the seed that I found (a fragrant variety) is like, $12 for two seeds! In the nursery a one foot tall one with a caudex is fifty dollars!!!!!

They love it here, some folks have them in their yards and they bloom repeatedly, looking like azaleas when full. But few have the caudex.

They will only form the caudex if grown from seeds; however, the seed price you quote is utterly ridiculous. Did you look at the Marketplace here or EBay?
They are a very easy plant.

Oh, I looked online and found some jazzy breeder in Indonesia or someplace. I wanted the 2 fragrant kinds.

Wow, sounds like a great plant! very beautiful! i haven't heard of them before, though i have seen something similar before. do you get them in other colors?

The flowers here are usually in all shades of pink or dark red. They are grown in the ground and in pots and everyone seems to do really well with them - except ME. I have one in a pot and it grows a few leaves and then they dry up and fall off, over and over again. It has a big caudex and it keeps trying by putting out these leaves but they never get very big before they turn brown and drop. It has got to be something simple I am doing wrong because I see huge ones growing in old soup cans all over the place, flowering their hearts out with tons of leaves. They aren't very expensive here and I see hundreds being grown out from seed in the back lots of the nurseries, all in their little soup cans. Maybe that's it? I need to add a piece of can to the pot?

I just found out about these and am ordering some seeds on Ebay. Lots of colors and they look perfect for our subtropical climate.

The two - very expensive - that claim to be fragrant say "light fragrance>" I say grow them next to lavender!!

katiebear

I agree, I have smelled the fragrant ones and they really just have a slight scent. Not worth the extra bucks.
I grow mine next to my plumeria ^_^

I wrote to one of the ebay sellers asking if he had ony that were fragrant. His response: "But beauty has no smell." Couldn't have said it better myself.

kb

I thought this one was interesting...it's in our Public Gardens...I believe it was planted as a memorial of some sort, but I'm not sure. Obviously this one was grown completely from cuttings...no caudex at all. It is nearly always covered in blooms.

I have six of these in my garden...all extremely large, and all but one with the caudex. Perhaps you are watering it too much? If it has a large caudex, it does not need much in the way of outside water at all for a while.

Yokwe,
Shari

Stems will root, but make no caudex.

Good Lord! Go look at this stuff!

An island off Yemen, where we do not wish to go. Booo, I wanna go!

http://www.fractalenlightenment.com/2008/09/unearthly-flora-of-socotra-islands.html

Socotra - friends of mine went there last year; they said it was incredible.

Grow from seed and lift a little out of the soil each year to help make the big caudex. Takes time .... lots of time, but so do so many things. I grew enough to give every friend I've got several of them. They make cute fat seedlings.

Mary

One fellow said he'd started some seeds, and just about totally ignored them, no water but every few months. Then he did notice them after a couple of years, stuck back in a corner, and they were about a foot tall and doing fine.

Sounds like my kind of plant.

kb

I just got three small plats from Kenya (they survived three days driving in our truck!). Do they need really dry, well draining soil or will any thing that is not waterlogged do?

Thanks

Well draining is the key. They like water, just not sitting in water.

She is a real beauty Mary! I am lucky to get one flower on mine - now I have seen your gorgeous plant I am going to move mine to a sunnier spot in the garden.

I just bought 100 mixed seed from Adenium Ko on EBay. Not that I'll keep them all if they germinate ... but the plants like to be a little root bound so I can keep them in small pots for a few years. I've got degenerative disc disease, so my back isn't what it used to be. The gigantic pots the brugmansia are in are just a bit much for me to move around now, and digging a big hole is out of the question in our rock filled earth, so I'm switching my focus.

Sorry to hear about your poor back Mary - how very sensible of you to switch focus, although you did grow some beautiful Brugs....

Keep us up to date on your new babies.

Okay thanks. I will try and plant them out this week they are only about 4 in high so they are still small. I did not know they came in different varieties. I just have the wild ones.

Mvule, you are from Uganda! I was just starting to think i am the only person from africa on tropical...
westraad

If your even thinking about growing desert rose you've just got to read what WQP has to offer, it's in the "subject"how to make your desert rose produce seed , the forum is caudiciform. Sorry I don't know how to do links, I'm computer stupid, but this guy (or girl) is a wealth of information, check him out, you won't be sorry.

Wow, thanks that thread is great, Jimsned. I need to be checking the Caudiform forum ill add it to my favourits.

Westraad, great to hear from you. It seems that most other African members are pretty dormant as I don't see their postings either. What kind of garden do you have in Mosambique? I just carried 3 coconuts, a cycad, desert rose and a couple of palms 1000km from Mombasa to Arua where we live. They survived dispite sharing the truck with a bunch of kids!

I bought two today, couldn't live without them. Local garden center got them in a couple of weeks ago, they're not in bloom, and not selling, either, they have about thirty plants. I guess $30 each is too pricey! But I plan to try to make seeds and babies. Is that a good excuse for an outlandish purchase?

I'll be happy to see the color, if I can make them happy to bloom.

They're so cute! Any excuse to add a new plant is a good excuse as far as I'm concerned.

My garden is a bit of everything, but mainly cottage. (at least thats what i tell myself!) how about you, what type of garden do you have?

Oh, it's so easy to spend $30 on a plant these days, you may as well purchase them and enjoy them. An evening at a movie with dinner will very easily set you back $60 and you'll have nothing to show for your expense. I just got one a while back. I love it. It dropped leaves when I repotted it. It turns out it was thirsty. Don't let the desert in desert rose fool you. It needs a lot of water with excellent drainage in the summer and way less water in the winter.

But then again, I could be wrong.

Sylvain.

I thought I was wrong once but I was wrong.

kb

hmmm... I'm still trying with my desert rose. I moved it to a terrace with full sun and it gets rain as well. It seems to be doing a little better. It has leafed out again and so far (fingers crossed) the leaves haven't dropped. Maybe I wasn't watering it enough or maybe it needed more sun or... who knows. I would just be happy if it kept its leaves, I'll think about blooming later.

There's a caudiciform forum, lots of info there.

From what I'm learning, a thorough watering, then totally dry before watering again. And quick draining soil, no clay.

All of my desert rose are planted in the ground outside and doing fairly well, I just bought a new one and have decided to keep it in the pot, I bought it at a local nursery because it looked rather sad and needs attention. Since I've never had one I kept in a pot, I'd like to have any thoughts on transfering it to a larger pot since I see roots comming out the bottom of this pot. Will regular potting soil do? also, should I loosen the roots because I'm sure it's root bound. I figure it might be easier to play with hand pollenation up on a table, I'm doing my in the ground DR every day, but it's difficult to get back up after sitting on the ground pollenating flowers. Jim

Westaad,
Sorry been away for a while,

Well I don't know how to describe the garden it is really a small campus in a valley with a stream running through. it came with two Eucalyptus plantations I could do with out them in someways I would prefer local forest trees. I am trying to diversify the forests. Gardening is a battle with several families on site (not least my own three little 'uns and a very small budget.

I did post some pictures n the palm forum

Since I have at last learned how to post a picture, thanks to you guys at DavesGarden, I just have to show you my prized White Desert Rose, it'skind of strange because it has few to no leaves, but just blooms constantly.

Very beatiful! The white ones are pretty rare. Does yours have a scent?

Dutchlady1, since I am a heavy smoker (sad to say) I wouldn't be able to smell them if they do, however, this one was labeled fregrant white, I have another smaller one which is white also, I trying pollenating them by hand, but I understand they don't come true to the mother plant.

Have you perused Wilfred's comments on paintbrush pollination? A very good thread!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1010662/

Definitely a total gardener, Wilfred, check the fingernails. That's a compliment! Mine look like that half the time.

Jim-of-the-whiteflower, do try pollinating! I want your seed. Umm,,,Hum, that sounds funny....

This message was edited Oct 14, 2009 5:50 AM

I just planted 100 adenium seed. If 25% germinate I'll be more than happy. I just love growing from seed.