Wow. Is that plant already 19 years old. Good to I know hey can get so old with good care.

Hetty, In the spring would be best now. Where live, you can sometimes prune twice in a year.

If you prune in the Spring when you see it producing new growth is the best time. The shape is a preference of each of us. I really like the "Mushroom or Umbrella" shape.
You may need to prune it down more the first time in doing so, to get the initial shape started.
I find when I prune mine they throw out a nice set of flowers.

Your tree has a nice branching from lower down to give a nice shape and with it's show of flowers would look quite beautiful.

Rick

Thanks for the name, Rick. What is a bohemianum? That is a new one for me.
Hetty, it totally amazed me how one hard pruning made such a difference in my tree. Up to that point I had let it do it's thing, and not interfered, but the pruning definitely made an improvement. As you can see, mine was leggy and lean too.

both

I'm so bummed. I found more aphids today on my Adenium. In the past, I had taken it outside, and gently sprayed them off with a hose. I did that today, and managed to take off my huge bud that would probably have opened tomorrow. There are a lot of other buds but they're all very small and will probably bloom while we're away on our Christmas trip for our 50th anniversary. We can leave it on water and my grow light and I'm hoping we can set up a webcam to be able to watch it long distance.

That is really to bad that you found aphids again. Now your big bud is gone. Hopefully you can watch the other online when you are gone. It would have been nice though if you where able to keep the big bud.

Adeniumgirl said:That is really to bad that you found aphids again. Now your big bud is gone. Hopefully you can watch the other online when you are gone. It would have been nice though if you where able to keep the big bud.

Thank you. Those aphids seem to love my Adenium. This would have been my first bloom on it since it's rehab.

For some reason bugs seem to like certain plants better than others. Fungus gnats also are irritating bugs. They can eat all roots.

Adeniumgirl said:For some reason bugs seem to like certain plants better than others. Fungus gnats also are irritating bugs. They can eat all roots.

I've had plenty of those too, Adeniumgirl. I found the yellow traps good for those, or treating the soil with the soapy water.

Soapy water. What do you use for that than? Dishwasher or something like that?

You want to use real soap that doesn't contain any detergent. Castile soap is ideal, or buy the special Safer Soap made for plants.

I do not think I can get that here in Holland. I will see if there is anything available wich is specially for plants.

Yes, ask at your plant nurseries. They should have something similar if they don't have the Safer's.

The Adenium bohemianum is a species of Adenium.
Here are a few photo's of a couple. Not mine. Mine has not bloomed yet.








This last one is my young plant.

There are a few things you can use for Fungus Knats. Some use a mix of Hydrogen Peroxide and water to pour through soil.
Can use BTK Bacillus Thuringiensis bacteria to get rid of the larvae.

Supposedly the knats cannot live in dry environments.

Rick

I have heard of folks putting a layer of dry sand on top of the soil to deter fungus gnats. Dr. Bronner's soap is pure castile and I believe that is available in Europe.

ardesia said:I have heard of folks putting a layer of dry sand on top of the soil to deter fungus gnats. Dr. Bronner's soap is pure castile and I believe that is available in Europe.

That is good to know!

Thank you, Rick for the answer about the Adenium Bohemianums. Interesting. I have a lot of plants I need to acquire.

Hydrogen peroxide is available here. I also did use the bacteria once to get rid of larvae. Luckily I do not have them now.

plantmanager said:I'm so bummed. I found more aphids today on my Adenium. In the past, I had taken it outside, and gently sprayed them off with a hose. I did that today, and managed to take off my huge bud that would probably have opened tomorrow. There are a lot of other buds but they're all very small and will probably bloom while we're away on our Christmas trip for our 50th anniversary. We can leave it on water and my grow light and I'm hoping we can set up a webcam to be able to watch it long distance.

Happy Anniversary! Cool about the webcam to watch long distance.

You have nurtured your baby for so long that to have aphids appear is truly a bummer. I don't know how you feel about using systemics to eradicate that pest. The one I have used (if really needed for severe infestation) is Bayer's 3 in 1.

Early in my experience of growing adeniums, I had posted a picture of one of my first blooms and a couple of people spotted a web thread. It was suggested that I had spider mites and to use soapy water or a particular kind of sprayed on pesticide to eradicate the mites. I used the soapy water on another plant as well that had numerous buds and the bracket fell off...boo! People were well-meaning, but it wasn't spider mites after all...it was the good predatory spiders' web. (So far I have not seen any spider mites around.)

Most of the time I hand pick the aphids off the plant if there are just a few of them. Hosing them off with water doesn't work for me and those tenacious little buggers. For the most part, since I grow my adeniums outside 24/7, I let the natural predators take over and they keep the aphids in check.

(p.s.) I understand lady bugs eat aphids, maybe you could get some for your greenhouse?

Oops! We were talking about aphids then all of a sudden I went off on a tangent about spider mites! Well, they're both nasty pests.