Rainbow said:Here's A. arabicum "Yak Yemen." I recently acquired him from a small local plant nursery. I named him "Tank."

Oct. 30, '15


Oct. 31, '15
Washed off old soil. scrubbed fungi from stems, and repotted in gritty mix.


Dec. 3, '15
Leafing out nicely...top of leaves feels textured, underside feels velvety.


Dec. 3, '15
Those black spikes on the internodes look and feel like thorns.

This arabicum did leaf out very nicely. Now, however, two months later, the leaves are falling. Our weather has been perfect: 86/75 F. The leaves have not changed color and there are no symptoms of stress. I have no idea why this phenomenon is occurring.

Perhaps this adenium must go dormant, regardless of climate?

My noid obesums does it (dormancy), not always at the same month of the cold season..sometimes in Dec..or at times, like right now, in February. Or, your plant may be starting to reallocate its resources to some new blooms. I have seen some photos in other sites, totally leafless but in full bloom.

But it may vary from different varieties too.

It could very well be in obligatory dormancy. My A. obesums have never gone into dormancy...it must be this variety of adenium that requires it even in my warm climate.

Tarev, you've got my hopes up about "reallocate its resources to some new blooms." I acquired him only last October and have not yet seen blooms.

@rattlebox
Ron, are you familiar with arabicums? Please share your thoughts on this subject.

I am thinking too your plant is feeling just some very slight chill in the air, though not as discernible for us. Remember it is still winter time in Siberia you are getting some trade winds there too, so Guam in the same latitude as the Philippines, it is getting some cooler temps at this time. In the Phils we call it it Amihan, means cooler winds from the Northeast. I read yesterday in our online newspaper, Phils had coolest temp so far last Monday. But their cool temps is really just comfortably warm. Maybe that is enough for Arabicum to feel it is time to do some nap time.

I hope it will bloom on the bare branches. Every type of adenium has it's own agenda.

"Every type of adenium has it's own agenda." Oh my!

My 8-mo-old Thai Soco 'Shada' certainly behaves different than my obesums. And now I have 2 mo. old seedlings of Thai Soco 'Golden Bell' and Somalense 'Blue Boy.'

Certainly going to be quite a challenge to keep up with their different growing needs.

I remember taking photos of some Adeniums at a nursery in Manila last Feb 2014 when I went home. As you can see, it is dormant but in blooming mode:
Don't know what varieties they are. I distinctly remember our relatives saying it was cooler than usual two weeks before we arrived in Manila. So got to watch those leaves and respect the dormancy mode when it feels like doing it

Rainbow said:"Every type of adenium has it's own agenda." Oh my!

My 8-mo-old Thai Soco 'Shada' certainly behaves different than my obesums. And now I have 2 mo. old seedlings of Thai Soco 'Golden Bell' and Somalense 'Blue Boy.'

Certainly going to be quite a challenge to keep up with their different growing needs.

I'm confident you'll figure out all of their individual needs and keep them all happy, KD.