epic_admin, Author at Epic Grower LLC - Growing Blog

May 4, 2016

Bonsai Adenium Plant Desert Rose Pot Selection

Adenium plant ready to start Bonsai styling

Do you bonsai your adenium plants? Do you know that pot selection is very important in creating the proper bonsai look and to get the desert rose to grow wider caudexes?

***** WAIT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE. READ THE ARTICLE FIRST AND SEE IF YOU CHOOSE THE SAME POT *******

I just replanted a few adenium plants at our nursery to help clients understand pot selection and how to start adenium bonsai plants. I used desert rose a plant that had problems a several months ago (rot areas) but have recovered so the bonsai adenium plant will already have some character. Do you see the healed area on the side of the adenium plant?

Adenium bonsai growing — Three Bonsai pots for adeniums

The plant in the first image has NOT been bonsai wired yet. It was growing in the small oval pot that is about 3″ deep and 6″ inches wide (bottom pot in image) . All the roots you see were under the soil line and the caudex is about 2″ across.

Now, look at the pot selection and see which one would you use? One option is a shallow about 1.5″ deep but longer pot and the 2nd desert rose pot option is one about 3″ deep but not as long. Both of the pots are Bonsai pots.

Think about orientation of the desert rose plant before you determine which pot you would use. Do you want to make a adenium plant canopy tree, wind swiped, forest or hanging. Yes, if you are into bonsai you can use the fancy words such as hang kenjai, sokan, moyogi, etc. but for many of us using simple terminology helps when starting out and if you are like me I always use simple terms even after many years of doing bonsai plants.

Basically, ask yourself what do you like and how is the plant currently growing. There is no right or wrong in your final plant look – just what is pleasant to your eyes. I am not a bonsai expert by any stretch of the imagination. I just look at the adenium plant and experiment with it. Keep it fun and simple is my motto. Yes, I do wire some of the adenium plants especially when I want to make a canopy type plant but I do not always wire. I do not plan to wire the plant in the image for now.

In the next image you will see what I selected and how the adenium plant was oriented to give it a more interesting bonsai appearance.

OK, we are far enough down the page to give you the next image of what pot I selected:

adenium plants natural bonsai — Final bonsai adenium look with accent rock

I selected the shallow pot and then added an accent rock to the desert rose bonsai scene. I wanted the adenium plant to look windswept. I exposed more roots to let the image flow from one side of the pot to the other as if the desert rose plant is being pushed by the wind.

I tried the accent rock in three places and I like it under the trunk of the adenium plant the best. Is this the pot you selected?

Next year I plan to crop the upper main branch to create more branches to match the adenium bonsai plant lower branch to give it more balance.

April 20, 2016

3-in-1 adenium plant update and Dyna-Gro K-L-N

Update on 3-in-1’s and additional jumbo adenium plants. Hopefully we will release more desert rose plants on Sunday or late Monday. About ten to twelve 3-in-1’s extra large and 3..6 more jumbos should be ready. This is be the last release of 3-in-1 and jumbos for several months.

The 3-in-1 adenium plants are all grafted with 3 different hybrid flower types. The current plants growing by AdeniumRose Company in S. Florida have red, red-violet, pink, pink with red stripe, very dark red, white, and other colors. There are several with no color labels. In the past some desert rose plants received had yellow and yellow variations but we have not seen yellow on the current desert rose 3-in-1 plants. All of the adenium plants were grafted in Thailand. Once the desert rose plant arrives and passes USDA inspection we drip them for 30 minutes in Dyna-Gro K-L-N solution before potting. K-L-N is a rooting hormone solutions with important micro-minerals. It’s used whenever we plant any cactus, succulent or other plant. Once the plant is potted we do not water it for3 days to give roots time to heal and absorb the Dyna-Gro K-L-N nutrients.

After the desert rose plants are outside/potted for two weeks AdeniumRose Company starts to use Dyna-Gro Grow liquid fertilizer on the adenium plant. We do not use time released fertilizer until the adenium plants have been growing at our facility for 3 months.

April 11, 2016

Adenium Plants Desert Roses New Jumbo release

AdeniumRose Company LLC is releasing the first very limited Jumbo and 3-in-1 adenium plants in about 1 hour. Some of the jumbo desert rose plants have bloomed. We plan a second release of plants Jumbos and 3-in-1 plants in about a month (some are not ready yet). Beyond the second release it will be many months before any new adenium plants in the Jumbo size or the 3-in-1 we be ready. If you are a current client registered on our site or you follow us on Facebook then you already received noticed. The Jumbo size adenium plants are one of a kind plants.

Here are some images of recent blooms from a few of the Jumbo desert rose plants:

The first image above was taken last month when one of the 3-in-one bloomed. Its labeled Dark-Red desert rose. In addition the 3-in-1 label has a pink with stripe and purple on it. The second image of a adenium flower is call Pink-red and it’s on a jumbo plant.

The desert rose plant flower above left is labeled red purple bloom on a jumbo and also on one of the 3-in-1 plants. The outer edges have purple with the rest shades of red. The image on the right has a label dark red. It was blooming on a Jumbo size adenium plant. There was one desert rose plant 3-in-1 that had a similar flower bloom but much darker and label black. There are not true BLACK adenium flowers, however, some of the very, very dark reds look close to black. We saw a pink with stripe bloom one of the adenium flower one of the 3-in-1 that look very similar Siam classic. There are a few adenium plants 3-in-1 with a label saying pink with stripe.

April 4, 2016

3 more Hoya plants were rescued from a Nursery

Flowering hoy aplant australis ssp tenuipes — White hoya flowers Australis ssp Tenuipes

I went back to the nursery that had the publicalyx reb button plants in 10 gallon pots and picked up three more hoyas (the last of them) that were in worse shape than the plant obtained last week. Hoya plants are very resilient so I knew we (AdeniumRose company) use the plants to propagation. I offered a lower price and they accepted because nobody else wanted the hoya plants due to the condition of the leaves. The nursery owner was asked why the leaves were ugly and they said they were not sure because they grow then like other succulents.

The nursery only sells cactus and succulent plants purchased from large wholesale growers. At that point we help him understand that not all cactus/succulents plants grow in the same environments and explained that the hoya plants they had were getting way too much sun light causing leaf damage.

Hoya plant with leaft damage — Notice the damaged leaves due to too much sunlight on this hoya plant

See the image of the hoya plant to the left and you will notice the leaves have sun sores, red spots and lightness. The leaves should have a rich green color with speckles of silver on the leaves on the hoya publicalyx red button. The hoyas australis ssp tenuipes should have medium green lease. The hoya australis ssp tenuipes was in better shape than the publicalyx red button.

All three of the hoyas are in full bloom and AdeniumRose Company

is in the process of propagating the hoya plants for mid summer release. We are propagating larger sections than normal so when released client will get bigger hoya plants. Hoyas make great indoor hanging or climbing plants or/and patio plants under overhangs to protect them from too much sun light. Hoyas are more tolerant of water than typical flowering succulent plants but they still do not like sitting in water or non-porous soil.

The images were taken with a Samsung s7 phone in normal daylight setting.

March 24, 2016

Hoya plant pubicalyx red button flowering succulent saved from Nursery

rare hoya plant — Hoya plant publicalxy splash in 10 gallon pot.

The image shows the hoya plant after working on it the past week. I rescued it from a wholesale nursery that did not know how to take care of hoya plants. Many of the leaves were damaged by too much sun (red/cracked/blotches) and the it was choking itself in the container. Pubicalyx red button hoya plant grows fast and has rich purple flowers.

This hoya plant had many flowers on it but due to the sun the nursery person said the just fall off before opening (he did not know it require shade/indirect light to grow well). The plant was growing with 4 other Hoya plants in 10 gallon containers along a fence in the back of the nursery where most customers do not see it. I travel other nurseries in South Florida to see what they are offering and grab rare plants other wholesale plant growers are offering. Not all nursery growers know how to maintain all varieties of plants. It seems when it comes to cactus and succulents not specialized nursery growers either over water them or give them the wrong amount of light or fertilizer.

When the plant was first obtained it was twice the size as in the image. When Pubicalyx red button hoya plant is very nature it sometimes sends out purple starter leaves. One the leafs grow they turn green and have tan/white speckling on them. We have another large Pubicalyx red button hoya that is used for propagation and this one will be added to it. We expect to have a few ready next month and then in 3 months many more.

The wholesale dealer said he have a few more hoyas which I plan to rescue this weekend if they are of the rare type like this one. If I remember I will take images first so you see how distress the hoya plants are before I work on them (Cutting away bad parts). The dealer does not know the names of the Hoya plants or where he obtained which is way they were in the back someplace not being offered to his clients. When you visit nurseries do not be shy walk the whole area (the workers will tell you if you are in off limits area or not). Sometimes you will find something way in the back that you know what it is but the nursery has neglected that you can obtain for pennies on the dollar.

March 24, 2016

Adenium plant Bonsai style that have root problems solved

desert rose plant large — See healed areas in black circled on adenium plant

This plant had root rot problems last year on two roots section. I had to cut it all the way back to the trunk of the desert rose plant about 1 year ago. This is not a small adenium. I started to work on it a couple years ago to create a canopy bonsai style adenium. The flower type on this one is called saptaweekum which is a very large flower type (the largest I have seen). In the image you will see the two areas where the roots were cut back: one all the way to the trunk and the other cut back to just above the large exposed root/caudex section on the left.

The canopy extends over 27″ from left to right. The height of the plant is about 22″ inches and the caudex is about 10..11″ across (it’s in a 16″ pot). The adenium plant started to flower about two weeks ago and still has some blooms on it.

desert rose flower — extremely large adenium flower – bends the branches 90% of the time!

The root rot was first notice last year when all the other plants started to leaf out and this one didn’t. Some take a couple weeks longer but this one just showed very little growth. The desert rose plant was taken out f the pot and then we noticed root rot. on two of the roots. As stated in other articles when you have rot you need to get rid of it 100%.

We did not repot the adenium plant for 3 weeks. Adenium plants can last several weeks bare root. The larger the desert rose plant the longer it can survive. Once planted, we wait one week to water and fertilize. Yes, we did drip it in Dyan-Grow K-L-N for 30 minutes before we potted it. One month after we potted it we put it with the rest of the adeniums which received regular fertilization using Dyna-Gro Grow. Time released fertilizer was given right before fall.

It took a year but the desert rose plant is 100% recovered and growing great. The areas where the rot was cut out gives the plant some character.

March 9, 2016

Rare hoya plants growing great in South Florida

Some Floridians complain about never having a true winter or getting fall colors. Then we get discourage more when summer heats begins in late March (remember we are tropical South Florida) but one thing we do not complain about is growing things. The hoya plants are doing great and we expect to release another bunch of rare very hard to find Hoyas beyond the ones already listed on the AdeniumRose website in two months.

The hoyas plants were received in early January as plugs/rooted cuttings (very small plants with very few roots with 2 or 3 leaves). Just about all the hoya plants received have grown to several leaves and tripled in size. Not all hoyas grow at the same rate and usually the rare ones are rare due to how hard they are to propagate and/or grow in various environments. All our hoyas are grown in 6″ round hanging pots using a propagation soil mixture.

In south Florida, just about all types of Hoyas can be grown from cuttings and plugs without any special growing setups. Yes, we had some failures but less than 5% and usually that’s because the plugs/rooted cuttings were received in poor condition from the original supplier. Some of the hoyas will not take off until the humidity kicks in around late April time frame.

Quick note about the adeniums: the last shipment of adenium desert rose plants were received in January and they are leafing out. We expect to add them to the Adeniumrose website at the end of this month or in early April. Yes, we received in over fifty 3-in-1 adenium desert rose plants, about 30 jumbos and hundreds of standard size adenium plants. The last order of 3-in-1 plants (last year) were gone in less than 2 weeks once released so please check for updates on a regular basis.

January 6, 2016

Plumeria plant lovers simple survey – hybrid plants

Are you a plumeria plant lover? Here is a list of plumeria plants and we want your opinion of which ones you desire the most. Just post a response to this post and we will post the result at the end of the month.

Just reviews the images and select the number associated with the image. The most popular choices we will try to get in late in February to be read for spring.

December 2, 2015

Adenium plants growing back to basics

Happy holidays and have a great New Year! We have received several questions concerning adenium plant growing recently concerning problems and growing adenium seedlings. This past month we received questions about growing adenium seedlings now verses the proper time in the Spring. Unless you have a controlled environment (amount of day light, temperature, etc) now is not the best time to grow adenium seedlings.

In North America, most adeniums are in dormancy or very slow grow period. We start growing adenium plants from seeds in late February or early March.

Watering during the winter period

Adenium plants, even when they are dormant, need water and nutrients. In their natural environment adeniums go in to a semi-dormant period (slow grow the period) but not true dormancy as you may encounter. Water the plants once to twice a month depending upon your growing environment. Make sure all the excess water drains 100% and the soil is 100% dry between watering. If your pot does not have drainage holes – replace the pot. Putting a layer of rocks in a pot’s bottom with no drainage will not prevent root rot even if its a terracotta pot.

We use time released fertilizer during the winter months and once a month we use Dyna-Gro tekt to help the adenium plants to stay strong and have the ability to absorb nutrients. Desert rose plant start their new growth cycle in late February or March depending upon your location and amount of light the plant receives. As you water your desert rose plants the minerals in the soil are depleted so it’s important to replenish the nutrients.

November 11, 2015

Plumeria plants dormancy leaf loss

Just about all plumeria plants will drop all their leaves by this time of year unless you are growing them under artificial lighting. The winter is the plumeria plants dormancy period. Leafs will start to grow back in spring. Remember to reduce watering of the plant and protect it from cold weather.

plumeri plant flowering — Cathleen Diaz plumiera plant flower

During the dormancy period, we water our plumerias about once every week (our winters are very mild). In other parts of the USA we recommend watering them about once every other week. Check for stem softness and if it too soft give a bit more water. Use time released fertilizer during the winter and then a bloom at first signs of leaf growing for a month (late winter/early spring).

If you are growing your plumeria plants in containers hold off transplanting them until next spring after you have a few leaves to prevent too much plant stress. Keep the plants out of weather under 55 degrees and always make sure the soil drains well when watered.

Plumeria plant pests in our area occur less during the winter time than during the summer. Currently we are using a soap based insecticide once a month as a preventative measure during the growing period and once twice (every other month) over the winter period. The most common problem are spider mites. If you get spiders mites on your plumerias during growing season – remove as many leaves as possible and then spray the plant once every 4 days for three weeks. Remember to spray the branches and under the leaves too not just the top.