Fat plants awakening

Hello all,

Are your plants beginning to show signs of new growth?

Best regards,

Martin

Adenium oleifolium among others...

yupo mine surely are too lol!!
The most interesting ones are the ones that are failed graft attempts
They have all these 'V' shaped wedges in them.

Mine are too, and many of them have leaves, but they are outside where it is still cool so I am delaying watering them for fear of rot. I usually get belly rot this time of year so I'm keeping them on the extra dry side this winter. I do see some brown shriveled leaves though from lack of water, but I think it is better to err on the side of caution at this point. Hopefully, there will be some blooms soon.

Clare, I am also careful not to water to much now. In the past years, I have lost several bigger plants due to root rot.:-( But hopefully this will not be the case this year!

The day temperature outside is only around 50 F so I still keep my plants inside. April is so unpredictable in these parts - last year on the 20th we had nearly 80 F.

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Martin, April is unpredictable here too, and we have the names May Gray and June Gloom here because those months can be cold and damp too. Our hottest months usually runs from July through October. I probably won't even see adenium flowers until August.

I get some root rot too every spring, and on occasion, I see some belly rot too. Mine are all outside on a semi-covered patio so they are protected somewhat. I've delayed repotting them also because of fear of rot, but I think I will this summer.

Hello Clare,

Is that a Noble Concubine?

Best regards,

Martin

Well today we hit 76F (24C for those in the modern world) which was quite a welcome surprise. Not that I really have any caudiciforms blooming, but I wish I did. Now I just gotta get some. Maybe soon.

Anyway up here in the Seattle area, we don't use terms like June Gloom or May Gray. I just tell everyone the rain stops on July 5, just in time to rain out the fireworks, and starts again seriously on October 30, just to drench the kids going house to house on Halloween.

And I also water my plants (cacti and succulents) inverse of that schedule. If its steadily raining, I don't water most plants. If its not raining for the last week, I water everybody like its their last drink. If its sorta raining, I sorta water them.

The only plants beginning to bloom around here now are Cyphostemma juttae and Plectranthus ernstii.

Hi Martin, yes, that is Noble Concubine and a seedling flower in the picture:-) I had Harry Potter, but I managed to kill it this past fall;-)

Plectranthus ernstii with flower buds. I love this small caudiciform!

Best regards,

Martin

Fat base...

...and this is a cutting (taken yesterday) from another motherplant.

This message was edited May 1, 2008 3:54 PM

Beautiful plant, Martin. I have never seen or heard of this plant.

Is the plant in the top two photographs also grown from a cutting or is that plant from seed? The reason I ask is that many caudiciforms that are started from cuttings do not always develop a caudex or they may not develop the same way a seed-grown plant would develop.

Thanks again for the cool photograph.
Mike
tl³

Hi Mike,

Yes, indeed - and it's aromatic as well (like most of the species in the Lamiaceae Family).:-)

I bought the plant in the top photo, and I don't know if it was grown from a cutting. However, last year I planted a cutting which developed a thickened base. I can't say to what extent it will grow a caudex (like the one in the photo) but the stem clearly thickened at the base. I have two motherplants, and with a little luck I will try to pollinate them (until now they haven't flowered simultaneously).

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the info. Hopefully, you will get both plants to flower at the same time! It's possible that the plants may be self-fertile and you can try to move pollen from one flower to another flower on the same plant and see what happens. Good luck in your quest to produce seed. (If you ever have an overabundance of seed, please keep me in mind. (:o))
Thanks,
Mike
tl³

Hello Mike,

I have already tried to "self-pollinate" my plants without success. If I somehow manage to pollinate them- and they set viable seeds - I will let you know.:-)

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,
Wow, thank you.
Take care...
Mike
tl³

Hello again Mike,

This is a rooted cutting.

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,
Wow, so it does produce a nice caudex from a rooted cutting. Thanks so much for posting the photo.
Take care...
Mike

Hi,

We have summerlike weather around here (day temperatures around 75 F (25 C)). My fat plants are finally speeding up growth in the sun outside.:-)

How are your plants?

Best regards,

Martin

Close up...

...and more.

...and finally.

Your pictures are great, Martin. Thanks for sharing them. Your plants look very happy. Mine are putting out leaves, but it is still quite cool here and in the 50's at night. I found that my Noble Concubine root stock was rotting so now I'll have to re-root the portion above the rot. This is the time of year that I find belly rot so I am reluctant to water even though I see leaves drying up. Once the nights are warmer, I'll start watering.

Hi Clara,

I'm sorry to hear about your Adenium but luckily they are tough plants and can be rerooted.:-) Right now I'm trying to reroot an Adenium arabicum with a large hole in it - the size nearly 1/3 of the caudex.

Around here the temperatures still drop to 40-50 F in the night, so I'm doing my "carry-inside-outside-thing" every day.;-) It is too risky to let the plants stay outside in the night.

Best regards,

Martin

Thanks, Martin. I'm sorry to hear about your Adenium arabicum too. I did the carry-inside-outside-thing every day too previously, but I'm taking my chances this spring because I am too lazy and my back hurts too much;-) Most of my adeniums are seedlings, and 'Noble Concubine' is my only named one. If I lose a few, I'll still have too many. LOL! I am just keeping them on the super dry side to see if that helps. Here is an older picture of my clan:-)

Here is a picture of some of them last September when they were still flowering:

Hi Clare,

Nice collection you've got there - and wonderful flower display.:-) Have you grown the seedlings yourself (from seeds)?

I take no chances anymore.;-) Adeniums (and other caudex plants) are very hard to find in Denmark, so I need to buy them by mail order in Germany. That's expensive. For instance, an Adenium arabicum with a root stock of 2.5 inches wide costs about 40 USD.

I would love to buy a whole range of different Adenium Hybrids but I don't have the window space (from late October until first of May).:-/ When the dormancy sets in, perhaps I could store Adeniums in a dark and cold (50-60 F) room? Have you tried that?

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,

Yes, I grew some of the seedlings myself, and the others, I bought from Phil at Cornell University when he was selling on eBay. I think he owns the business Snowbelt Adeniums.

Prices are expensive here as well. For example, that Noble Concubine cost $40 as well. I am wondering if you couldn't buy from Mr. Ko in Thailand for less money. Here is his web site: http://www.adenium.com.tw/ I think the prices, for some of them at least, will start to come down soon.

I know what you mean about lack of room. I am in the same boat myself. During the winter, my adeniums did go dormant for the most part and were kept in my livingroom, which stays semi-dark, but it is probably above 60 most of the time.

I don't think that there is a problem with darkness and coolness during dormancy as long as they are not sitting in wet soil. They are related to plumerias, and cold climate growers often bareroot and store their plumerias in their dark cool garages for the winter. I would think that the soil would need to be bone dry and the air would need to not be humid in order to store them successfully, but I really have no first-hand experience doing this, but there are probably some growers here who have.

If you are unable to get more information about this here, I hear that the Adenium Yahoo Group has some very knowledgeable growers there.

Best,
Clare

Martin,
Very nice! Great pics. I am so jealous! Love the two Pachypodium brevicaule!!! How long have you had them? I had one years ago, but I let it get too dry and it bit the dust. I may try again some day...
Thanks,
Mike
tl³

Hi Clare,

You did a fine job growing them.:-)

From time to time, I try to germinate my own Adenium seeds - with great success (who wouldn't succeed with Adenium seeds? ;-) ). But I don't seem to get the timing right when it comes to watering the seedlings with growth slowing down in the Fall. Or should I say drowning them?

I've managed to spare a few three year seedlings - I just stop watering them when dormancy sets in. The problem is, though, that the feeder roots dry up slowing down the initial growth in early Spring. With the absence of long hot summers here, it's even harder to grow Adenium.

Unfortunately the import regulations on plants from outside the EU are very strict. I need a costly import permit from The Danish Plant Directorate as well as a phytosanitary certificate. Moreover, I have to pay for an import inspection of the plants when they finally arrive here. The costs would be too high.

I found a flower bud on my A. swazicum today.:-)

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Mike,

Yes, I love my Pachypodiums dearly.;-) I bought the two P. brevicaule a couple of years ago from a german nursery - that is, in the online shop. However, I must say that I now consider them wild-collected plants (or at least I suspect it with their "weathered" appearances - it's merely my intuition at work here). And that is much to my regret.:-( To my knowledge this happens a lot on Madagascar at the hands of the local people (of course due to the rising demand from collectors). But who can blaim them when life is hard?

Now that the plants are here with me, I'm very careful not to over- and underwater them. So far I've managed to get them over the Winter with growth slowy beginning in April. I guess the trick is to water/sprinkle with water regulary and no "big spills". The smallest one flowered last year and now both plants are finally leafing out (they are indeed slow growers here up North under less than optimal conditions). However, I am still hoping for a flower or two.

Here's the largest one (5.5 inches wide) - repotted two days ago. In the process, I knocked off a few leaves.:-( I like the pot (from the Botanical Garden around here).

Best regards,

Martin

From another angle...

Hi Martin,
Wow, that is a piece of sculpture and that is an extraordinary pot! It's funny how the right pot can make all the difference in the world, in regards to how a plant looks and is displayed.

Well, if that plant was taken from the wild, I'm glad that you were the one who received it, because I know that you will take good care of it and treat it well. It looks like you have the perfect window(s) in which to grow your plants.
Thanks so much for sharing your photos.

Take care, my friend,
Mike
tl³

No joke at all Martin, that really is a beautiful plant, as is that Adenium? right next to it, on the right?

Thanks much for this peek at your plants, I would love to see the whole collection some time.

Hello AnalogDog,

It's an Adenium arabicum on the left side next to the Pachypodium brevicaule - on the right side (barely visible), a Trichodiadema densum.

Best regards,

Martin

Trichodiadema densum (seed-grown):

Plectranthus ernstii is now flowering (the flowers are long-lasting). I tried to pollinate it with pollen from another plant but I guess I didn't succeed. It's not an easy job with the flowers being so small!

Best regards,

Martin

Close-up.