Question: Hi my desert rose lost all of its leaves after I re-potted it. The Caudex and the trunk are nice and firm/hard so I am not worried (yet). The “soil” however is now bone dry because I read that watering a leafless desert rose is not a good idea, if so, when should I water the adenium plant again? Will the leaves just come back without me watering it? By the way, the plant is in a bay window that faces east. I live in the Chicago area and it is still too cold to bring it outside. i have only watered it once since I put it in its new pot. Thank you.
Answer: When we receive desert rose plants from Thailand they are all 100% leafless and dry. Sometimes the caudex are soft due to not having water for 2 weeks. Then it take another week to get them all potted. Yes- we water them when they are leafless!
I’m not sure who told you not to water the adeniums when they are leafless -we do all the time so the will sprout new leaves. OK – this winter has been long and many of our adeniums didn’t sprout new leaves until last month. Our climate is always much warmer than yours during the winter. We do not get freezing days what-so-ever this year. So I would recommend watering the desert rose plant twice a week making sure that it dries completely between watering. Also, did you dip the roots of the adenium obesum plant in super-thrive to give them a boost before you re potted it? If you did not get some super-thrive (a little bottles goes a very very long way) and add some to water (Very little) and water the adenium plant with super-thrive once now and once in mid summer.
I dipped it in SuperThrive prior to repotting, yes. But your info sheet didn’t say what proportion to use, so I used the drop-a -cup proportion on the bottle which is 1/4 tsp per gallon of water. Was that enough? Seems very little but I have not used super thrive before so I don’t know what is too little or too much.
I was searching the Internet for info on how/when to water desert rose. I came across blogs that confused me more than helped me… One of them of course was not to water them while they are leafless. 🙂 …. I’ll just stay here now and stick to your expert advice.
Just so you know I have been monitoring your site to see if your three in ones are already listed.
Thanks for your help.
Great. Yes super thrive goes a long way. We mix 5 gallons of water with 2 caps full of super-thrive when soaking the plants(about 1 teaspoon). We soak them for 5 to 15 minutes depending upon the size of the adenium plant.
I am thinking about LED grow lights for my desert rose next winter when I bring them in to protect them from Chicago’s subzero temperatures ….but I know nothing about them. Can you give me a crash course or recommendation as to what brand/specifications to use?
Also I am wondering if your 3 in 1 desert rose is ready. I would like to use my “free shipping” coupon. Thank you!
Good Day:
The 3 in 1 desert roses are growing well however they are not proven because the base of most of them have not bloomed yet (the part below the graft line) which gives the adenium plant the triple pink flower. Many of them have bloom with red and white triple flowers already. We are waiting to see what happens to them this season. They are over growing their pots with caudexes of 4″ to 6″ across. Recently we replanted sevceral of the 3 in 1 adenium plants into 12″ pots due to their size (caudex of 6″ plus). I will a small amount of the 3 in 1 adeniums plants as not proven but available for sale today.
LED growing lights. We use them to grow seeds not the plants because we are in Miami where we get about 3..5 nights below 50 during the winter (no freezing at all this year or last year). Once the adenium seedlings get to 1/4″ caudex we move them outside. The LED we uses are quad band lights we purchased on ebay. Each panel is approximately 18″ x 18″ (225 lights) which covers two 10 x 20 propagation trays. The ones we have are getting old (about 4 years old) but they are still working ok. We do grow seeds without the light during the summer in 10 x 120 trays with covers to keep the moisture in under 70% shade houses. We have not used LED lights for plants over 8 months old but many people do. Sorry when it comes to LED we are not experts yet in growing mature plants with them.
betty vidraI too am interested in the led lights for my plant this winter,do they use a regular lamp or do they require a special lamp and where are the bulbs and lamps available? Waiting for your reply. I am really excited to have one of your plants to watch it grow. Thanks, Betty Vidra
LED grow lights do not need special lamps. However, since they are low wattage you need them close to the desert rose plant. We use flat panel led lights and have them less than 12″ above the plants. If you want to use regular lamps then full spectrum bulbs are better and I would check out farmtek.com for information. They will even send yuo a catalog but the best part about them is that they give good advice (they teach hands-on classes for growing things and farming so they walk the talk).
Do you sell retail from your nursery and if so can I have directions to the nursery as I plan to be in the Miami area winter of 2014. Thanks.
Thank you for your questions. We are currently leasing land from a wholesale palm nursery in Homestead Florida. Since it’s a wholesale nursery AdeniumRose Company are not allowed to do retail sales on site. Therefore, at the present time all our sales are through our website. We do have several local clients who order the plants and then pick them up at our office (not nursery) in Miami. If you are local you can do the same and I can send you a FREE shipping coupon to use so you can pick up the plants at the office.
You will need to register with the site before I can send the coupon for free shipping so you can pick up the plants in our Miami (Doral) office.