Month: September 2018

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Plant Dormancy Basic Care

plant dormancy ending       Plant dormancy occurs with most succulents, cactus, tropical and other plants during winter months. In  addition, periods of drought and high temperatures will cause plant dormancy in many desert plants.  The image on the left shows a plant ibervillea lindeimeri coming out of dormancy. Notice the new vines emerging for the top of the plant.

    Plant dormancy is a period in an organism’s life cycle when growth and  development activity are temporarily stopped. The plant greatly reduces growth and defoliates – its metabolic activity slows down to conserve energy. Dormancy usually is closely related with environmental conditions such as shorter daylight, cooler weather, extreme heat and low water.

Watering During Plant Dormancy

ibervillea lindeimeri going        If you obtained a Cacti, succulent, or other plant during dormancy period please make sure you know what to do.  During dormancy plants drop their leaves (most of the time 100%) so your plant may arrive leafless.  During plant dormancy you need to reduce watering to prevent root problems and other issues.  The majority of plants, not all,  that go dormant still need to be watered  once a month.  Ibervillea lindeimeri in full growing mode – image to left.

Pruning Cropping Transplanting during Plant Dormancy

 

Dormancy is a great time to transplant plants into larger containers or refresh the soil.  During plant dormancy many types of plants that grow vines or canes are pruned.  Remember this is not the time to prune/crop some types of plants.

Here is a partial list of plants from AdeniumRose Company that go dormant:

  • Adeniums – DO NOT crop / trim branches during dormancy. Depot during plant dormancy carefully. If you repot dip root hormone then wait 4 weeks to water. Crop branches after the plant flowers in spring. Remember do not cut below graft lines or you will lose your hybrid flower types! If a hybrid adenium (grafted plants) then always remove branches/limbs BELOW the graft lines to force growth of the grafted limbs.  93% of all hybrid adenium plants are grafted.
  • Baobab Adansonia – Re-pot but DO NOT trim branches. New growth starts at the end of the branches.
  • Christia Vespertilonis – Re-pot but DO Not trim branches.
  • Dioscorea Elephantipes Mexicana – trim vines back and repot during dormancy. Water once every 2 months or not at all depending upon your growing environment.
  • Flamboyant Plants – Trim branches and repot during this time.
  • Ibervillea Lindheimeri – trim vines back and report during dormancy. leave 1′-2″ of the vine on the plant. Water once every 2 months or not at all depending upon your environment.
  • Jatrophia Berlindieri – trim vines back and report during dormancy. Water once every 2 months or not at all depending upon your environment.
  • Plumeria plants – Re-pot at this time. Do not trim branches now.
  • Pseudobombax – trim branches and repot.

 

Know Your Plants Life Cycle

ibervillea lindeimeri plant dormancy   Many plants go dormant in one growing environment while not in others.  In Southeast Florida, a tropical environment, the adenium plants slow growth and will lose some leaves but not all. The  Christia vespertilonis sometimes drops its leaves.  AdeniumRose Company LLC also know as Epic Grower LLC reduces watering to 1-2 times month instead of every week during plant dormancy.  This stresses the importance in doing your research on the plants in your garden or containers.  Image on left is a  ibervillea lindeimeri in full dormancy. Vines cut back to caudex.

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Adenium Hybrid Seeds the truth – desert roses

adenium hybrid seeds seedlings about 6 month old
6 month old adenium desert rose seedlings

Adenium hybrid seeds question about adenium seeds pods and seeds of hybrid plants.  I have been growing a desert rose for a few years that I purchased at a local store in my  areas. I didn’t know anything about it when I started growing it.  I have fallen in love with the plant. It is beautiful and last year it gave me some seed pods. I now have babies growing. I have been reading and learning about the Desert Rose. I found your site and I would like to order some more plants. I love getting the seeds and growing them. I noticed on your site that you have some plants that are grafted. The 3 and 5 packs I am looking at say they are grafted on a caudex. If a plant like this produces seeds, will the seeds match the color of the grafted blooms?

Answer:  Adenium hybrid seed pods will develop on grafted plants however there is a catch but first a true story.  AdeniumRose Company would rather tell the truth than propagate half-truths. We have purchased seeds from various countries and people including on eBay (not anymore).  There are shttps://www.adeniumrose.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1&zenid=7030c19aebd0fce911ca2d8eed113cc5everal adenium seed sellers on eBay who show hybrid rosy adeniums. They show blue adeniums, orange, totally black, and one even has a drop down menu when selecting or seedlings. We challenged one of the popular vendors by asking them if they guarantee that the seed will produce the flower indicated. The vendor reply by blocking us from buying from them.   In otherwise, they would rather deceive a buyer than tell the truth.

Adenium Hybrid Seeds and the Truth

The simple truth is that adenium hybrid seeds collected from hybrid adenium desert rose plants will produce a plant with flowers of the hybrid plant maybe 5% of the time.  If you buy seedlings its the same no matter what the seller says or shows on eBay, Amazon, esty, etc.

Presently, reliable adenium seeds and seedlings are available for NON-Rosy adeniums in the following colors: standard adenium plant flower, all white, pink, red, dark red, picochee and now Double Pink.

Why Grafted Adenium Desert Rose Plants?

People grafted adenium plants for two reasons: 1) ensure the flower type form the grafted part of the plant produces the desired result and 2)  grow fat caudexes faster by using an mature plant as the base.  Planting branches directly in soil will not produce a fat adenium.

Hybrid plants are created by pollinating two different adeniums and then waiting several years to see if it produces a new type of adenium flower.  It takes time and years to get new flower types.  Once they get a new flower type then they start the grafting process.