Category: Growing desert roses Adenium plants

 

 

This past two weeks Adeniumrose Company has stated to grow fat plants beyond adenium desert rose plants. Fat plants, also known as caudiciforms, consist of plants of many types that form a fat stem, fat exposed roots or fat thick trunk.  There are many different many different caudiciform plants that range in height from a few inches to over 30 feet tall (Baobab tree a pachycaul).  Plants with fat stems or trunks are called Pachycauls.

Growing fat plants by seed is a bit more difficult than growing adeniums which is a fat plant since each fat plant type requires different growing considerations. One thing they all have in common is the need to have well drained soil since just about all of the fat plants are succulents or cactus. Since AdeniumRose Company is located is sunny just about always warm we are able to start growing the seeds now without the worry from March through September.

The ones

Epicgrower Company started this month consist of 10 different fat plants and about 100 seeds of each.  If all goes well by this time next year many will be offered on our site. We are using the same soil mixture we use to grow adeniums by see except for a couple which will be in a mix with 50% perlite instead of 65%. The soil also contains core 20% to 30% , and about 10% soil.

The first batch of two different types of fat plants were planted two weeks ago and they are both germinating at a rate of about 50%.  Adeniumrose company is using a few different seed sources for the fat plants to see who has a better germination rate. We will keep you posted with images in the near future as the caudiciforms plants pop out of the soil (germinate).

Plant discount codes and coupons codes have been extended through August 20, 2015 on the AdeniumRose Company website for all cactus, adeniums, plumerias and succulents.  Remember to put in the codes during checkout to get the discount.  Do not use Amazon Checkout to use the codes. The Amazon checkout does not have a method to put in coupon or discount codes for the plants. The free shipping coupon code is always on the first page of the Adeniumrose website. Remember free shipping does not include soil or jumbo plants. Also, free shipping is only for the continental USA excluding Alaska.

Here are the coupon codes except for the FaceBook coupon codes (please see our Facebook page www.facebook.com/epicgrower):

Use code:   Spec15%Off     Get 15% off coupon from AdeniumRose Company. This coupon is good for orders of $67 or more.  You can use it as many times as you want from now until August 30, 2015

Use code: FreeShip2015   Get free shipping on orders of $97 or more continental USA only.  This coupon excludes Soil purchases, pots and JUMBO Plants.  Jumbo plants are listed as Specials on the website from time to time.  Use it as many times as you want until December 31, 2015

Special notices to clients: Between August 18th and August 24rd we will not be making any shipments from the nursery. We will accept orders and put the plants aside to ship on Tuesday.

First, yes I know plumeria plants are not succulents; however, many followers of this blog collect the colorful flowering plumerias so I’m including them in this blog post. The plumeria plants in southeast are still blooming and we expect them to continue blooming through September in our area. South Florida is in the middle of the tropical rainy season with many thunderstorms dumping inches of rain every day.

The adenium plants, plumerias, prickly pears, echeverias and all our plants are receiving rain every day (no we do not grow under a greenhouse what-so-ever). However even with daily rain we still water the plants once a month and the remainder of the time rely on the time released fertilizer during the summer.  It’s important to remember that water leaches out nutrients from the soil quickly. Since you should be using potting a mix with less than 15% soil the nutrients will be deplete after a couple short months.

In the desert areas, where you get much less rain, we highly recommend increasing watering of your succulent and tropical plants now through early September. Fertilization of the plants increase the growth, health and resistance to problems.

The adeniums (desert roses) and other plants are in their main growth period for the year. If you have not transplanted your adenium plants (if needed) do so now before the end of the month or wait until next year. In small pots the adeniums will push up exposing more of the roots (caudex) as it grows. Under the soil the cramped roots will get twisted so when you do re-pot the adeniums you will have interesting shapes.

We purchased several inexpensive inline automatic fertilization kits and installed them about 2 years ago. No we do not sell the kits. The ones we use are called by EZ-Flow.  We use two 2 gallon EZ-Flow kits per plant section (one with Dyna-Gro Grow and one with Tekt during the summer).  Each watering we alternate the fertilizer so each section gets a dose once every month. EZ-Flow has all types of kits including ones that connect to a hose lines (3/4 or gallon size will work great for most hobbyists).  They are simple to install!

The only plants not out in the open are the Hoyas which like less direct sun than other succulents and cactus plants. The hoya plants are receive 70% sunlight for 8 hours a day in a screened in area. They are doing great. Yes, AdeniumRose Company has increased the watering of the hoyas too!  Plan to see a release of hoya plants in late August or early September.

New adenium plant collectors receiving plants shipments for the first time sometimes experience problems getting the desert rose plant to grow new leaves quickly. Collectors who live in the southern half of the USA have less problems then ones in the middle and northern states.

The adenium plants shipped from AdeniumRose Company are grown in South Florida which is tropical year round warm climate with long hours of sunlight (10 to 12+ hours).  When the plants are shipped they go into water conservation mode and will drop many of its leaves (sometimes all). Many times if the plants are shipped to cooler climates with fewer hours of sunlight they actually go into dormancy.

The normal (natural) time for the desert rose plants to be in dormancy is between December through February in the their native growing environments. In south Florida adenium plant dormancy many times does not truly happen because due to very mild winters the adeniums do not go into full dormancy instead just a slower growth pattern.

In mid and northern states, unless the collector promotes longer growing season through the use of grow lights, dormancy can began as early as late September and go through late April or even May depending upon how far north. Adenium plants will go into dormancy when shipped north because the plant will get less light and cooler weather which the plant responds as if the seasons are changing. When receiving adenium plants we suggest to us Dyna K-L-N when you plant the desert rose and then Dyna-gro bloom every other week for a couple months or until you see new growth.

Has your adeniums already bloomed?  If you live in south half of the USA your adeniums should already have flowered. Now is the time to crop the long branches to give the adenium plants time to grow new ones.  There are several articles on this blog concerning cropping/pruning your adeniums.  If you are growing seedlings and the caudex is 1/2 inch or thicker it’s time to crop them too.

We cropped the majority of our desert rose seedlings in late March and over 90% of them have produces 2 or more branches just below where we cropped them.  It’s important to crop your branches while you still have 2..3 months in the growing season. The new branches on the adenium seedling are now getting to be 2″ to 3″ long and they are almost ready to release on the Adenium Rose site.  We call our seed grow desert rose plants seedlings until they are 16 months old.  The ones cropped were started in late April of 2014. The majority of the pruned desert rose seedlings from 2014 have a caudex of 3/4″ to 1″ in size (some larger).

The plumerias started to bloom late March and they are still blooming. We are using the Dyna-Gro Grow and Dyna-Gro Tekt on them with great results.  Our system alternates so the plants get the Tekt and the Grow once a month.  The rest of the month we let nature handle all watering (summer is our rainy season in tropical South Florida).

The hoya plants received in late April are doing great. We lost less than 5% of the hoya “wax plants” imported from Thailand.  All hoya plants are producing new leaves and should be ready for release in August. Adenium rose company has started to put them on a regular fertilization schedule using Dyna-Gro foliage and Tekt. when we first received them we used Dyna-Grow K-L-N.

A new shipment of Adeniums plants were just received.  At the present time the desert rose plants are being inspected potted. Usually, we pot the plant and wait 3 or more months to offer the plants or until they haev at least 9 to ten new leaf growth. When the adenium plants are received from Thailand they are 100% leaf less and barre root. Prior to being shipped the US the adeniums go through a process including dipping the plants in a solution before they are packed in Thailand to prevent pests/bugs. When the desert rose plants arrive in the USA then must go through the USDA inspection station when a group of specialists review the plants to make sure there are not bugs or fungus prior to releasing them to AdeniumRose Company LLC.

AdeniumRose Company then inspect the plants again prior to planting.  We dip the adenium plants in Dyna-Gro K-l-N fertilizer for 30 minutes prior to potting then in our fresh desert rose soil mix.  We put rocks on top of the soil to prevent the Perlite from floating to the top of the soil. Perlite in the soil makes sure there is room for air which helps to prevents root rot.

The desert rose plants are them places in a 60% sun for 4 days without any water. After 4 days they are placed on our 100% open not under cover growing tables for 3 months before they are released bye AdeniumRose Company.

Question: 1) I want to buy a 5-pack, looked at gallery, way too many choices, thought I’d never get to the end without fainting over the beautiful flowers. I don’t know much about these flowers. Are they easy to grow? Don’t mind under watering?

Questions 2: I saw people selling seeds on eBay. I hate growing anything from seeds, never works. But I was curious, can they be grown from seed successfully?

Question 3) But don’t adeniums have to be grafted into another plant in order to grow? I saw a couple colors you don’t have so I’m wondering if it’s possible to grow from seed and what it might entail because I know I can’t graft anything.

Question  4) It will take me a week to figure out which 5 adenium plants I want. We’re below freezing here now. When could the desert rose plants be shipped safely?

Answer: 1) Adeniums and other similar succulents or cactus are water thrifty plants. It’s better to under water them than to over water them.

Answer 2) You can grow adeniums by seed. Adenium seeds are slow growers when compared to annuals and other non desert plants. Adenium seeds once grown are NOT TRUE to their mother plant flowers 80% of the time! On the average, adeniums take 3 years to bloom from seed if grown right.  Just about all adenium seed sellers on EBay do not tell you the truth. They show you a flower type but fail to tell you that the adenium hybrid seed resulting plant 80% of the time flower will NOT look like the hybrid flower they show you. We offer seedlings, not seeds at the present time.  Epicgrower Company seedling description is 100% clear we do no guarantee flower type from the seedlings. We have at any one time 3,000 to 4,000 seedlings growing.

Answer 3) Grafted plants are the only way to guaranteed that the flowers are true. However, again many people on EBay show modified images of flowers and many times what you get is not the flower as shown. Epicgrower Company gets plants directly from Thailand (we are a licenses importer of the plants and seeds) and until we see them flower we mark them NOT proven. Not proven means the image from the Thailand grower is not always 100% accurate. AdeniumRose Company has changed plant suppliers a little over a year ago. The current suppliers are much more accurate in the images they supply to us.  Presently, the Not Proven adenium grafted plants are 93% accurate to what we actually see when they bloom here in the USA.

Answer 4) We ship adenium plants and other succulent / cactus plants in winter using  72 heat packs to cold locations. Depending upon your location we hold succulent plant shipments for Monday for locations further than 3 days away. However, you must be at your location to receive the adenium and other plants to protect them from the outside weather. In the summer it’s 100% opposite – we put holes in the boxes, use paper instead of plastic (plastic retains heat) and again try to time our shipments so we plants are not harmed due to excessive heat.

Quick post of coupons just released by Epic Grower Company for succulents and cactus. Please note coupons are sent first to clients which have subscribed the AdeniumRose Company website newsletters. Also, check the Facebook page of Epicgrower company for another coupon.

Special 15% off coupon from AdeniumRose Company. This coupon is good for orders of $67 or more.  You can use it as many times as you want from now until May30th 2015 code: Spec15%Off

Free shipping coupon. Good towards orders of $97 or more. Use it as many times as you want until May 30th, 2015. SPECIAL NOTE: This coupon excludes Soil purchases and JUMBO Plants.  Jumbo plants are listed as Specials on the website from time to time. Coupon code: FreeSpringShip

Please register with Epicgrower company for more coupons and updates. Make sure you select subscribe to the newsletter on the site.

Plant spot: echeveria gibbiflora plants are fantastic succulent with frilly leaves and variations in color.

Spring is here in south Florida and the echeveria gibbiflora succulent plants are in great condition. Many people ask when is the best succulent a obtain particular succulent plant. Echeveria are cold tolerant – some types down to 20 degrees. However, now is the time to obtain the large echeveria plants from AdeniumRose Company when they are in great form and easy to ship. Echeverias prefer the cool to cold weather for shipping. AdeniumRose Company has been growing these the past few months to make sure they are prime for late winter early spring shipping.  When shipped during the summer months the echeveria plants do not do as well as when it’s cool.

This post spot light is on the echeveria Gibbiflora plant which are the most interesting and less common echeverias.  These make great center pieces and focal points in the ground and for container gardens due to their larger size.  Gibbifloras plants do not show their true colors and leaf shape until they are a good size such as the ones offered in 6″ pots. The succulent plant to the left is a gibbiflora in stock.

There are several different gibbifloras now available which Epic Grower company expects to sell out quickly. When we receive them it takes 6 months before they are ready to offer to clients. We only get then in the fall when the weather gets cooler. We do not plan to ship the 6″ size during the summer anymore due to plant stress. The supplies are very limited!

P.S. Are you on the AdeniumRose list. We just sent out two coupons to clients who said yest to the newsletter.  Check our Facebook page www.facebook.com/epicgrower