A plant seller chose to ship some plants during the deep freeze last week without a heat pack and without marking them as live plants so FedEx could handle them accordingly. :( Some arrived partially frozen (at least the leaves had been frozen). You can see the damage to the leaves on this Adenium obesum.
Will it survive? What is my best course of action? I did pot it as shown but not sure just what to do. Advice welcome.
Personally - I am not a adenium specialist - but I would remove the dead leaves and leave it dry. Hopefully it will start to grow again after winter, when I will water again. I depends on damage. Also I will keep it away from direct sunlight with the no water.
Thats just my gut feeling - I am also interested to see what the knowledgable people say!
If the caudex is still firm, that is a good sign. Just remove the leaves and see what happens. Keep it on the dry side.
Caudex seems firm. I will remove the leaves and keep dry.
What kind of soil is it in? They usually drop most of their leaves in winter anyway so as long as the base is not rotted or soft it should be fine. If the soil isn't fast draining you might want to change it. I water once a month or so in winter to prevent root rot.
C
It is in a fast-draining cactus and succulent mix. Caudex does seem firm so far.
Also received an Orinthoalgum pyrenacium and an O. longibractetum with similar damage. And some Manfredo Macho Mocha. The latter will be fine, I think ... have cut off the mushy leaves and they seem to holding their own. The two "onions" remain to be seen if any freeze damage to the bulbs. :(
Thanks, all, for the good advice!
I usually mix in some extra gravel or grit with the cactus mix. Many of the brands sell potting mixes that dry out and compact down.
Good idea. Appreciate it.
I would contact the seller and let them know that their oversights (no heat pack and not labeling the package as containing live plants) caused the plant(s) to be frozen. I would ask for a replacement plant once the weather warms. While that plant *might* survive, it will certainly not ever be as healthy as a plant that was not frozen. Since these plants are grown for their caudex, the frozen plant may not develop normally due to the freeze.
My .02
I hear you, treelover ... I did contact the seller and got no response. Why am I not surprised? I don't believe any reputable seller would ship like that so probably won't ever respond either. My expectations are low. :(
I'm hopeful for the best for my new caudiciforms although they now won't be given as presents, that's for sure. :-o
I have had good luck with snowbelt adeniums in NY. I got a plant that was in poor shape and died and was refunded my money. Do not know if they ship during the cold but they have an OK selection and fairly good prices for the size of the plants. I have ordered adeniums from a few other places (old man cactus and mesa gardens) and though the plants were in good condition they were quite small.
Cheryl
Cville,
If you paid by a credit card, contact the credit card company and file a dispute. The credit card company will debit the company's account and that will cause the company to contact you really quickly to fix the problem. If you don't get any satisfaction, the company may never get their money back.
I would certainly do this if it was me.
Good luck!
Thanks for the information and input, everyone. Much appreciated. ^_^
Update ... unfortunately the caudex is now soft so is this a total goner? :(
The Orinthogalums all seem to be fine as well as the Manfreda/Mangave, the Euporbia obesa, the little Bowiea nana and the Pachypodium brevicaule. Glad for that, at least.
Well, it depends on how soft. I would check the roots and that area. My adeniums have gotten soft and been ok. It depends if it is due to rot.
I cannot pull it up. It appears to be still rooted well. I am glad to hear you have had soft adeniums that have been OK. I will wait and watch. Thank you!
I just purchased two baby Adeniums from a vendor on eBay. They came and I repotted them. The down side was they had yellowish looking leaves, but the flip side was they weren't frozen, and the plants had a decent size caudex for the $6 I paid for each of them!
Take a look. I put them in front of my window, and am watering them less frequently since I thinkt hey need time to re-adjust from the shock of being jostled around in a USPS priority mail box ;)
Those look very nice. My frozen one didn't make it. Neither did P. brevicaule. They both arrived with freeze damage. The moral of that story is don't order in cold weather if there a chance the seller will ship then without protection. I emailed but never heard anything back. So will just put that person on my list of sellers to avoid. Yours looks nice for the price. ^_^
I plucked some of the yellowish leaves off. The Home Depot ones I got have buds on them... and all of this after I coaxed my very first Adenium to bloom for me after months of fussing and praying! (I confess, I loved every minute of it though)
Any advice on how to grow Adeniums from seeds? I ordered some but was hoping for some pointers before the seeds set sail :)
I have grown Adenium from seed and it is easy and fun. They will sometimes start spouting within 24 hours! I put them in seedling soil on a heat pad on my light stand. I also cover them with a dome or plastic bag for awhile to maintain high humidity.
Cville_Gardener - I was wondering how your plants made out. That is so frustrating!
The boweia nana and the Orinthogalums (pregnant onion and giant pregnant onion) all made it fine. So did the Manfreda/Mangave Macho Mocha. So at least the order wasn't a total loss. Trying to look on the bright side. Sigh!
