New experiences - got these about Spring/summer last year, and we are at mid winter now, their growing time. Its an new experience to me, Tylecodon, and I must say I already love them.
T. reticulatus
So far so good
T. paniculatus
This one got a bug in the leave crown, but luckily I sorted that out quickly. No harm no fowl.
They are beautiful. Nice sizes.
Your plants look leafy and prosperous. My Tylecodons have either lost their leaves or are going though a slow but sure dieback. I don't really mind because it makes the winter awakening that much more fun.
Awesome looking plants.
Nice little beauty :)
Thanks, I gave them a little protection not knowing their stories yet, but decided to give them more sun and have them now at a spot where they get the best sun for most of the winter days and they seem to like that.
all of mine get either morning sun or afternoon sun and this s the year of blooms holy cow!
Everything is exploding, I should add used Chris's recommendation of heavy cutting back/
Yay!! blooms blooms blooms!!
Ill post a pic soon ;)
Cooool! pics yes please!
I love the looks of these plants and wondered if they bloomed, would love to see pictures.
Old thread, but I have to add I really like Tylecodons. It took me a year or two to get over my natural aversion at their deciduousness. Now I don't know what my hangup was, and I have at least 10 different Tylecodon spp. I wish I could justify buying the lovely book, but it's over $100 for a 100-odd page book.
Isn't this an Adenium? (Desert Rose)
Nope kareoke, its Tylecodons...here is some from nature - T. paniculatus
another one...they are called "botterbome" in afrikaans , translated it means "buttertrees", do not why, but its the local name.
about how tall do they get in nature? It looks like around 10 feet?
Tallest one in this area was about 35 - 40 inches, Sally.
I always imagined Botterboom came from the soft rather than woody trunk. But that is sheer conjecture. If you ran into one with a metal tractor implement, I presume it would sheer off like butter (versus a woody tree).
Someone mentioned pruning. When would the best time to do that? Maybe after it drops its leaves in the spring/summer? Mine are all putting out beautiful new leaves.. lovely.
Helen
Zed, cannot fault your explanation, good as any. The plants also keep sheep, cause a disease called "krimpsiek", I think they bloat....
Helen, not sure I would want to prune a tylecodon, unless something obvious.
On pruning Tylecodon spp, yes, a friend of mine prunes them to allow the caudex to grow while keeping the herbage (technical term, ha!)relatively short... The big ones probably aren't picky about the timing, and I am not aware of specific Tylecodon advice (or whether they're truly dormant or simply idling) but with C & S in general it's safest to disturb the plant during the growing periods. I think the principle is, that's when the plant has the most resources to apply to healing, immunity, etc. As you probably know, C & S plants in true dormancy are usually more vulnerable to injury or infection.
Thanks for the advise. I think I will let them grow a few more seasons before I consider it again. They are so pretty right now.
They're waking up or fully awake now in the Northern Hemisphere, so it's probably a good season for working on this kind of plant, when you decide to do so. On the side of caution, for Tylecodon I'd just avoid late spring and summer, when they are shutting down or fully stopped.