Is anyone growing Desert Rose?
I bought one from Home Deport and another from mail order Logees.
My big question is can these plants take the full sun of this area?
After frying my orchids, I'm hesitant to put anything out in the sun.
I currently have them on my covered patio which faces south, so it is bright light but not direct sun.
I have noticed some leaves yellowing and falling off.
Dee
Desert Rose
I have 4 of them. All are in partial shade, but with a good dose of morning sun. I water them deeply about once a week and one just flowered and another is just about to flower.
The homedepot ones were likely under pretty serious shade so I would introduce them slowly to the sun - even just partial day sun. I would also keep them out of the full afternoon sun until they are well established and acclimatized. I have seen several large Desert Roses at the Desert Botanical Garden in pretty full sun - but those were all mobile to some extent so I am not sure if they leave them out there all the time.
I give all of them a deep watering once a week, during the late spring, summer, and early fall, but as it cools down, they become pretty sensitive to wet feet - so in the winter I try not to water them much - even if they drop a lot of their leaves.
Right now the plants are also dropping some leaves, but mine all show pretty good new growth so I am not too concerned.
Did you repot the plant?
Thank you so much for the information, I have so much to learn regarding gardening down here. I haven't repotted them yet, do you have a suggestion on soil type?
I currently use a mix of about 50% pumice with some kind of cactus soil - usually the cheap cactus and palm mix you can get at Home Depot - it is not the best when used by itself, but when mixed with a good amount of pumice it seems to do just fine for my plants.
Main thing is to use something that drains really fast so that the soil does not stay waterlogged which is bad for just about any cactus or succulent.
Pumice is not very easy to find here in my experience - the Central Arizona Cactus and Succulent Society has a pumice pile, but it is closed for the summer. I have found a local nursery in my neighborhood that sells pumice so I get it there (a little more expensive than getting it from the CACSS).
With regards to learning things about growing plants here - there is of course a lot of merit in talking to people on this and other xeric plant forums or becoming a member of the CACSS, but in the end some trial and error is usually the only way to really get to know your specific garden and where certain plants will do just OK, great, or really badly. The trick is to experiment with something that you will not be heartbroken about if it dies.
A good rule of thumb is that unless you saw the plant looking good out in full sun in the nursery when you bought it, it will likely need a careful introduction to the AZ sun even if it is a native plant that normally grows just fine out in the full sun. On the other end of the spectrum is watering in winter: A colleague earlier this year told me he lost a large expensive Desert Rose specimen over the winter - simply just watered it too much - they saw leaves falling and got worried - overwatered the caudex got mushy and now the plant is gone.
I have killed my share of plants figuring out what works where in my garden, in some cases I have given up on a specific plant type, but most of the time with some experimenting, some advice from other people growing the plants here, a way can be found to make it work.
DBG has an information page on growing Adeniums that you might find helpful. I'll try to paste the website, if it doesn't work just google "adenium" and look for the Desert Botanical Garden "Care of Adeniums" download.
http://www.dbg.org/system/files/41/original/Adeniums.pdf?1279065141
Do any you have pictures of your desert roses? I don't think I've seen one, sounds very interesting for the low desert climate.
How are the orchids doing, by the way?
I have one, have had it for about 7 years. I keep it in direct sun for the summer, but if there are any leaves when I move it from the house outside, they dry up and drop off. The new leaves are more sun resistant in my zone 7A.
I keep it in cactus soil and never fertilize it, and it gets about an inch of rain a week in the summer maybe an inch a month in the winter. It lives in the master bathroom during the winter, very low light so it loses all it's leaves again. I leave it outside until temps get to 40 degrees.
Blooms like crazy all summer! If it gets too leggy, I cut it back when I bring it in for the winter.
Mine have been in the ground for several years they bloom from December to May. one in full bloom May of last year
Try again
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Awesome!
Oh Wow! With plants like this, you're going to wean me away from the natives. Thanks for the picture, it looks fabulous.
Thank you all for your suggestions, links and photos.
Sonorarat your plant is just beautiful.
Plan to get soil and repot this week.