Category: Growing desert roses Adenium plants

     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.

 

How much to fertilize, when to and what type of adenium fertilizer should you use?  There has been plenty written about how to fertilize your desert rose plants and what mixture.  There is no one correct single answer.  Some people say to use 20-20-20 or miracle grow with good ok results.  However, the answer is a question: What  is your current desert rose plant growth cycle and what is the age? Is it a mature plant 5yrs plus? Seedlings? or a young 2..4 year old plant?  Depending upon the stage of development and the amount of water the plant received will determine what you should use to growing your adenium plant.

Presently, we use a 7-7-7 time released fertilizer for our desert rose plants that are 3+ years old. This gives them enough fertilizer to promote growth and enough nitrogen (not a lot) for strong flowers buds. The only liquid we use is to supply micro-nutrients once a month during growing season for the adenium hybrids.  Adeniums are desert plants. Yes, they are succulents, however, they like frequent water!  They are more tropical in their growing patterns.

We do not fertilize seedlings at all until the desert rose plants are 6 months year old with a caudex of 1/2″ or more.  At that time we use a 8-9 month  time released fertilizer to help prevent elongation of the adenium plant trunk and grow fatter roots.  In addition we use Dyna-Gro Grow liquid fertilizer to make sure they get the micro nutrients they need. Yes, we do others things to make the adenium roots fatter (cropping, plenty or water,etc.)

Why do we use time released for the desert roses?  Time released fertilizer does not shock the plants, it gives us more relief from frequent adenium care and out plants get tons of water here in south Florida so liquid fertilizer gets wasted out too fast!

One more thing , we do dip our plants roots in a Dyna-Gro K-L-N  for 30 minutes when re-potting. The nutrients and micro-minerals in Dyna-Gro K-L-N really give the plant a boos. On adenium plants received from Thailand (95% leafless bare root plants) the growth hormone to makes the plants burst out with leaves fast. We sue to use Superthrive but Dyna-Gro have more complete micro-minerals needed and the adeniums just do better.

Good morning Mike,

I collected adenium and crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii) Please help me out, I had about 40 pots crown of thorns, many are big. At first I was very excited and buy buy, many of my friends also buy.  From March to May they were beautiful, but from May on, no more bloom. Please help me what fertilizer makes them bloom? I bought super bloom and it doesn’t work. Now that so many pots without blooms, the excitement cool down and I stop buying. I now focus on looking for a house with a big backyard. I needs land for all my plants and space for greenhouse in the winter. Another things, many of my adenium had so many buds, so many of them drop before it open, why why why? Please help me.

Marie

Hi Marie:

We have crown thorns in the grown and in pots. The Euphorbia milii bloom all year round here. In winter (our dry season) they do tend to not flower as much and may shrink a big because they do not get as much water (twice a week during winter) via sprinklers. Crown thorns like to be watered frequently. Our crown of thorns plants get water via nature (in summer it thunderstorms in afternoons about 4 out of 7 days a week) and we just about never get root rot. the soil we use is a little different than the adeniums. We use more soil to help retain some moisture. How much water do you give them?  We use a time released 17-17-17. Also, how much sun do they get?  There are many varieties of crown thorn flowers and three sizes of plants (Dwarf, small and larger).

Adenium buds – It is not their normal flowering season. Most the adeniums energy now is for growth not the flowers.  Usually we have the same problem when we recently repotted the plants (within the first 2..3 months). However, after 4..6 months the buds do not fall off anymore. Its better to give recently planted plants time to grow new roots and branches than it is to have them flower. We are still cropping plants (we did 300 plants last weekend) to create more branches and to grow the caudex at this time. These are some of the ones we received in early May that have really taken off!

Mike

Question:  Hello,First, I have received my order of three plants. I am very happy with them, and will be leaving your positive feedback shortly. Second: Do you have any printed information about the caring of Adenium plants? What is cutting back and how should I do it? I currently have four in four inch pots that I have had since July ’04, and they are just tall and skinny. No signs of looking like any of the plants I have seen with your pictures. One actually bloomed this past week with five huge, white, single petals. No signs of budding on any of the other three. Should I be doing something to encourage blooms? Help…and much thanks for offering such a bargain. I am looking forward to getting them into pots. I have them in shallow water to hydrate them from shipping shock.

Answer: One of the best ways to get answer is to use this blog and post a question about adenium plants. In order to grow fat caudex you need to crop your adeniums, water frequently (make sure you have the proper soil – very fast draining!) and re-pot on a regular basis. Cropping will force new branches. I recommend re-potting once every year or two years in slower growing areas. We grow in a tropical climate so we re-pot young adeniums (6 months to 3yr old desert roses) plants once every 8 months. Not knowing your growing climate limits me to just general information. Fertilize the adenium plant when NOT in bud or flowering using a very low nitrogen formula.

DO NOT LEAVE DESERT ROSE PLANTS IN THE WATER TO RE-hydrate more than 1 hour!!!!  Its much better to plant and water frequently to rehydrate the caudex. The key to watering frequently is the soil you use for your desert rose plant must have plenty of air (use 60%..70% perlite, 10..15% coir, 10% soil with no peat moss and 5% rock) and water 2..3 times a week or more if you are growing the adeniums in a desert or tropical climate.  The coir and soil will retain some moisture but not much. This forces the adeniums root to reach out (created more little roots from the big ones) for water and to store any water it finds in the caudex.

It’s time to crop and bonsai your adenium plant. The growing season is in full swing. You want to give your adenium plants the best chances to sprout new branches and to thicken your caudex. Its way past flowering season for you desert rose plants. Yes, you can have a second flowering if you cropped your plant earlier right after the first flowering of your adenium plant in spring.

Know your growing season! In the north you may only have 5..6 months of plant growing before the weather changes and causes your adenium plant to go dormant. If your desert rose plant has long branches crop them now to give time for new branches to grow before the end of the adenium growing season.If your desert rose plant is tall and has many long branches you may want to consider wiring wrapping them and force then to grow a canopy layer instead of straight up. When you wire wrap your adenium plant make sure you are very careful not to break the branch.

AdeniumRose Company recommends that you deeply water the plant the day BEFORE your wire wrap the desert rose branches. This ensure that the adenium branches are full of water and more pliable. Its better to wire wrap the branches as the adenium plants grow from just a few inches instead of trying to wrap long ones that many break. Have a great summer!

Question about the adenium plant seeds. I have what looks like seed pods on my plant for the first time in about 12 years these seem to appear after I planted new adenium plant near by in pots. One question is did this happen due to knew plants in the area. If i plant the pods how will i go about starting a plant from seeds.    – Carolyn  (I put your question on the blog for all to hear the answer about adenium growing).

Answer: Yes and no.  The same plant can pollinate its own flowers to produce adenium seeds. You can cross pollinate one flower with another to create a new hybrid flower. Most of the time adenium plants need to be many years old before they produce seed pots. We have had a few adenium plants produce seeds as young as 4 years old, however, most are 8 years and older before the desert rose plant start to producing viable seed pods.

Depending upon your growing location, soil, water and other things will all effect whether an adenium plant produces viable seeds. Usually the younger the desert rose plant the less likely the seeds will produce healthy plants. Your adenium plant is 15yrs old so the seeds should be easy to grow.  if you plan to collect the adenium seeds we highly recommend that you do NOT take the pod off the plant. Instead wrap plastic around the pod before it splits open to catch the seeds before they go airborne. The adenium seeds from the pods have whiskers to help them float away in the wind once the desert rose seed pod splits.Also, remember that the adenium seeds do not always produce the same flowers as the mother plant if the mother plant is a hybrid adenium plants.

Now is the time to start your summer adenium plant bonsai training. Ideally you adenium plant is beyond the flowering period if you are in the Southern USA or near the end of the flowering period further north in USA. Yes, some adenium pants flower more than one time per year depending upon your growing environment, plant treatment and weather. Making you adenium plant flower more than once per year will be another topic in the near future. One of the great benefits of growing adeniums is the ability to train them into a adenium bonsai plant.

The plant shown above is an adenium plant already in bonsai partial form.  Adeniumrose company started to create this bonsai when the plant was 3 years old by cropping the top of the plant to force large caudex formation and many branches.  the caudex is approximately 8″ across and 6″ high. You will notice this adenium bonsai has the beginnings of a canopy. Now would be the time to start wiring the branches as they grow out words (not up) in all directions to form true canopy adenium bonsai plant.

When you wire the branches make sure you use thick bonsai wire and do NOT WRAP the branches tightly. You want room for the branch to grow without impressing the wire marks on the branches of the adenium desert rose bonsai plant.  As your desert rose bonsai plant branches grow extend them to cover the caudex in size. One they are as wide or wider than the caudex crop them so new branches will start to grow.

Look at the image to the left and notice the canopy extends outward beyond the adenium plant caudex. This plant is 6+ years old and just needs a little more cropping to make the adenium bonsai canopy fuller. The first image will grow a thicker canopy faster than the second adenium plant image because of more branching at the caudex. Sorry both of the above plants are already sold to customers.

There is confusion concerning adenium plant flower names in the market.  Many growers in Thailand and other parts of the world do not conform to any standards in naming adenium desert rose plants flowers. Plus, many adenium hybrid lowers look very similar but are different due to size difference, slight pedal shape and even leaf shape or size difference.

Here on this post are two different named adenium plant flower hybrids one called white house and the other Nafta. If you look quickly they will like almost like the same adenium desert rose plant.

However, if you look closely at the Adenium plant White House triple layer white flower the pedal shape of the adenium plant you will see a different in how the pedals are layered and the edges.  Now this is not to say that many growers use different names for adenium flower types. If you look on ebay you will see the exact same flower with different names from different growers.

The AdeniumRose company uses the name provided by the actual grower (Nursery) of the plant. The only time we modify the name is when a name conflicts with USA trademark and copyright laws: Case in point: there is a adenium plant sold by many Thailand adenium plant growers name “Lady Gaga” which I know is a trade marked name by the performer. I know they did not get permission to use her name on the desert rose plant so we renamed the desert rose plant to Lady Gatong.

Over the past year we only renamed a plant 3 times due to conflicts with other names given by growers of adenium plants.  Yes, we keep a image and name log on all names to make sure we are consistent with the desert roses.

The floods in Thailand have greatly delayed new shipments of adenium plants to nurseries. Many Thailand adenium plant nurseries have lost most of their stock in floods this past winter. However, shipments of new adenium hybrid plants, desert roses, will start arriving in a couple of weeks.  Thailand is on the cutting edge of adenium hybrid plant cultivation and grafting. Desert rose plants from the Thailand area greatly exceed expectations in colors and adenium growing.

Expect to see more three and four level adenium flower pedals and even some 5 level pedals. Many of the flowers of the adenium plants are rivaling rose bush flowers in colors and shape. However, they still do not produce a fragrance like rose bushes. The desert rose plants are easier to grow than rose bushes and have less problems. If you are interested in seeing new adenium plant flowers images then go to the AdeniumRose Company photo gallery.

Here is one example of a new hybrid flower of a desert rose adenium plant for 2012 include the flowering “Happy Gold” (below). Notice the pedals layering just like a rose bush  but not.

You do not what you will fined in a regular nursery. We visited a nursery a couple months going out of business and found five good size desert rose adenium plants.  They were against a fence not in good shape. However, by knowing how to grow adenium plants I knew with a little work they will thrive. Desert rose plants are not hard to grow and they do take a bit of effort to destroy when they are large.

This adenium plant has a caudex of 5.5″ x 6.5″ x 7″ and 21″ tall.  The estimated age if this adenium plant is 6 to 7 years. If the top is worked right it will create a great canopy by using some simple adenium bonsai techniques.If you have not read other postings an desert rose plant is the common name for the adenium succulent plants. There are three main types of adenium plants and several hybrids.

The adenium bonsai canopy is made by spreading out the longer top branches by using bonsai wire. Loosely wrap the wire around the branches of the adenium branches and bend it down and out to from the center to flatten out the top (make canopy).  This adenium bonsai has about 8 branches that ready to wire is a canopy shape. I would lower the branches to the level of the thicker part of the upper trunk of the plant. Make sure you are careful not to breach the branches.