My South Texas Desert Rose

rjj

Bought this obesum in the Valley a few years ago. It was in a 5 gallon container and about 3 1/2 foot tall. Chopped it down to about 10 inches last summer.

This spring took a very sharp bread knife and sliced through about 5 1/2 inches of the caudex to put it in this pot. Treated it like a cutting until it started pushing leaves. It's now about 18 inches tall with about a 6 inch diameter trunk. Looking forward to developing a heavier better branched canopy in the coming years.

Clickable thumb for a better resolution pic.

Attached Images

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Randy Jones Norman Ok USDA Zone 7

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irene_b

I love the flowers on these.
Irene

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mistermoyogi

Hi, Randy:

Nicely done....I like this species...you guys in the southern zones really make me jealous with material like this. I am looking forward to seeing its progress. Thanks for sharing, and as Irene has stated, the flowers are just lovely - a great bonus with Adenium.

Best regards,
Tom

rjj

Thanks Tom. Adeniums are my favorite tropical plant. I'm growing quite a few of them right now.

Here's another in a bonsai pot. Leaf and tip pruned it a few weeks ago so it could be wired.

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Randy Jones Norman Ok USDA Zone 7

dankone

how well does the wiring hold the branches after you remove it? i have three of these and they are all very healthy, but i have never gotten any of them to bloom. any secrets or am i just dumb?

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eat a bonsai for breakfast.

rjj

Wiring works ok. I prefer to start with smaller plants and clip and grow. IMO that works much better. Large cuts on succulents are hard to hide and take a while to be less noticeable. When done on seedlings they disappear.

But is is fun to take a monster plant and wack it back hard. I'll post a photo of a big one in bloom soon.

To bloom in your zone, full sun, hot and blazing, maybe a brick wall or glass behind it to reflect heat. No shade at all. Feed a balanced fertilizer at least once a week when it is pushing leaves.

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Randy Jones Norman Ok USDA Zone 7

waltseed

Randy's advice is right on.
In very wet areas, one might need to put them out of the rain during very rainy times. But they like short (a few days) rains. They insist on excellent drainage, but so do bonsai generally.
As for winter care, I put them in cool basement closets for the winter. I usually water about twice during the winter, but I doubt it is neccessary.
I don't concider them as good bonsai, as they are hard to make look like trees. But they are beautiful plants just the same.
And easy to grow.

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Waltseed

rjj

Different species like the arabicum in my avatar are very impressive. I can post photos of Adeniums that look more like "trees" than some of the normal stock posted here that are considered prime material.

You may be basing your statement on a lot of the "crap"(my equivalent of mallsai) sold as Adenium here in the states and may not have had an opportunity to see some of the magnificent specimens found in India, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and other nations in that region. It's not unheard of a specimen Adenium selling in the $50,000 + US dollar range.

The down side is they normally grow that way with no human intervention.

But after saying all that, I see them as more of a "fix" for a short fat plant in a shallow container. Obesum is more common here in the states and is what people think of when the word Adenium is used, but that is changing. I grow over 40 different hybrids of obesum, most unnamed. I love the beautiful bloom the hybrids have, but it's the fat plants like the arabicums and the Thai Soco's that get my heart pumping.

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Randy Jones Norman Ok USDA Zone 7

deza_towain

Randy,

I enjoy the desert rose also. I have two, each a little different from each other. Have them in very restricted-virtually not extra room for soil surface. If I up potted them alittle do they expand? I have had mine about 7 years.

Deza