Adenium Obesum (Desert Rose)

[Russ]

I am currently growing about 10 of these from seed. Has anyone ever taken this journey before? Does anyone have a mature Desert Rose as bonsai that has come from seed, or at least from a small cutting and trained very early as Bonsai. Would love to see some pics

These are very beautiful and strange trees. If you don't know what im talking about check it out on Google.

[Luke]

Indeed they are a strange and beautiful plants!
Did you have any luck ross
My old man has a magnificent! 7 year old Adenium growing in a large, round and very shallow terricota tray 600x50mm. It flowers almost randomly throughout the year. This year i collected the pods and have just sown over 40 seeds.. around a quarter have sprouted in the past 5 days , hopefully they take after their mumma!
Ill take sum pics if anyones keen to see it?

luke

[Jerry Meislik]

I have only one small obesum plant. Nothing to brag about.
Saw some incredible ones in Bangkok, a photo of one is here.
http://www.bonsaihunk.us/info/VisitAPBFF.html
Jerry

[Russ]

Hey Luke...
Any luck with those seedlings??
Any photos?

[NeilW]

Beautiful tree Jerry, thanks for sharing. Cheers

[Glenda]

My mum also grows these - she has three more mature plants. When we plant seeds here we get almost 100% strike rate. She has 50 seedlings on the go at the moment, and has just sold off most of her last lot of 50. I read somewhere to pinch out the new leaves in the middle of the seedling when there are about 8-10 leaves, and the plant sends out more branches which will increase the number of flowers. Mum's mature plants we then cut off the main 'stalk' and this is what has happened and they look much better for it. Can post some photos later if you would like. I have done this also with the seedling I have that is only about 4 months old, and it is doing the same thing in minature.

Glenda

[Ron]

I was given one of these strange little plants today. This one is about 30cms tall. I think I'm going to have to dig through my shed and find my Bunnings plastic glasshouse for Autumn and Winter for this one.

Adenium1.jpg

[bodhidharma]

Sorry..have tried them but one frost and they are gone.Even if it gets below 5c they suffer so badly you cannot get them back. They belong in the tropics and there they should stay.

[mashby]

Hi Russ

I have 1 small Desert Rose I am going to try and keep growing as a mame bonsai. Today, however, and just by sheer coincidence, I went to a soil supplier that I had never been to before and the owner had a small private nursery out the back. I was allowed to wander around and there were bonsai everywhere,including lots and lots of Adenium Obesum.

I asked the owner if I could take some photos of the Adenium to post on AusBonsai because a question had arisen regarding growing the plants from seed and to use for bonsai. The owner very kindly agreed to my request.

According to the owner, all of the plants were grown from seed, originating from 1 plant which was received as a present at Christmas a number of years ago. All are grown solely in approx. 4mm AqcuaClay (apparently a type of expanded clay used in fish ponds and acquariums), with no other additions to the soil mix and they all get watered regularly and fed occasionally with an organic fertiliser. Most of the more mature plants are out in the full sun (here in Perth) and the owner said there was no problem with the plants in winter here either. Just be sure that the soil does not dryout totally or stays wet for too long as the roots will quickly rot. The owner said that the plants flower prolifically (in late Noc/December all of the plants were absolutely covered in flowers) and when the seed pods burst it is like a snow storm! Now the owner tapes the seed pods closed to stop them opening or just removes them before they fully mature. It is apparently too tempting to keep planting the seeds.

I hope this helps you Russ, and gives you and others some ideas for yet another aussie plant that can be trained as bonsai.

Image010.jpg

Image017.jpg

Image023.jpg

Image024.jpg

Image025.jpg

Image026.jpg

Image030.jpg

Image035.jpg

Image029.jpg

(N.B. I apologise for only referring to "the owner" but, unfortunately, plants had been stolen from the nursery and I promised not to identify the owner or location of the shop. I hope you all understand). Also, without any prompting or asking oin my behalf the owner gave me a pot with about 7 Adenium seedlings in it. What a bonus and I willpost some photos when they are re-potted.

Kind regards
Michael

[Ron]

At least Sydney's heat appears to have had one benefit for me: my Adenium flowered for the first time.

100_1672_800Size.jpg

(Must remember to reset the camera's date!!)

[banksia]

I used to have an absolute beauty. Had it for about 8 years. Caudex was about the size of a dinner plate and I'd developed the branching to the point where it was fairly ramified (for the species that is). When I was on my honeymoon (4 weeks away) my well meaning neighbour watered the buggery out of. When I returned it's base had already started to soften and no matter what I tried..I couldn't save it. It was my best "tree". Got it from my mother who had grown it for about 10 years prior to me getting my hands on it.
In our Summer (Perth), it would take watering every second day. In Winter, I'd bring it inside and give it a light water every 2-3 weeks...quite a tricky thing to grow. I'd also hard prune every 2 years and it would produce copious amounts of buds, where I'd knock off the ones I didn't want and grow the rest out. Watch out when pruning though, as mentioned they are a relative of the Oleander. Even after taking particular care in scrubbing my hands afterwards, on a couple of occassions I tasted the extremely bitter taste of their sap
I'll try and find a photo if I can (think they may have gone down with the last computer I didn't back-up.)

Cheers!
Anthony

[Petra]

Apparently these are the plants that can be grafted onto oneanother to get a multicoloured flowering plant. I bought the
other one but I hav'nt been able to have ago just yet, im still waiting for it to flower. The largerone is thicker than a coke
can at the bottom, a pressy from my daughter.

S4200002.JPG

febury 7 2011 1002.JPG

[Geoff Caso]

Hi
I have been selling adeniums to Sydney and Melbourne for some time now and the plants do grow there but you need to know how to look after them. There are a few differant varieties some form a big base which makes a real feature. I have seen them as bonsai and they look very good. They don't like much water in winter and they will experience leaf drop in the cold whether leaves turning yellow. Have in full sun for the best results in summer they like water but as long as they dry out between the watering. You can prune them and even graft differant colours onto them. The caudex can make a great feature. There is more information and some pictures on this website http://www.wholesaleyucca.com go to the adenium page. Hope this helps! Also trim the plants when they are young to help them multibranch, I trim mine when they are couple of inches in height. Some of the plants in the pictures above can be cut so the plant becomes more branchy. If your going to cut them give them some fertilizer to help them send out new shoots.
Geoff