We recently received a couple questions concerning the adenium or desert rose plants caudex being a bit pliable when received recently. AdeniumRose Company LLC ships adenium plants and other succulents everyday except of Fridays. However, we are pulling adenium plants and letting them sit bare root for 2..3 days to dry out a bit before shipping do to constant rain. We have had rain every day (some times thunderstorms that dump tons of rains in a few minutes to all day rain like yesterday) for the last three weeks except for last Thursday so the soil is always moist in the pots. The soil AdeniumRose Company uses for adeniums drains fast but it still retains some moisture so the roots have time to get water and nutrients.
During the tropical raining season in south Florida (during summer) the caudexes are expanding to capture more water so when we pull then the trunks are a pliable. The adenium trunks and caudex has not had time to harden which takes a period of dryness to do. Not everybody understand how succulents and cactus absorb water during raining seasons (expand) and then either contracts or hardens during dry periods. In the raining season (now for us) the caudex grows the most and sometimes feels a bit soft – not rot but not hard either. It is a normal process for adenium and many other tropical succulents.
All succulents have some pliable of their trucks and roots. Therefore, we are pulling the adenium plants 2..3 days prior to shipping to give the adenium roots time to dry out a bit. No it takes longer for the adenium plant trunks to harden fully than a few days. The second problem now is that the rest of the USA in having the opposite problem – high heat and very little or no rain. When shipping adenium plants; the moisture in them gets hot if left in warehouses or hot vehicles. This is the reason we are not shipping desert roses on Fridays. Does this solve all problems associated withe shipping desert rose plants? No – but it take care of most of the adenium problems.
If you have any questions please post them here and we will quickly respond.