Hi all, Please don't laugh - You all have such impressive adeniums, that I'm almost embarassed to post these pictures of a very sad rescue from the Lowe's clearance rack. It looked so bad that I hated to leave it behind, kind of like a stray hungry puppy! Anyway, now it's mine, and I'd like to try to make something of it. I'm in Central Florida, and I'd like to prune and repot it now. Should I wait until Spring? It's in the 60's at night, but at least the 70's during the day.



And the grafting seems to have gone wrong, cosmetically anyway. Is there anything I can do at this point to make this area less noticeable?



Any thoughts? (Oh, ignore the dates on the pictures - it's old camera, and you have to reset the date each time you change out the batteries. I forgot this time.)

Hi Ibis,

Your tree doesn't look hungry...you have taken good care of her. Given the temperature in your area, it should be okay to repot into a larger container. (If you would like advice about potting media, please peruse the soil threads in this forum.) You could prune her at the same time as well.

The "V" graft may not be the most desirable; however, when in bloom the eye will be drawn to the flowers and away from the graft.

Thank you, KD - you are so kind I have other Desert Roses, and they've done well, so I'll use the same soil I used for them. I'm afraid that graft will always be noticeable - I'm guessing whoever did that wasn't very experienced Thanks again!

You're
I look forward to seeing pics of your other adeniums.

First, I admit I know practically nothing about adeniums, much less grafting them. Why can't you simply cut that "unesthetic" graft away and re-graft the plant in the spring?

Ken, I've never grafted an adenium, but that might be the way to go. Seems like this one didn't heal up very well. In fact, when I looked at it up close, I thought, "geez, that looks like something *I* would have done"

Me too. I have grafted plumeria and those grafts ended up looking pretty good.

My rescue adenium came from the Lowe's left for dead rack also. I think they must have cornered the market on badly grafted plants.

To add insult to injury, I left it outside and while I was away from home we had some epic rain resulting in a split on the caudex.

The one pitiful flower that was on the plant when I bought had a white throat, the petals were mostly a deep rose with a pale pink edge and I thought it was nice. I am trying my hardest to get it back to health. (My son named this plant Nicki Minaj - no comment.)

Oh wow, Alice, it looks like yours was grafted by the same person who did mine! Great name, by the way

Alice, it looks like the split has "healed" and the caudex base is still nice.

Good that you rescued her. Besides the grafting scar, there's a horizontal scar just below it. Also, a branch was allowed to grow from the root stock. Now if the flower from that branch happens to be very nice, you've got a bonus...two kinds of flowers on one tree!

I had to look up N.M. ..... hmm.

Ibis & Alice, they are definitely poor V grafts, but this type of grafting procedure does not ever produce the nicest looking trees. Looks to me that the grafting party used very large (wide) branches and root stock which resulted in coarse Union.
I have heard of people shaving the trunk down, but I have not tried it or know a great deal about this, so I would not try.
At least you both rescued and are giving them good care now. Hopefully their blooms will make up the lack of stem appearance.
Rick

Thanks Rick, carefully shaving the graft might be an interesting experiment if the flowers turn out to be less than expected.

Alice, this is not to say that "shaving" that graft is not the right thing to do, but you'll probably get some very large (and perhaps nasty-looking) callusing wherever the trimming is done. Personally, I would opt to just cut off the old graft and neatly re-do the graft in the spring.

Alice, as Ken mentions. The shaving is something to into, if going that route.
As for performing another graft on this tree. Will be a bit more tricky as you do not have much root stock available before it becomes a bit large for nice graft.
Also, the branch coming off of the left side of 'V' portion is of the root stock. While central portion is of the grafted scion added.
Should end up with two different blooms.
Rick

Ken, I understand about the callous and would never shave it unless it was an ugly bloom then I would just experiment.