Gill! This is great news to me. I'd forgotten about your blooming success last summer. How many years did it take? Flowers mean less to me than the caudex but I'd still like to see whether mine will bloom eventually. Growing hard does delay blooming by a few years. All of my hard-grown ones are 4 years old and have not bloomed.

I wasn't even planning to raise it until the sixth year but this one above cracked a root and had to be exposed to heal. Mine do not lose their leaves in winter either. But their roots grow fastest in winter if kept warm.

They were planted in ahem, err, back in the year dot.....Feb 2008 to be precise! Will write more later, just going out to visit my mum, not that she will know I've even been to the home:-(

Tell your mum I said hello anyway!

@ Pagan, that's kind :-).....she never spoke to me and my sis' for the 1.5 hrs we visited. So sad.

Anyway, to the adeniums. I wonder whether repeated leaf removal in quick succession would result in smaller leaves, but it may make the plant weak do you think? I've never had the guts to try it, or experiment with my plants as I've just got a few, so they are precious! If I could grow them easily and quickly, then I would certainly try to manipulate them more. Things as they are, I just let them do their own thing, raising the caudex up is as adventurous as I've ever got with them! That's now stopped as there's a limit to which this can be done, and I think they're there.

Gill

Traditionally that is how bonsai leaves are made smaller. The large leaves are plucked off and removed and the leaves that replace them are more profuse but smaller. I have no idea either if that will work with adeniums but I will likely try it later. Good thread!

Hi Pagan and Gill

I will certainly have to give this some thought. Because I grow them in a fast draining mix they would need to be fertilized. My choice was a slow release fertilizer that was too high in Nitrate ammonium and have ended up with quick growth and big leaves but lanky and somewhat frail branches. I have even given them Trace Elements as I was so sure they were lacking in Borax (light green leaves and big leaves at the top of the branch and then little ones on the stem).

I am still learning valuable lesions. Thank God Adeniums are so forgiving. Ok so next season to achieve a more compact and strong bonsai look, should I fertilize less and at 1/2 strength and water less and cut the big leaves in half. We have had a unseasonably hot summer on the Gold Coast.

Maria Leal

Gold Coast Australia