@Wildbloomers all I can say is Wow and that purple bloom from
Your own seedling is amazing!

That is a lot of plants to take care of!

If I have a bloom as beautiful as they, I will be grafting them so I can keep the mother plant and share grafted plants.

@GigiPlumeria Yes more plants than I can take care of properly. Consequently only the tough survive. Fortunately as you know adenium respond well to tropical plant conditions as long as the roots don't stay wet too long. Also, ms plumeria, I used to hybridize plumeria for fun but they take longer from seed to bloom than adenium and also take up way more room. I only have about a dozen now. I gave the rest away long ago.
I don't know if it's okay to plug a resource on this site but since I don't get anything out of it here goes. Everyone who grows adenium should get a copy of "Adenium: Sculptural Elegance, Floral Extravagance" by Mark Dimmit , Gene Joseph and David Palzkill. An excellent treatise on all things adenium and no one has done a better job since 2009 when the book was published.

I agree. That is a book I own, and it has a lot of valuable information.

I will definitely look into that book. Yes I think it's okay to recommend articles here.

I hear you about having too much to take care of. That's actually the reason I am also exploring adeniums but I have enough plumeria to keep me busy.

I just want a few adeniums to have blooms daily other than my reliable pink hibiscus.

We have a book review area. Here was mine about this book.

Adenium - Sculptural Elegance, Floral Extravagance

both for the book recommendation.

@plantmanager I didn't know that there was a place to write a review. Now I do. Great job!

Wildbloomers said:@plantmanager I didn't know that there was a place to write a review. Now I do. Great job!

You're welcome! You can review garden businesses as well as books. It's in the Green Pages. You can find all sorts of neat stuff by clicking on the "Tools" up above the daily banner.

DeepSouth. Long time since we talked. Hope all is well.

Question - Spring Cleanup - I am doing my spring cleanup on my DR. I only removed a few branches. No going to town like I did last year. I like its shape now. My plan is to take out of this pot and see how the roots look and overall health of the plant. I also plan on raising it some then repotting it and start to slowly acclimate into back into full sun for the summer. I love the pot it is in and its done great in there so far. My question is can I continue to use this pot for another year. Its not real deep and I did notice some small roots coming out the holes on the bottom. Is it possible to remove from pot, rinse the roots so I can inspect better and perhaps trim some of the roots if needed? I figure raising it some and a light trim on the bottom with give me more room in the pot. Pictures attach of the state it is in now. Also if all looks well in the root area is it still advised to do a Thiomyl dip before replanting?

Love the pot and the shape of this plant ....

Hello @ocsdfw, your desert rose is lovely

If it were mine, sure I will reuse the container, so as you plan, unpot, trim roots, add/improve the soil, repot, raise it a bit as you repot, do not water right away give it about a week, then water. I do not dip my plant in anything when I repot..no issues..no need to do anything otherwise.

I do that too, keeping my Adenium in its current container since I love the container it currently has.

I am just waiting for time too, soon my plant will enjoy outdoors..just got to wait for the overnight temps to stabilize better.

I am curious too what others will do. This is my first year that I have a lot of adeniums. I plant to use the same pot but I wasn't thinking of repotting them since I just repotted them last year.
I did repot a couple that the pots got too small.

Do other members repot the adeniums every year to lift the causes or only when the pots look smaller. I have 70+ adeniums, that would be a lot to repot and lift.

Hey DeepSouth. Another year and another prune. Same plant. I decided to have a only child so have not bought any more DR's. This one has done well for me plus I dont really have the room with all my other plants so I can focus all my efforts on this one.

I just pulled this one out of the pot, trimmed the roots some, new soil, and raised it an inch or so. This is what I have left. I did soak the base in thiomyl for 30 mins. Let it dry some then super glued the big cuts to seal them and hung to dry overnight.

This is what's left. I am conflicted on trimming the top but the branches are getting thin and I dont mind the height but I want to keep a canopy look to it so I thought I would let you take a look. If you think it would be better to trim top perhaps you could make a suggest as to where. I am always uneasy about chopping the top not knowing what the outcome will be. As usual your help is so appreciated.

I might not do anything this year ..... your plant has a nice form & shape ...and nothing seems to be "out-of-place".... stems are uniform and none appear to be interfering with, or crowding others out

the stems look a tad leggy now, but I think that's just because the leaves have not emerged yet .... looks like a plant that is just now waking up from dormancy

the one thing I might do is encourage more branching .... the more stem tips you have, the more flowers you get ....
this doesn't need to be done this year or even next year ..

the neon green lines are possible cut lines .....
each cut will give you 1 to 5 new stems .....

Well they are not touching. Your cuts are a lot more conservatives than what I was thinking. There is some new growth on the tips of some. I also removed some leaves thinking that since I was trimming the roots and raising it would help them recover faster is less energy was going to the top temporally. I made it up as I was going along lol.

I think it looks good now ....have one almost identical .....



picture taken in 2021 ...

think it is about 15 years old .... maybe older maybe younger

to get the bushy appearance - cut all stems down by 1/2 - to above any forks...that will force more stems to emerge ....

I try to get all the maintenance (like pruning, trimming & repotting) done early spring (when plants go outside) so the plants have all summer to recover

since everything we do to adenium seems like a shock to them ....and they take forever to recover ...so might as well get all the maintenance done at once

deepsouth, hope all is well. Wondering if you knew what this was and if bad a good solution?
Thanks as always for your help.

all good here - and you ?

the small yellow things with legs ?

those are aphids ....left unchecked they will destroy new growth ...and will attract ants that harvest the "honeydew" that aphids secrete / discharge

plan to treat the aphids on a watering day ....

as you approach they are smart enough to move and try to hide out of your view

spray the affected plants down with insecticidal soap - get under leaves and crotches of stems .... spray to runoff

when insecticidal soap dries (Insecticidal Soap is no longer effective) ...
rinse dried insecticidal soap off leaves and water plants to saturation ...< don't skip the rinse - some insecticidal soap brands may skeletonize leaves if left on especially during *hot* weather

- Insecticidal Soap -

Purchase premixed ...or make your own at a fraction of the cost

Will need:

a small sprayer -

pure unscented liquid Castile soap ...

Mix 1 tablespoon of Castile soap in 1 quart of water, or 5 tablespoons in 1 gallon of water

with James.

@ocsdfw I use wet paper towel and qtips to pluck them off. You may have to pluck them off a few times until you fully eradicate them.