Help save my Desert Rose- got too cold

15 years ago

Is there any hope for my desert rose? We had on of our first cold fronts come in and it snowed!!

I live south of Houston and it hardly ever snows (last time about 5 years ago), needless to say my Desert Rose didn't get brought indoors in time. It has started wilting and now the stem feels soft. The base is still hard and I have watered it a couple times since bringing it in. So what should I do now, I thought about cutting the stem back to the hard stem to keep from the whole stem getting soft, but fear this may just kill it.

Is there any hope for my plant?

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Comments (7)

siegel2
15 years ago
DO NOT water it!!! Let it dry out and keep it as warm as possible. A bright south facing window would be great, a heat lamp would be better, but it might already be too late.

No water at all until you see leaf growth next April.

Good luck!
birdsnblooms
15 years ago
Follow Cagary's advice..I'd also remove the soft stems..Toni
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red9279
Original Author
15 years ago
alright I took your advice to stop watering and I brought them inside and I had a light on them at first but that only lasted about a week. I have not removed the soft stems (i was afraid to touch them!) But they seem to have survived! They have a few small buds growing from the base! Thank you for your advice. I would have probably killed them by over watering, think I was doing good for them. That is probably why my gardenias have died I try to revive them by watering too much! Thanks again
siegel2
15 years ago
Do you know if your desert rose is grafted? Some more expensive ones that have a special flower are grafted on to a rot resistant type of desert rose.

The reason I ask is that if you have growth coming out on the side then the grafted upper part has maybe died and you only have the bottom part growing. This is alright because you will get a flower from it, but the flower will not be the special grafted type you may have spent extra for.
red9279
Original Author
15 years ago
Very good point! But luckily I bought mine at a master gardner sale, so I don't belive it was grafted, it didn't cost much, and I am not even sure what color the flower is supposed to be. Now I am worrying about my grafted avocadoes! I think they survived the winter, but the drought we are facing may pose a problem.
pkolins
15 years ago
Any suggestions for acclimating a desert rose from Florida to Indiana?
siegel2
15 years ago
In the Fall when your low temperatures consistently drop below 50 degrees F., you'll probably want to bring it inside and place it by a south facing window and stop watering it.

Come late Spring or whenever your low temperatures are consistently above 50 F., bring it outside in the full sun. They don't really need to be acclimated gradually to the sun like most plants need to be. When you see new growth, start fertilizing and watering it.