AdeniumRose Company is doing a early release of adenium arabicum plants. If you are not familiar with this variety check them out. Adenium arabicum plants grow extremely fat bases and tons and tons of branches. They are not grown for their standard adenium type flowers but when they bloom its a site to see due to the great number of flowering branches and thickness of the plant.
These are not hybrid plants. Hybrids plants cannot compete with adenium arabicum plant branches and thickness. It’s the most sought after adenium plants to train for show competitions. The image to the right is with a bit higher caudex. Notice the many branches.
Award Winning adenium arabicum
The second image is one that was grow by a Thailand grower and you will notice the similarities. Notice how the branches fan out low on the plant. See how wide and thick the adenium caudex gets. If you google arabicum plants you will see many more examples of super wide based and half moon/ canopy shape plant. The next image is a great example of and adenium arabicum plant that needs to be cropped.
The image to the right is one of several arabicum plants AdeniumRose Company is offering with even lower branching! The more the branching – the thicker the caudex will become to support the growth. Notice how long the branches are getting. Whoever gets this arabicum plant will need to crop the branches next growing season.
I would crop the outer branches at about 6..7″ and the inner branches at about 8..10 inches. You want the inner branches higher than the outside branches of the adenium arabicum. This will force more branching in a umbrella/canopy shape.
Now it the time for Arabicums training
Now is a great time to get the adenium arabicum plants to be ready for next spring growing season. Yes, adeniums in some areas of the USA are already in the dormant cycle. Here in tropical southeast Florida they are still growing well with all branches leafed out. We do not expect to see dormancy in our area until mid-December time frame. Our spring starts in late February. Sometimes in our area the plants do not go into full dormancy if due to warm winters and tons of sun.