Ayulie,

Seeing that you have fully open and mature flowers on your tree is good rather than it effecting all buds.

That flower which is effected was almost to maturation and I am of the thought it could be some pest or if exposed to rain. Possibly rot.

Would be worth checking this flower for anything. There has been much talk about Boron dificiency, but my experience with this has been more buds drop and flowers being deformed.

Rick

Rick, it shouldn't be an issue with rain I think, as I have been making sure that it stays dry with plenty of sun. Rot may be an issue, I am afraid of overwatering as I hear that root and caudex rot is something that desert roses are very vulnerable to. May I ask your advice on how to treat it if it's boron deficiency? I have read elsewhere that boric acid is necessary for this.

Sinha, yes! I just got my desert rose for about 2 weeks now, and when I got it, it had many buds and a few mature flowers. Sad to say a few of the buds have dropped. You may be right about the growing conditions so I do hope the plant can adjust over time. Do you feed your desert rose any plant food by any chance? Not sure what ratios of NPK is ideal, but have read that some use balanced foods such as 13-13-13 while others use 9-3-6 or 6-6-10. Not quite sure what's the difference and afraid to overfeed it. I do have a 10-15-10 liquid fertilizer but not too sure if this is suitable.

I really love desert roses as they are so beautiful but they don't seem to be the easiest plants to care for. Nonetheless thank you Rick and Sinha for your valuable input, I appreciate it very much! I do apologise if I have asked some silly questions, as I am quite new to gardening still

Hi Ayulie, I got all kinds of fertilizers and tried all kinds of soils to make them grow. I have NPK(constitution unknown); DAP; cow manure, humus; fish fertilizer. The soils I tried are stony soil, gravel, perlite etc but now am sticking to coco coir + manure. I kept them in stones for nearly 4 months so that they don't die of root rot (lost two) and lost two more when I shifted them to coco coir. Now they are in coco coir since Oct 15 and showing some signs of growth though no flowers yet. I am still working with them and learning.

Initially I fed them diluted NPK water once in two weeks. I am taking all this as part of a learning curve to grow adeniums as I have lost my green fingers in the time that I gave up gardening (about 15 years)

Thanks for your valuable insight Sinha, the buds have not been dropping as much over the last several days, but instead have been getting some brown leaves which I am a little confused about. I actually have some spare coco coir lying around and may just follow your tip on using it! Also might try a few drops of the 10-15-10 liquid food that I still have. Thanks again!

Ayulie, I have had desert rose plants for about four years and find them so interesting. Fall 2014 I purchased 100 seeds of 10 varieties and have had a very interesting journey with these seedlings. Rot has been an issue with them. I have 35 individually potted plants and have not lost any sense summer when we were getting heavy rain. I have found that a very light watering every two or three days works well. Also I used a cactus mix and added about 1/4 sand to it. As far and fertilization, I hold off of fertilizer throughout the inter. I have my plants upstairs in a south window and have three mature plants blooming right now. They did drop leaves in the fall when it got cooler but as soon as they were brought in, started to grow. We use wood heat and our loft room is very warm however. I am looking forward to blooms on all my seedlings this summer. I look regularly on the internet to learn as much as possible. I'm not an expert but hope to be. We have some cacti that my wife and I have had for 40 plus years and hope the desert rose plants will become part of our permanent plant collection in our house.

I transplanted my boss's dessert rose and started watering it every other day and new leaves started to grow, but white cottony looking stuff formed at the base of each leaf and then the leaves started dropping off. Please help. I started reading about this plant and realized I was over watering it, but now I'm afraid it might have a fungus and don't want it to die, especially since it is not my plant. Pictures included.

I think those are mealy bugs

PLEASE HELP...THANK YOU

How do I get rid of them?

We do have a lot of spiders in our office.

I've been experimenting with 1 part hydrogen peroxide\1 part alcohol\1 part water in a spray bottle. Is the plant in the sun?

Keep it out of the way of any other plants else they will also get infected. You can first wipe them off with a dampened tissues or cotton buds. Some ppl use rubbing alcohol to kill them, use cotton buds to dab the critters with the alcohol. I use 'Bayer Ultimate Bug Killer' spray here but not sure if you can get that in the US.

Gill

Most likely this is due to too low humidity if it's indoors or if you brought it indoors recently, which can cause culture break. Good air circulation is also a must. While these plants grow in arid regions I believe they tend to bloom when the rains begin and right before or as they are leafing back out. There are other possible causes such as the potting mix being too wet, or pests, etc as already mentioned.

Oddly enough, another thing that can cause any plant to drop buds, or to drop already open flowers prematurely is ... *drum roll please* ... ripening fruit! Especially bananas. So if you have any in your house, keep them well away from your flowers.

thank you so much for your help.

i need help identifying what is on my desert rose. it seems to be be doing well, I’m just not sure what is on it.