welcome aboard.!!

About the only way to get the true colors is through grafting. Some hybridizers have developed the knack of pollinating the plants (through surgery) yielding seeds which can be like the parents. Thing is, a tiny tiny percentage of the seeds will exhibit traits of the parents. Ten out of 100 seeds that are similar to the parent plant would be considered a high success rate.

so, if you happen to end up with a pink flower, you can always graft another color onto that pink root stock.

hope that addresses some of your queries. others will be able to share more.

again, welcome aboard.

dave

Hi Ben welcome if I was you I would get onto rare imports website and order grafted plants theydid have a special on .I cannot get them but you can they have good plants they had grafts for $25.00 cheap as .good luck

Thanks for the info Dave. Thanks Peter i have had a look at the website of rare imports and also a few other growers in Qld also selling grafted Adeniums.

This variety from Sandys Adeniums looks like a keeper. It goes from a dark red to a faded colour as it ages

But is $65 compared to $25

Ben,

Here is some info if your are really interested in producing your own seed.

https://adeniumlove.wordpress.com/pollination/

This is from David Clulow of Venezuela and he is world renowned Adenium hybridizer.

You will most likely receive anywhere from Pink or shades of, white and or red mixed blooms from this Adenium Seeds comp. as they had mentioned for more or less the reasons they have given you.

You should however have better percentages of something resembling the parents to a certain degree. Orient Adenium, Adenium_ko are producing some good quality seed through controlled hand pollination.

Sandy has some beautiful plants and she has been growing for many, many years. Very knowledgeable and super lady.

The other company that Peter mentions, Rare Adeniums sounds like a good place to get some material to do hand pollination.

Buy seed from people such as Rinoa (Orient Adeniums) or Ko (Ko Chi Lung, Adenium_Ko.

Rick

Hi Ben, Welcome to the forum & nice to meet another collector from Brisbane. Which area of Brisbane are you from? (Eg:- South, east, northern suburbs etc).

As Rick has said, your best bet for seeds is Orient Adenium & Mr Ko (although Mr Ko has been busy lately & is mainly filling orders from his eBay store. We have grown seed from Mr Ko & have had some beautiful doubles/triples from seed, some similar to the mother plant & some more different. You will also get some singles as well. We have been very happy with the variety we get from seed. We have also ordered some seed from Rinoa (Orient Adenium) that we will grow once Spring gets here. Many growers in Australia have grown seed from Rinoa with some beautiful results.

As Pete has mentioned, Rare Imports (Western Australia) sells grafted plants (true to colour) if you want a guaranteed colour/pattern - just realise that these will come bare rooted & I would recommend you wait to order till Spring as Winter is not a good time to start a bare rooted plant. 'Sandys Adeniums' is also a good supplier of grafted plants that are true to colour & alot of her flowers/plants were also grown from seed from Orient Adenium & Mr Ko. (Her plants will also come bare rooted, so I would wait till Spring) Costs will vary between suppliers based on demand, size of plant/rarity & the time involved in growing a plant from seed & then grafting time and the fact that these varieties are unavailable from our regular nurseries.

When you see two different seed varieties crossed together, that just means one is the mother plant(seed parent) and the other is the father plant(pollen supplier). The point of these crosses is to try and get a plant/flower with some traits of the mother mixed with traits of the father. This can sometimes result in an exciting new cross....Your best bet with hand pollinating for yourself - is to breed 'like to like' eg: breeding two different yellows together that may have a thin stripe, to try and make a deeper yellow colour/with a bolder stripe.... or......breeding two different reds that have some black in them together, to try and make a flower that is more black. Hope this answers some of your questions. :)

Wow thanks Rick for the pollination link the information is great and very in depth its good to learn something new from those with experience. I'll keep digging through the net for more info to get me started on pollinating some of my own varieties.

Rachel I'm at Greenbank, Logan which is south of Brissy temps here are on average 1-3 degrees hotter and also colder during days and night extreems and slightly lower humidity than the city. Bris is about 16km from the bay where as here its about 40km away. Dont ask me how I know all this lol. Thank You for all your helpfull facts. I am looking forward to doing more with Adeniums in the future and not just Obesums but also Arabicums and Samalanse. I never knew all of the beautiful sellection of Adeniums out there. All I've ever seen is some ugly sorry looking specimins from bunnings with the plain pink blooms with half their leaves dropped and flowers all torn up. Though I'll admit recently i went there and saw a variegated Obesum they had and I had to buy it! Though theirs are all seedlings so have to wait to see what the flowers are like.

Ben, There's alot you can learn from others here on the forum and it's a great way to get help when you need it. If you get a chance, why don't you post some photos of your adeniums. We love photos, even of single plain colours. :)