Have a look at this past thread

Still fighting spidermites on my Adeniums plus other plants/seedlings

its about three pages ago i think you may need to water a bit more in summer i water my plants every second day temp gets up to 40deg cel dont worry about leaf drop i recently moved one of my plants from the back yard to the front it threw the toys out of the cot and dropped its leaves with the sh@$s they are like spoilt babys maybe someone in your neck of the woods will have more input best of luck

Kara,

Nice bloom.

The mealies and treatment of will definitely lead to the dropping of leaves, buds and chemical damage to leaves. Not a lot you can do, other than making sure the residue is not left on the leaves and sun on them.

You may find that you need to keep this plant out where it receives morning to early afternoon sunlight. Leaves will most likely drop, get burnt if not acclimatized to sunlight, but new leaves will be fine. I find here in summer months, left out in full sun and high heat. The leaves are not a nice green color and do flower, but the ones that I have in full sunlight from morning till 1-2pm, filtered light from 2-9pm all flower and perform better with nice green leaves.

Your plant caudex and most of the leaves look great.

Rick

Thanks everyone. I will start to water more. I've decided it needs to be on my front porch. Lots of succulents do well there. Tons of bright light, but no harsh direct sun. My house is yellow so the light just reflects really nice for finicky plants:).

Hi Kara we live in the same Zone but with one difference I'm in Florida and you're in California I live in Tampa I have one adenium that I have had for five years now and one that I have had for two years now I just found out this week that I was not to put them in regular soil which that is where they have been growing since I bought them. My "Lady" also lost a "limb". My "Gentlemen" lost the side of his body. That is when I started looking them up online. I then took care of them by cutting off all the part of the caudex that was rotted and then the rest of it or rather the open part of the cut put cinnamon on it. That's what I did it has since been three months for the gentleman and about one year for the lady and they are doing fine. I just transplanted them into the correct medium. I have no idea how they made it in the soil they were in the only thing I can think of is "love from up above".

I will post a picture when I can show them because it's been raining since I transplanted them and they are under personal umbrellas so that their pots do not get wet LOL

I wanted to Thank you guys again. You have all given me hope:).

OT-It's strange that this plant gets meallies aren't Adeniums really poisonous;)?

I moved my plant a few days ago to outside. He gets shade till about 3pm and then full sun. Sits under an apple tree. Seems happier now. I watered on Friday and watered again today. The bud looks promising:). Thanks everybody:).

It looks nice in summer (Australia) i can water my plants every day they are in full sun and i have a well drained potting mix.IT is the potting mix that is the secret in most cases Wrong mix will kill your plant faster than any thing.

Ya it's lookin good:)! Finally.

just needed some 'how-to-fruit' coaching from big brother apple tree. wonderful!

Looks a lot better....but why is there a honeycomb in the pot with it?

I found it right before I took the pic on the ground:). It's from yellow jackets.

Your right about the bugs and airflow. Ever since I put it outside I haven't found meallies. When it was inside I would find a couple meallybugs every once in awhile.

I put him under the apple tree so it's shaded till about 3pm. I do want to start acclimating it to more light. I think he would respond well. I water my plant about twice a week now. With drinking water. A handful of my potted plants get the same water I do;). I keep the Adenium where I can see it so I don't forget.

I'm still confused about pruning. Should I? I've never done it. I don't want to mess it up and ruin the poor thing. There's a person down the street who has a Weeping Cherry tree it was once so beautiful. I would drive by and admire it. Last fall they pruned it back. They obviously did not know what they were doing. Never grew back, but just a little tuft of growth on one side. It looks terrible. I'm guessing it's gonna take years for that poor thing to look right. I don't want that to happen to me;).

Not happening Kara ... Trust me. I am publicly proclaiming that it won't. Pruning not only activates node branching at the apex, it also stimulates self branching throughout the plant.

It's important to wipe down the blade with alcohol between cuts to avoid spreading pathogens. You have the option of dabbing dry, then applying a fungicide (store bought or use cinnamon or curcumin/turmeric powder) OR seal the cut surface with Elmer's Waterproof Wood Glue ... Do not get glue on the nodes. The glue will prevent atrophy of the cut surface and functions similar to wax on rose bush cuttings.

Here's how to effectively branch prune, compliments Martin (Denmark):

And here is the result of such application on one of my 2016 seed grown plants:

Thank you. I'm knew to this. So when is a good time to prune?

The best time is springtime, when they first come out of dormancy (cold climates) or semi-dormancy (warmer climates). Spring is when you first begin watering & feeding regularly, the plants get more sun and begin their active growth cycle. It's the ideal time for pruning because it's entered a period of accelerated growth.

I do not advise pruning at end of season because the plant is about to enter dormancy or semi-dormancy and just doesn't have the energy to branch. Or it can branch weakly or stagnant.

That said, you can prune any time of the year in warmer climates but doing so can cause you to miss out on a bloom cycle (or two) as the plant branches and recovers. Of course, some potted plants bloom 4-6 times a year. In-ground trees bloom year-round here. So you have to decide whether you're willing to sacrifice a bloom cycle in order to get a more spectacular show later in the season.

I live in a hot, humid climate (year-round), so prune whenever I feel the plant is ready for it.

I'll wait till early spring to prune then.

I cant believe fall is right around the corner. It'll be here before I know it. I've been trying to get things ready for fall already. I want everything to be done in a month. This year I want things to be more organized than years past:). My Adenium comes inside at the beginning of November.

A note on pruning & rooting cuttings:

Cut low, especially above Y branching, so you don't have a lot of bare branch on the mother plant.

Anything you cut can be rooted. Leave 4-6 mature leaves on the tip but cut off anything below that. Remember, nodes are potential branching areas ... Do not tear off leaves or it can damage the nodes; use a scissor to cut near the stem shaft. Any remaining piece will dry and fall off on its own.

You pruned at an angle, now cut the bottom of your cutting straight across. You can leave it just like this or...

You can try for centipede roots by trimming off the edge of your cut surface at an small angle.

Apply a horticultural fungicide or cinnamon or curcumin/turmeric powder (both anti-fungals) to the cut surface. A little goes a long way. Allow the cutting to callous over about a week.

After a week, dip cut end in water, then in rooting hormone and plant in DRY succulent soil. Use a clear plastic water bottle (top cut off, holes cut into bottom) so you can see when roots develop. Place the plastic bottle in a plastic bag and tie off LOOSELY, so you have air circulation, while at the same time creating heat in the soil for humidity build up. Place in a warm corner of a porch, away from rain and away from direct sunlight.

Be patient. Rooting can take up to two months. Occasionally, check the stem near the soil ... squeeze it to make sure it hasn't gone soft. If it has, uproot it to check for rot. You can recut the cutting and begin all over again if this happens. If the leaves you left on perk up, you are on your way. But don't dismay if they don't. Some cuttings take longer than others to root, in which case all the leaves can fall off before the cutting has rooted. That's OK.

Once rooted, begin watering lightly and acclimate to full sun as you increase water. Once in full sun, begin feeding weekly, weakly at 1/4 strength and water normally.

Although cuttings never develop a caudex, they can in time develop massive roots, which can be raised just as with any other adenium. Here is a three year old as an example. You can see the trunk delineation, a telltale sign of a cutting.

Adenium Obedum NoID "Mom's Plant" · More Info

No more brown thumbs for you, Kara!

Maria Elena

That elephant root is neat:).

I'm so ignorant when it comes to stuff like this. Good thing I've got 7 months to get it down before I go pruning the only Adenium I've been able to keep alive. But I definitely want to prune it next spring. It needs to be fuller.

I love Desert Roses and so does my mom. So it would nice if I could grow her a good one:).

Good thing you just wrote not to rip leaves off because I have been:(. Not a lot just a few.

Kara,

My brother lives in SF. I hate SF weather ... It can be a schizophrenic balmy hot and clammy cold on the same day any time of year! With the huge fluctuations in temperature, how on earth can you grow desert roses there? I imagine you have to pull everything inside quite frequently. Is that right? It doesn't go below 65 during the summer but I know it can be 80 during the day and 45 overnight sometimes. Crazy weather.

Well, you live there and know how to adjust your plant care for climate. Here's the thing with adeniums ... They don't like huge temp fluctuations or cold clammy temps. They do best in a steady 82+ degree temp. Even here, overnight temperatures fall to 68/70 degrees then back up into the 80s during the day in Jan/Feb. This has a negative effect on growing seedlings ... It stunts them. They grow, but smaller and minutely and any leaves that come in during that time are small. With the cooler overnight temps, the soil remains wet longer, which is also bad. I water once a week during the "winter" months.

It's always important to keep your watering to high sun days. Do not water when it's cloudy. Watering when it's sunny allows the pot to dry back somewhat before the cool of the evening rolls in. Otherwise, it will stay wet too long and rot can set in. I suspect you may do better with gritty mix in your region. There is no soil in gritty mix, so it doesn't stay wet.

Something to consider.

Maria Elena

Great information:).

I live about 30 minutes east of SF in a town called Martinez. So for me the weather is usually warmer by at least 15 degrees in the summer. In the winter about 10+ degrees cooler than SF. Like right now my thermostat says 92F and in SF it's 60F. My thermostat is in the sun tho. So the reading is probably off. The Bay Area has lots of little microclimates. Like my friend lives 15 minutes west of me so she's about 15 mins outside of SF. Her zone is more like 10a.

SF is usually cool and windy. In the mornings there's fog. Sometimes the fog comes my way and cools everything down:). SF's warmest months are like September and October.

I honestly don't have to move much. Only the first hot days of the year I get reminded to move things because they've burned. In November is when I really have to move things. I only bring a handful of things inside. Mostly everything either gets covered, pushed up against the house or in the garage. Then the things I have covered I have to uncover. The cactus don't really get etiolated during the winter months because they just aren't growing all that much, but the Echeverias will get etiolated if I don't let them get that ugly winter sun. My zone just gets a little too chilly in December and January to not protect things at night:(. I wish I lived in 10a because I could probably relax a little. February can be a toss up. This year it was chilly and rainy, but last year's February I was able to uncover everything we were getting into the mid 70's.

You know, while seedlings do not have the reserves to go dormant during a cool season, 2-3 year old adeniums can totally be allowed to go dormant. I think for your region, semi-dormant is more like it. So here, the rule "Treat your adeniums like tropical plants during hot months and like cactus during cooler months" applies. If they don't go completely dormant (lose all their leaves and go to sleep) water very sparingly (really tiny amounts) during cooler months and keep them in a warm spot, near a sunny window.

Last year I brought him inside I'm guessing from what you're saying he went semi dormant, didn't loose all his leaves. I watered like once a month. I was just guessing that I should water him. I didn't want to let him go totally dry in the winter while inside. I thought that would kill him.

For me if they loose all their leaves they just keep going downhill. I can't revive them. So I was very happy to see some leaves in the winter:).

Kara, it's not a matter of revive. Some people put them in a dark closet or in a corner in the garage to overwinter without sun or water. In the spring, they awaken all on their own by leafing out.

Of course, I don't expect you to do this to your only adenium because a lot of things can happen over the winter. You can experiment with what works for you when you have several seed grown yearlings that are the same and you have nothing to lose.

One day, right?

One day. Once I figure what my little guy likes I will buy another:). They're always in nurseries. I want to get more, but I need to grow one for a few seasons before I torture another:)