Month: October 2011

This is a recent arrival from Thailand. It’s a grafted adenium, desert rose common name, hybrid graft on a three year old adenium obesum. You will notice it has 4 to five layers of pedals of rich red color with dark red almost black edges.

Grafted adeniums in Thailand and India are taking the adeniums plants to new heights. The flowers of the desert rose are challenging regular rose bushes (the non-succulent rose bush) in beauty and quality.

Adenium flowers which are sold in box stores usually have four to five pedals but no in layers. They are commonly pink, pink with white and other shades of pink with white. You may seeing some double pedals adenium plants in USA store soon but specialty ones with three, four and even five layers of pedals are still a few years away unless you obtain then from specialty growers such as AdeniumRose Company in Miami. Adenium plants are succulents that grow slow but are easy to maintain. Unlike rose plants, adeniums take little care, fertilization and water to produce great looking flowers. They have a natural bonsai look to the plants due to their large caudex growth (exposed root system). In the coming weeks look for more images of new adenium arrivals including yellow, magenta and striped adeniums.

 

Adeniums will grow in  a variety of pot sizes, shapes and styles. When selecting your pot for your desert rose succulent plant make sure they have water DRAIN holes. Grab some rocks and cover the holes to prevent the soil for leaking our.  You want to cover the holes but so not block the water from getting out of the pot.

Select a pot size that leaves 2 to 3 inches of free space around the adenium roots unless you want to keep the plant from growing in size. AdeniumRose Company uses standard nursery plastic pots while growing and repot them 1 to 2 times a year until they reach the desired size or shape. Once the adeniums root is caudex is in the 3″ to 4″ size across we use mostly shallow pots (2″ to 4″ deep) only for force the caudex to grow out and large. Yes, we do have some in deep ceramic pots but the adeniums, desert roses, in those pots are in the very large size (18″ and larger caudex).

One of our favorite types of pots for adeniums are bonsai. Bonsai pots are shallow which promotes larger caudex (exposed roots) and provide the width for growth. Adeniums are not normally a deep root plant; however you can roots.  If you desire taller growing caudex. Ask Epic Grower Company how to adjust your plants for best caudex growing and bonsai effect or just let it grow without any shaping help for great looking plants (90% of our plants are not trained bonsai).

Adeniums, also know as Desert Roses, are one of the easiest succulents to grow in Florida. Florida, with its long summers and very mild winters, provide a great growing environment for Desert Roses. They grow fast and create natural bonsai looking plants.  When planted in the ground adeniums will grow 4…6 feet tall (some taller) with tons of flowers. If you plant in pots you can control the size of the plant from a small windowsill to a larger decorative centerpiece.

The adeniums produce spectacular flowers and grow huge caudexes (massive exposed roots). The caudex gives the plants a natural bonsai look without all the bonsai growing work! In addition they create great centerpieces when in bloom.

You can grow your adenium outside all year long in Southern parts of Florida, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California.  If you live in areas that the temperatures drop below 40 degrees then protect your plants.  Adeniums need 5 to 6 hours of full sunlight a day to produce tons of flowers. If you give it more hours of sunlight they will grow faster and larger! They will grow in areas with less light, however, the frequency of flowering and growth of the adenium desert rose plant caudex will suffer.

If you like to have flowers indoors, then wait until they start flowering and bring them indoors to enjoy. That’s what we do with our favorite adenium plants. Optionally, completely grow adeniums indoors using grow lights. AdeniumRose Company grows seeds to seedlings using LED grow lights until they are established enough for outdoors. The seedlings are transfer to the outdoors once they are at least 3 months old and the rainy season is over.  Adeniums can take a lot of water if your soil is correct. But heavy rain (large drops and strong winds) can damage small seedlings so we prefer to keep the adenium desert roses plants under LED lights until its safe for them.

Growing adeniums desert rose plants verse seeds require different soil. In this article I will discuss growing in containers once the plants are four to five months old with a caudex of ½” of larger.  Once the adenium desert rose seedling gets to a size that allows you to put it in full summer heat and sun light out should replant into a soil mix that is designed fro a more nature plant. Adenium obesum, commonly known as the desert rose, is a flowering succulent native to the soil of sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian peninsula First it must be course soil mix and drain fast!

The general adenium soil mix used in my are consists of perlite, sand, rock, top soil  and coir. Yes, you can use peat moss by remember peat moss retains more water plus moss peat moss is a wetting agent to allow it to re-capture moisture faster. Regular of the shelf cacti soil will work for adeniums but its not the best. If you plan to collect adenium plants, desert roses (common name) than you will want to create your own soil designed for your area. The basic mix is still the same but you may need to add more or less coir for moisture control.

When mixing soil for adeniums desert rose plants non-seedlings, use 65% perlite, 10 coir, 10% sand/rock and 15% organic material such as top soil. Add a bit of fertilizer you are ready to plant adeniums. If you are using store bought cacti add additional perlite and sand/rock to make the mix courser so water drains faster. Most cacti soils purchased in stores to much peat moss for your adeniums. The main problem with growing adeniums is root rot. You want to be able to water which means you need a soil for your desert rose that drain quickly. Once you have the correct soil 97% of all problems with growing desert roses adeniums plants are solved!

First, choose a size of pot that gives the adenium desert rose caudex about 1 to 1.5” more room to grow. If you allow too much room your caudex will not grow as fast. You want to control the growth of your adenium caudex to create fat roots systems. If you desert rose adenium plant has too much room to grow many roots then it will instead of growing fatter caudexes.

All pots for adenium plants must have drainage holes and NO saucers to catch water. Standing water is the number on cause of adenium desert rose plant root rout. When planting your adenium desert rose plants do not be fixed on having it always stand straight up. If you plan to bonsai you adenium plant many great plants start out leaning to one side or even hugging the ground before growing upwards. Its always a bit wise to put some rock in the bottom of the adenium plants pot to keep standing water away fomr the desert roses roots.

Use the proper soil mix (see other blog entries on soils) to make sure the water drains fast from your adenium plant. When you plant the adenium desert rose cropping the roots first to promote thicker main roots is a good idea. When cropping rots look at he plant form and determine what portions of the caudex will be above the soil line of the adenium. Small roots above the soil line will turn green and 90% of the time will not grow down to the soil.

Finally, use a bit of rock on top of the soil to keep the soil mixed from floating especially if you use prelate like most growers. Growing adenium desert rose plants are simple and just requires a bit of knowledge as in growing any plant. If you are growing desert roses adenium plants from seeds then you need a completely different soil than when growing more nature adenium plants.