Adenium Blooming Period

Adenium blooms all year round. I have adenium fans who emailed me on how to make adenium bloom as they kept theirs for many years (some as long as 10 years) and the condition of their plant is bad. Why bad? Look at the list below:-

(a) the caudex is not expanding;

(b) the plant is not growing;

(d) the plant is not blooming;

(e) unhealthy leaves and constantly attacked by red spider mites and caterpillars!

Many years ago when I approached the local nursery (especially those in Kelana Jaya, Shah Alam and Sungai Buloh), none of the "uncles" are able to tell me the right way of planting. In fact, the way they teaches us made the plant rot instead! See these 4 images in these healthy adenium plant in this posting. Adenium blooms all year round when the temperature or the weather is warm (between 25 - 32 degrees Celsius. Malaysia and Singapore has temperate weather and humid. It is the best weather to grow adenium plant.

All these can be solved by the following steps:-

1. Changing the soil. Making sure the soil has enough nutrient for adenium. I have been supporting and advocate on the importance of soil being used for adenium plant.

2. Using proper pot. Change the soil and pot every 3 - 5 months as the plant grows. Remember, if you don't change the soil, the chances of rotting is higher.

3. Trimming the plant is an important procedure to make sure the plant grows well. Do this during hot season, not during wet season.

4. Using the proper fertilizer. Many of us got carried away whenever a nursery staff recommending an organic or in-organic fertilizer for adenium. Those who visits www.desertroseking.com are knowledgeable people. Many of those who have contacted me are from higher level position white collar workers. One on thing for sure, it is important to learn the difference between N,P,K, the ingredients used for fertilizers. Our Quickgrow 353TE are specially formulated to have a low amount of Nitrogen content. High nitrogen makes the plant grow tall but since adenium has "caudex", which is different from normal plants, it can't grow big, therefore its branches grow long and wide (you can see Balinese loves long arm branches for these type of plants). For us, Malaysians & Singaporeans, this makes the plant really "ugly" and sometimes your wife or husband will ask you to throw this plant away!!! My folks used to say that to me years ago when I plant adenium as a hobby.

Once you get the above right (Item 1 to 3), your plant will be at a very healthy state and adding Item 4 is a boost to your adenium plant.

Summary of the Common Types of Adenium Species

Besides adenium obesum, two other adenium species which is A. Arabicum, A. Somalense & A. Socotranum seedlings will be available in the Malaysian market by April 2011:-

Adenium Arabicum (A. Arabicum)

Distinguished most by its outstanding caudex formation and relatively thick fleshy leaves, this is the most succulent and "desert-look alike" plant. The seeds are particularly large and gives seedlings which rapidly form a nice hard caudex. Caudex for such plants for adenium refers to its large body size trunk.

Adenium Somalense (A. Somalense)

This is an interesting adenium species with moderate caudex but can grow every tall. This makes them a robust, fast growing and very suitable for landscapes and it is typically easy for grafting with different hybrid.

Adenium Socotranum (A. Socotranum)

This adenium is somewhat slightly different from the rest as you can distinguished from its branch that is bushy and grows like a crown. Many adenium enthusiasts who likes "bonsai" look would love having this and this species is considered "high class" compared to other adeniums as you can play with its branches; whether to grow sideways or straight-up and it has very nice distinctively look on its root base and caudex. Usually socotranum is small in size and cannot grow as tall as arabicum.

What is Desert Rose?

Desert Rose, also called as Adenium obesum in scientific name is a plant which is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore. The chinese name for this is "fu kui hua", which written as 富贵花 in Chinese or Desert Rose as 沙漠玫瑰 in Chinese. For the Chinese, especially those from Malaysia & Singapore, Desert Rose is also called as Prosperity Flower - which also represent wealth and prosperity during Chinese New Year.

Most of us do not know how to take care of this plant and do not know how to make it flowering. This what turns a lot of people off not be able to taking care of this plant as it refuse to flower or grow to the size that you wanted, even after 10 years!

In Malaysia, single layer adenium is common but it is available only in pink colors. In the world, there is more than 300 over types of adenium hybrid flowers but in Desert Rose King, we promote only the multi-overlapping petals that we call it "rosy" adenium.

For those who are keen to keep in touch with me and keen to purchase any of our beautiful grafted desert rose plant seedlings, do contact me. We in the midst of moving our nursery to another location in Batu Pahat. Expected moving period is from 11 July 2011 to 15 August 2011.

Currently we specialize in 2-layer and 3-layer grafted rosy adeniums which you can view from this web blog. More updates will be made available to you soon.

Any sales of these beautiful flowers are first-come-first serve basis and we do not supply to nurseries as we would like to educate the user, hobbyist, collections alike the proper way of cultivating this wonderful plant.

Thank you and happy planting adenium!

William G.

Desert Rose King - Adenium Horticulturist & Speaker

+6 017 366 2899

desertroseking@gmail.com

Office: 56-1 Jalan PJS 11/28A, Bandar Sunway Metro, 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Nursery: Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia (for visitors, please contact Mdm Thai at +6 012 308 1899 (call for appointment first)