Wow! That's amazing! I'd be so scared to do that to any of my adeniums.

Kirk

Kirk, I am too, but if you make a mistake, just prune it and get more branches. The plant will live.
These cut already heal.
Marie

WOW!!!!! That is absolutely amazing!! Truly an art form. How does he get the split stem to callus so well and evenly with no rot setting in?

Karyn, it is neat ha? He is waiting for the branches on top to get bigger and stronger, so he can graft multi colors on them.
Marie

WOW!!! I was like scrolling down going WWHHAAATT how is that possible hahaha! pretty awesome! probably not game to try it though :P

Sarah

That is absolutely wow!!!. It looks like a lamp base. Absolutely fab!!!:)

I can't believe that he can do that without killing the plant. That's pretty remarkable.

Sweet

Marie....

Enough! You're killin' me! Now I have to place another order.

And I thought the braided Adeniums was cutting-edge.

Thanks for the photos.

Frank

That is truly amazing art work on a plant

Frank, how were your seedlings coming along?
Ready to braid? Make sure to show us your work.
Marie.

Ahhh just looked up braided Adeniums because BronxFigs mentioned them above and they look spectacular too :O

Marie...

Embarrassed to say that I killed the seedlings, and I have to start over with a fresh batch.

Many events led to my forgetting to bring in the plants before the temperatures dropped below the danger zone. All the seedlings rotted...but, I did manage to keep the A. obesum "Arrogant" alive and well.

I will start with my braiding efforts again, in the early Spring of '13.

I'm starting to become much better at killing my plants...it saves time!

Frank

Frank....you are so funny.
I am sitting here (at work) LOL.....

Marie

Hi Guys!

Marie.. Love the pics!!

My mouth is hanging open.. i have never seen cuts like that.

Truly an artist at work!!

Thanks for sharing..

Laura

What a beautiful Adenium.

Just re-read through this older thread. Still amazed!

UPDATE...

I managed to kill all my Adenium plants and finally came to the conclusion that trying to grow Adenium in New York City is probably not going to work. I'm not the exotic plant-grower that I thought I was. Embarrassing to admit, but I don't have the knack, nor the patience to keep trying anymore....and, it costs a fortune to constantly replace these difficult-to-grow plants. I simply cannot duplicate their natural growing conditions, and The Bronx will never be like the African and Arabian deserts. The growing season in a Zone-7 climate is just too damn short, and the darker, colder months, are too stinkin' long. I tried, but now I have other fish to fry. (I think I will try to kill some Plumeria). Maybe in my next life I will have a greenhouse....

Still, I enjoy revisiting this forum from time to time, and especially like seeing the photos of everyone's triumphs, and very successful growing techniques.

Good luck and enjoy the Adenium-growing, hobby.

Frank

Frank I came to the exact opposite conclusion practically a stone's throw from you.

I have several pots of plumeria taking up winter space. At least adeniums look interesting and can be made to look even more interesting above and below the soil, even when it is refusing to bloom. Plumerias, on the other hand, will grow to be five feet of stick that will take heaven-knows-what to cajole it into blooming while providing nothing interesting in the meantime. To make them bloom, I am guessing they'll need more care than I am willing to give my adeniums. Well, to blegh with that!

Pagan

Pagan-

Thanks for the helpful response. You have now given me some food for thought regarding the growing of Plumeria, the cousin of Adeniums. Isn't it ironic how some of the most beautiful blossoms can grow on some of the most hideous looking plants! I might just drop the whole idea. It was just a latest whim, anyway.

Over the many decades, and after spending obscene amounts of money, I have given up trying to grow many of these exotic plants, in NYC. It's just too dark, to rainy, too dull, for too long. Orchids...I killed, Bonsai....I killed... Adenium...ditto. Add to my botanical carnage: figs, African Violets, Gloxinia, Amaryllis...shall I go on? I've been killing some of the best plants since I was 14 years old. However, I have managed to keep some caudex-forming succulents (Cyphostemma juttae, Bursera fagaroides) alive, at least for the last few years. These plants too, especially the Cyphostemma are nothing to look at while dormant. The Bursera fagaroides will make a nice, fat trunked, little tree, with the right pruning and training, and is super easy to care for when dormant.

I agree with you. You are right. Plumerias are pretty boring when not in flower, or when not in leaf. Maybe I will have to rethink this Plumeria business. At this point it's more no than yes, when it comes to me growing these plants.

Frank

Frank - I feel your pain brother, I managed to kill two dorstenia gigas plants, albeit young ones, they are great plants I really want to grow successfully. Sadly here in the UK they are hard to come by, so I got some seeds, 6 in fact from le jardin naturel on reunion island, all 6 failed - arrgh. Even two Cyphostemma juttea seeds failed too, leaving me just 2 Adenia glauca that came good. I donate 2 more Cyphostemma seeds left -may I ask, is there special instructions to successfully sowing these, like soaking, if so how long or how deep to plant the seeds, anything as others I asked previously in another section didn't respond or maybe didn't know.

Apologies for the thread hijack here, I'll go and slap meself in the face with a wet fish as punishment ;-)

Cheers frank - I would call myself young, well 40 so still got a few years left I hope lol

Well I have two more seeds so I'm gonna soak them and go again, I'm used to sloooow growers lol as I have a small ariocarpus hintonii which ate slow growers. Will give it another whirl and see if I get lucky lol......

Will try silverhill, nice one :-)

Hello again Phil...

Great that you have such patience. Go for it!

I wish I was 40 years old again. When you get to be my age (66), you tend to forget about starting plants from seeds and go directly to buying the largest plants that you can afford. After all, TICK TOCK....

Frank

Frank, you're going to kick yourself when you're 88 for not starting from seed when you were 66!

Or when your 106 you can tell yer drinking buddies, eeh bye eck, when I was a lad I grew this monster that twas neigh bigger than a nut back then......

How funny!! I suspect Adenium would be the last thing on my mind if I were to live as long as your optimistic estimates predict. However, I hope you are both right....maybe.

Thanks for the good laugh.

Frank

You guys are funny..

Humor and Adeniums.....the perfect, botanical duet!

Frank

Frank, maybe Bronx has a microclimate but you can definitely grow Adeniums in Brooklyn. I do use lights inside over the winter.

I got bitten! I just ordered some very tall Adenium seedlings and will braid the hell out of them as soon as the stems soften, and become bendable. I'm gonna try growing Adenium, again, in Da Bronx.

Booking funeral arrangements, just in case. For the plants, that is....not mine.

Frank

Bronx, I have a theory about why domesticated adeniums die so often. There's a balence between dry and wet that can be really hard to maintain, especially in a cooler environment.

Thing is, adeniums are pretty fond of water. As long as they don't get black rot, moist soil can actually be really good for them when they grow actively. It's not like those wild adeniums keel over and die every time it gets unusually rainy.

Now, I'm sure you know all this. But I think it is likely, because cactus soil tends to have lots of inorganic content and since what little it does have is often peat, coir, or bark, it tends to have pretty much no microbes. The thing is, symbiotic microbes form an association with 90% of the plants in the world, and they're play a huge in how resilient a plant is.

Now, some of these beneficial microbes will eat bad microbes, and some will release toxins that kill pathogenic ones like the ones that cause damping off and black rot. They also like the same moist, warm conditions as pathogenic microbes.

So, you might want to consider adding mycorrhizae to your soil, because it might help with the rot and it will improve nutrient uptake. Definitely get a brand with trichoderma and some bacillus pumilis or b. Subtilis.

It is actually quite simple to keep adeniums alive in adenium-unfriendly climates - if you follow the basic rules: 1) do not water adeniums if temps are below 70F/20C, 2) do not water leafless dormant adeniums, 3) reduce watering of inactive adeniums in leaf to a minimum (maybe once every other week but no thorough watering), and 4) use a well-draining soil mix. If you disregard these simple rules, you end up with rotting adeniums.

That being said, the problem with rot often occurs soon after adeniums break dormancy in spring - maybe after 6 months with no or little water - and no feeder roots for uptake. All dried up.

Therefore, I recommend: 1) the use of artificial light (T5HO or LED) to prolong the growing season, 2) the use of heating mats in the spring and during the growing season to ensure that the roots never get cold on overcast cool days, and 3) that small seedlings are overwintered at 70+F/20+C and watered sparingly (once every other week) to prevent feeder roots from drying up.

That's also true enough. I tend to be a bit overly fond of biological warfare.

It can be kinda tricky until you get a good feel for it, but it's pretty manegable. When in doubt, don't water. Feeder roots can recover, black rot is much wose.

That being said, microbes do give you a wider margin of error. Still, you don't need them.

Many thanks for the suggestions on keeping Adeniums alive through difficult seasons. I'm seriously thinking about some kind of light set-up and heating mat combo. My growing season is pitifully, short, and my Adeniums would be quiescent most of the year without some artificial "help". i.e. supplemental light, and heat. I think I will also add some mycorrhizae to my potting mixes.

Thanks again for the growing tips.

Frank