Question: My wife and I just moved to Boynton Beach from New York. Our neighbor has a large desert rose plant (approx 4ft High by 4 ft wide) that we fell in love with.
The adenium is in a very large pot. We cannot find anything similar in the local nurseries we have checked. Can we order anything like this from you? Please let us know as we would love several desert rose plants that we can build our landscaping around. We would also appreciate any ideas you may have!
Kind regards,
Answer: Good Morning: Desert rose plants, adeniums, grow great in Florida. As any succulent, they are not fast growers and it takes many years to grow large. In the wild they can get as tall as 15″ and over 40 foot round (200 yr old tree). We do not have any as large desert rose plants for sale as the one you described at the present time except for stock plants. If we did they would be in the 400$ and up range for the plant depending upon the caudex and the flower type. Adeniums are sold based upon the caudex size (exposed root) – no the height of the plant or the width across the top. The largest adenium plant we have for sale are in 12″ pots at the present time which are unproved which means they are hybrid desert rose plants (not standard pink adenium flowers) but we do not know the flower type yet because they have not flowered here yet. We received the adeniums in late August and expect the succulents to flower in the first part of the spring. We can offer unproven adenium plants for $45.97 each. Once they are proven they will range in price of $59.97 and up depending upon the flower and the caudex size.
If you plant the desert roses in the ground then you have to make sure you use the correct soil and allow for fast draining (put a large pile of rocks in the hole first) to prevent root rot. We have tons of rain this year so the desert rose plants will rot unless you properly plant them. If you plant to keep them in a pot make sure the pot has drain hole and use clay not plastic! Plastic pots will get too hot and cook the plant. Its better to re-pot every year as the plat grows verses putting a adenium in a pot too large. They grow (caudex size) faster if they are not put in oversize pots.
My Desert Rose in Central Texas stayed covered but outside for two days of 24 degree weather. Now I uncovered them to get sun and the leaves are dead and the top of the branches are soft. What can I do to save them.
You will most likely need to cut the tops/all soft areas off.