Rick-

You are so right. Some are selling seedlings of named plants, some plants are vaguely described, some might be rooted cuttings or might be grafted plants....it's a mess.

I did buy some seeds from named Adenium varieties, but who knows what the seeds are, or who made the crosses. With my luck, all the seeds will bloom pink. Oh!... How do I hate pink....let me count the ways!

Frank

I just had a seller or should I call him an idiot. He had listed GH seedlings and seeds. He finally told me he was in Thailand and that he could mail me stuff airmail. Ask about certs and he said he did not need them. When I opened his link it like he was Russian thereabouts. I ended up reporting him to Ebay. Some will offer anything for money. He was going by DorsetHornadeniums.

"Wearisome" is indeed the perfect word, Rick.

Even if a buyer knew the anecdotal 25 percent chance of getting a plant blooming true to seed (instead of the default pink), just think how much lower the odds really are when we consider that a pod typically has 80 to 100 seeds. A pack of 10 seeds is no longer representative of this bulk and small-number statistics will now skew those odds.

My bigger problem with unknown growers is this: do they hand-pollinate? Or did their parent plant just produce pods and they assumed it self-pollinated? If they do hand-pollinate, do they isolate their parent plants so that insects do not sabotage the effort and cross-pollinate it with other plants? The only grower I have discussed this with was adenium_ko (or at least I discussed it with his translator); he was the only grower willing to reply to my constant badgering at the time. And just for that, I did not bother buying seeds from other growers who could not be bothered to explain their process.

Pagan

I am a newbie to adeniums. So, I can tell you that if it wasn't for this forum I would totally not believe anything on eBay. On some of their pictures you can tell that the pictures are fake. Once I saw some of the beautiful colored DR's that fellow members post I started believing that these flowers are truly as beautiful as their pictures. I still am hesitant to purchase any on eBay but at least I know now that they truly exist. I am very grateful for all the postings. I now know of two reputable growers, one in China and one in Taiwan because of postings. Thank you for all the information you all post.

Pagan how right you are to get a plant that looks like the parent you may have 2 or 3 seeds out of a 100 if you are lucky you buy just 10 seeds the odds go down it takes lots of room and time to get new plants you just end up with lots of pink you are right you have to net the pollinated bloom to keep it true to the pollination you did its lots of work and time I like playing with seeds but not doing as much as I did . I have lots of respect for ko

Roger

i bought 50 seeds off Ebay 2 years ago and they were supposed to be different colors... The all came out pink. I think i would rather spend my time and money on a sure thing... I guess I'm lucky they were really adenium seeds and not magic beans...

I bought some seeds from a seller called exotic cactus collection and I think as far as the adenium seeds go he sent exactly what was advertised and bought. He sells an enormormous variety of succulent plants and seeds. And has a good reputation amongst succulent plant and cacti enthusiasts. Couple of caveats: 1) the euphorbia seed I bought had low germination (1 plant out from ten seeds and it ended up being a different species) That may have been an honest mix up. 2) I'd always be skeptical of buying seeds with the expectation they would produce a flower of the quality or type in the picture. 3) if buying a plant on ebay I'd like to see a picture of the actual one im buying. To be fair though unless you are talking about grafted plants, all of these named adenium from Thailand or wherever are not cultivars, they are not clonal, they name vigorous seed strains. Would also add the adenium seeds (two or three dozen) germinated 100 percent. A few were rcn and I have a few dwarfish seedlings that look rcn to me. Most were arabicum shada and most look like shada seedlings. And some were a mix that were from red.flowered adeniums of different types. I haven't seen flowers yet but there are seedlings that are different from other two groups that look like obesum for.example.

This was supposed to be euphorbia punicea took me a while to ID it as euphorbia viguieri it is growing really vigorously now this pic was in the fall I think . I don't mind it wasnt true to type, it was a neat surprise. I guess my point is ebay is fine, be smart about it and have realistic expectations. Most of us are a little obsessive about plants and can be hard to please sometimes when it comes to our hobby