Q: I just purchased 2 adeniums and fertilizer from AdeniumRose Company. One large mystery and one large not proven. I live in Phoenix, AZ. Can you send me instructions on how to care for my new plants? Should I dip them in root thrive before planting them? Should I not fertilize until the fall? Also, I have another “rescue”an adenium at home that I have not seen flower. I have re-potted and watered once. When can I prune it?
Thank you so much for your help. Very excited to receive my new plants!
A: Good Morning:Yes we received the order and instructions sheets will be in the shipping packet. First, I assume the one that has not bloom is at least 3 years old. I would recommend to give it a bloom booster liquid fertilizer starting next month. In your area they should bloom in April to June time frame depending upon your winter weather. If you are having a longer winter wait until March. Make sure you do not water it for a week before you give it the bloom booster.
Yes we recommend using super thrive when you re-pot the desert rose plants. Soak then in the liquid for 20 to 3 minutes. Follow the directions on how to mix super thrive. We just received a new shipment from Thailand two weeks ago and they are already starting to leaf. If we did not use super thrive it would take twice as long for the adenium plants to recover from the shipping and re-potting. Also, when you re-pot its a great time to check the adenium bonsai root look and make adjustments.
After the adenium obesum pants bloom give them a time released fertilizer low nitrogen and phosphate such as the one you ordered time released 8-9 on our website. Do not prune the desert rose plants until after flowering season or you will not get flowers in spring. If you prune the adenium plants now it will take time for the to recover, grow new branches and then flower.
I live in southeast Florida. In November I was given an adenium cutting that was rooted over the summer in high humus soil. I replanted it in a bonsai pot following your instructions for soil mix (60% perlite, 10% cocoa fibre, 20% pea gravel, 10% peat), soaked it 15 minutes in superthive, allowed to dry about 2 weeks and since then watering 1-2 times per week. On bright days in the 70s or above I put it outdoors in full sun and bring it indoors when rainy and/or below 70.
I was rewarded with two flowers in Dec. & Jan. It came to me with 4-5 light green leaves, but they have gradually turned brown and dry starting at leaf tip proceeding to leaf base and then fallen off . This progression has been from the lower leaves to now upper leaves. It’s now down to 2 leaves remaining.
My questions are:
Do you think the leaves turning brown and falling off while flowering is the result of dormancy or a disease of some sort? I assume new leaves will develop as we approach warmer days and nights. Is my watering schedule about right for this time of year in my location?
Yes it’s normal for the adenium plants to loose some or all the leaves during winter. if the plants are outside then water about once a week (unless it rains until late February/Early march when you should start to see new leaves and soon afterwords flowers. You should not have put PEAT in the mix becasue it retains too much water. Be careful during the summer to make sure the soil dries out between watering. Peat holds too much water.
Hi,
I’ve just started planting desert roses as pastime hobby. Initially I have about ten pots of matured plants however they have never produce pods. In addition, many of them just grow tall without branches or very minimal branches. How to make them to have lots of branches and blooming all year round? FYI some of them are planted through stem cutting while others through its seeds. Please advise.
You need to crop the branches to force additional branches to grow below the cut. Depending upon you location you prune/crop the branches of the adenium plants after they flower and when you have 2 months left in your growing season so the new branches of the desert rose plants have time to grow a bit. Put in the word “crop” or “cropping” in the blogs search area to get more information on cropping the branches. Make sure you do not cut below the graft lines!
Desert rose plants do not bloom year around. They are spring and early summer bloomers. You will need to crop the branches after the adenium plant blooms to create more branches. There are many articles in this blog about cropping the branches. In the search area put in the word “cropping”