desert rose

order: gentianales
family: apocynaceae
genus: adenium
species: obesum

First Story

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14 february 2012

This is also a plant i already knew at my parents' place. As i said, i try to recollect my childhood memories. So this plant has a special meaning to me. Meanwhile there are so many different varieties in the market. However the one with classic flower colour speaks to me most. Which way makes it classic? I call the one with deep pink petals that fades in classic and consider the rest mutations or hybrids.

It's very rare that you find it in stores in germany. One that I saw at a garden centre wasn't looking good and was selling at around 30 eur, which was a bit too high for a price for me. The other one I saw was in a diy store. This one has been raised from a cutting and thus is lacking the caudex, which is the thickened part of the stem. Of course I want mine to have a caudex. Otherwise it doesn't correspond to its name "obesum". I got mine on ebay for a bit more than 20 eur. Poor plant, it had to sit in the dark delivery box for 3 days. The gardener who sold it to me wet the soil before shipping, which he shouldn't have done. Because of that the plant got some rotten roots. Fortunately, it's still alive.

Adenium hasn't gained much fame in Germany, the reason of which, I think, lies in that, it's somewhat difficult to grow. It needs warmth to do well. After the research I did, I can summarise the result as followed:

Temperature: In summer, there's no worries. In colder days, you have to watch out. The plant is in active growth above 25 °C. Below 25 °C there's little growth if any. It sheds its leaves if the temperature drops below 15 °C. Let's set 10 °C as the minimum survival temperature. I keep my adenium above 16 °C. On a sunny day, the room temperature could also rise up to 21 °C, but this has little effect on its growth. If you can afford to heat up a bit more, then I would recommend 20 °C on cloudy days and 25 °C on sunny days.

Water: In summer you may need to water the plant, depending on your soil, every other day or every day. If it's not too rainy outdoor, you can also place it in the open. Adeniums get rootrot easily if the soil is too wet for a long time. In winter if there's no growth, the plant doesn't need any water. However a little water shouldn't be too bad, as long as it evaporates within a few hours. If temperature stays above 20 °C consistently, you can also resume with moderate watering, provided there's also enough sunshine.

Light: As a thumb of rule, the plant is in active growth when the days are longer than 12 hours. It slows down when days get shorter. Since it's very common to expose its thickened roots over time, it's recommended to give the newly exposed roots shade from direct sunlight. Avoid scorching midday sun, because occasionally leaves also get burnt.

The plant has an internalised calendar that tells it when to switch to "slow growth" mode and when to switch back to "active growth". None of the above factors governs this cycle though.

Update

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2012

June 2012

Strangely this new bloom has become red rather than pink. Either it has mutated or the ones before this didn't get enough nutrition to become this red.

Top view

Update

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6 september 2014

july 2014 flower

If it hasn't been for the mealy bugs that were so persistently clinging onto the plant, I would have been able to capture a moment with over 20 flowers. Instead many flower buds were dropped after the sap sucking beasts greedily fed on the plants.

R.I.P

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31 march 2015

I went to Asia for a month in February and left my plants to the care of a friend. Unfortunately I didn't communicate my instructions well enough this time, and the plant which wasn't supposed to be watered at all, ended up being drowned in cold water. When I arrived home, its caudex had already turned yellow and soggy. Rotting had already reached the branches, so there was nothing left to salvage.

I had always thought I'd be devastated if this ever happened. But I was surprised how calm I was when I discovered my dead adenium. Note to my self: the next time you are travelling, make sure to use "do not water" tags on plants like this.