One of my adeniums has bloomed!

Yippee.

Oh, that's so pretty. I was going to ask what to do to mine. I took them outside this summer and take a look at this. What do I do?? cut it back?? let it grow??

I would not cut it back.

I have quite a few that have lost their leaves but I am afraid to cut them.

I am leaving then as they are and hoping they come back.

Sorry, I was not very helpfull.

K

Woooohoooo! Way to go!!
:) Donna

Great job! Its beautiful :).

How long did you have to wait for it to bloom? It is such a pretty flower. Does it smell? Mine is just a baby, but I hope a few months of growth will be enough for some blooms!

Congrats!

Lovely flower, Knotimpaired!

Linda, cut that baby back! It will reward you with new growth and lots of flowers. Here's a link on pruning adeniums: http://www.tropicanursery.com/adenium/cultivation.htm#pruning Read the whole section on pruning and other sections too if you have time. That is a very informative site. I too was afraid to prune my adeniums, but since I have been doing it, I have nicer shaped plants with an abundance of flowers.

Here is an adenium of mine, and my friend Nat showed me where to cut. This was very helpful to me with taking that first step.

All I can say is WOW. What a great site.

I have about 12 adeniums (not sure the total count) and I have been afraid to prune them.

I will this morning thanks to seeing that webpage.

Thanks.

Ana, did you see it?

K

K, be sure to save your cuttings and make new plants with them. Let the cut end heal over for a few days. You can dip the ends in powdered rooting hormone as soon as they are cut and then let them dry for a few days in a cool dry place. Then plant them in well-draining soil and give them as much bottom heat as possible, and you will have new plants in no time. In time, the cuttings will develop a swollen base as they mature. They are a close relative to plumerias and the care is the same.

Clare,

Will do.

I have a BBQ for DH birthday today for about 25-30 people so I am up and about cooking.

Here is the menu.

Boneless Chicken Breast
Jambalaya
Black Beans and Rice
Cole Slaw
Potato Salad
Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese
Large Mushrooms Caps with Crabmeat
Baked Beans
Homeade Vanilla Ice Cream
Angels Food Cake with Mocha Icing topped with broken butterfingers
Carrot Cake with Cream cheese

I will try to get the adeniums in there someplace.

K

Wow! That sounds fabulous! Your husband is a lucky man;-)

Clare, thanks for the site, very helpful.

My pleasure:-) Linda, you might look at how much light your adenium is getting because it may be stretching for the light. It can take full sun or filtered sun as long as it has enough water, but it does need protection in the wintertime.

I grew one that I got in a trade for the first time this year. I put it outside on the deck over summer and it has bloomed all summer long. It even bloomed in the greenhouse over winter last year. So this is definately a plant that I would like to get more of.

I just picked up a small one at WalMart for $4.88 (like I don't have enough plants to take care of this winter).

Linda, I agree with Clare that your adenium will have a better shape once it is pruned back. By the way, for anyone that decides to prune theirs (without reading the info on it), they will weep poisonous sap. Wear gloves and be sure that you put newspaper or something under it.

BTW, did your adenium get enough sun? If not, I wonder if that contributed to it growing so tall.

I really need to prune some of mine. THANKS Clare! I guess I should wait till spring, you think??

Clare, at a glance at the little pic, I thought you had an adenium that had bright red and yellow flowers on 1 bush. I was a gaga. LOL

Nat, I don't think anything I grow gets enough sun. It's a real problem for me. I put things where it looks sunniest, then the earth rotates and the sun moves somewhere else. I have lots of large oak, hickory and maple trees. I took the pitiful specimen above and whacked it back. It was outside for the summer and had gotten lost in the foliage.

Kell, Do you store yours dormant? If you keep yours actively growing, it is ok to prune. But I wouldn't prune now if they are going to be dormant or semi-dormant.

BTW, pruning is also supposed to stimulate blooms.

Thanks, Nat! Did you recognize your handiwork on my picture? LOL! That was so helpful!

Kell, Nat is right. I would wait until spring, and then you can root the cuttings that you trim off. That pic with the red and yellow is the one Nat made for me to show me where to cut. That was funny that you were a gaga! :-)

Linda, I agree with Nat that it probably grew like that because it needed more light.

I'll probably trim my Noble Concubine come spring too.

I don't know about trimming that one Clare - - it looks very Oriental with the blooms on it! I LOVE the color on those blooms too!

And yep, I remember that photo.

In the past, I kept my adeniums growing under lights and would have winter blooms inside. I think I will let them go dormant with the plummies this year. I do have a couple of seedlings thought, that I will keep growing.

Thanks, Nat. I love that one too. I kept my seedlings in my portable greenhouse last year, but temps did get below 50 in there at night, and it was very humid in there too. The bigger ones did just fine outside, but I had a problem with some of the seedlings in the spring. Some of them had thick beautiful white roots with no trace of rot in the root area, but the belly was rotted through and through. I think they probably got too much water in the winter. The soil was very dry so I kept watering. This happened with about ten of my seedlings. Here's a pic below.

Yuck, thanks for the warning! I have room for mine inside and will move them out of my popup greenhouse( which is kept in the basement garage).

This is the first year for me having a setup in my basement, and I am struggling to find the right balance for the popup greenhouse. When I seal it up, it is like a sauna, and when I open up the windows and doors - - it totally dries out.

Thank goodness that I can store a lot of things dormant!

I have a feeling that adeniums do better being dry and dormant in the wintertime. The bigger ones are okay to keep growing and seem to do just fine outside here. It gets into the 40's at night here. I think the key to their tolerance for cold lies in not watering them at all in the wintertime and keeping them out of humid areas. They hold so much moisture in their bellies so they really don't need the water in the wintertime. I think my seedlings with the rotted bellies just had too much moisture and humidity in the portable greenhouse set up last winter. I decided to set it up again this winter, and they are in there now, and I plan to not water them at all. Here's the adenium that I pruned with your help last summer:

I have my seedlings planted in clay pots to help keep them more on the dry side. I'm going to move them inside under grow lights (and my house is dry dry dry in the winter time!), and water them sparingly.

Regarding pruning: I have one adenium (it was an orphan that I took in) that I pruned back and now it looks like a nosegay as the foliage is so compact. I do believe that in the spring, I am going to have to go in and remove some of the stems to encourage a more open look.

Clare, have you found that cooler weather brings on blooms? We sort of go from hot to cold, with only a short period of moderate temps. But have read that adeniums like a cooler period and will often bloom heavily then.

Hi Nat, I got most of my blooms in the heat of summer. After checking the dates on some photos, I see that I got blooms from March to November last year. The seedlings started in March in the greenhouse. Here's a pic:

The big one started in April:

I had them on a wagon this summer and experimented with moving them around a bit, but I mostly kept them in full sun. I did hear that they prefer filtered sun to full sun, but I don't think the sun is strong enough here. They did get a lot of water this summer.

Regarding pruning, a compact look is not so bad. Check these out: http://web.my8d.net/ko0107144/Images/desert/ko_e/kor089.jpg Have you ever visited Mr. Ko's site? He has some awesome pictures: http://web.my8d.net/ko0107144/desert1.htm

Oh Clare, you are killing me with those photos! I hadn't been to Mr. Ko's before - - will bookmark that site for future drooling.

LOL, Nat! Mr. Ko sells seeds on eBay if you are interested. They are fairly reasonably priced, and I think they have a good germination rate. I have that site bookmarked for future drooling too:-)

Oh Clare. Too much. I have never seen such colors. You are getting dangerous, girl!!

Look at Kaleidoscope. Amazingly pretty.

You have to be the most organized gardener I know. Your plants are so pretty!

I will have to look at his Ebay site - - - what is his vendor name? I have a whole grow light with nothing under it!!!!!

This thread prompted me to severely prune my monster pictured below. It remained outdoors during Hurricane Wilma- I was home alone to prepare and could not get it up the steps to come indoors.

This was the first storm where it stayed outdoors and it came through pretty well, but started a massive leaf drop a week later. I thought since it was already so stressed it would be an OK time to prune. It was all leggy anyway.

In my climate the Ademiums bloom during the cool dry season that runs from December to around June. If I get a nice flush of flowers I will post another photo.

Popular plants- I think I might spring for some fancier cultivars this year!

Wow, your adenium is a good size! And it has a nice even shape. I bet it's a beauty when in bloom!!

Cearbhaill, what size pot is that in? Looks so huge. Amazing it did so well in the hurricane! I wish I knew where I could find some of those amazing colors in the link clare provided.

I bought some from HD last summer and they flower great inside my dining room. I really like them.

Gosh Nathalyn, you need to remedy that empty light fast!!

Kell, I have a few plummie seeds to start and am thinking that they need a few adenium seedlings to keep them company!

Definitely!!! Go look at some Chinese variegated clivia too! You will be so fancy then! LOL.

I have decided I need plants of these fancy adeniums. I want flowers soon. LOL Oh I think I need to be mad at Clare. Why am I so easy to distract and to get me going in a different direction. I am so easy. I will follow any colorful flower home.

Kell, Mr. Ko has grafted adeniums on Ebay also!!!! Considering how beautiful his cultivars are, his prices are reasonable -- even when you add in the shipping costs.

I don't have clivia.......yet. :)

BUT I did order adenium seed from Mr. Ko!