I am in the coastal south and grow mine in a miracle gro, and bark mix. I still have to water daily in the summer. I have two dangerous times for possible rot each year; when I transport the plants in or out. As long as I can keep them growing, everything has been fine. I just brought them all in and got my lights set up, and it's still only 65 lows/85 highs.

You can tell these have been packed in tightly in the greenhouse.

Depends on your climate, I've heard of people growing in a 50/50 mix of regular soil and perlite. I'm currently using a 50/50 mix mg cactus mix and perlite in some of mine. I probably would've bought one of those at that price and repotted it in a better mix.

Just like any other blooming plant, I would not buy it unless I know what the flower looks like.. Staring for an undetermined period of time at a flower which might not be to my liking doesn't work for me.. What bothered me the most, besides the unsuitable potting medium is the fact that the grower seemed to think that it would be o.k. to represent the plant as a lush upright growing plant with huge leaves disproportionate to what we usually seen on an Adenium. A potential buyer with limited or no knowledge of the plant will be fooled into thinking that it should be grown with plenty of water, lots of shade and moist dense soil, plus the branches should be tightly crowded and grown vertically.. Just a huge misrepresentation of the plant in my opinion.. I am sticking with my own seedlings and adult plants from a reputable garden nursery where they actually know what they are selling.. End of topic for me.

If they came from Florida, a peat based mix is pretty standard down there. They dry out really fast and are quickly root bound. They'll fluff and spread out their branches or can be trimmed back and wired to produce much better forms quickly.

As to large, dark leaves, that's more likely indicative of their genetics than whether they have had poor lighting. I have some with big dark leaves and others with tiny needle thin pale or heavily veined leaves, and mine grow in full sun most of the year. There's a lot of adeniums with huge leaves (based on some of the species in their background) so that isn't necessarily indicative of how they have been grown.

That said, they could easily have been grown crowded together, given a lot of water and fertilizer. Different people want different things from adeniums and they have a pretty wide range of growth depending on what's in their breeding and culture.

I live on Maui, Hawaii with a lot of young low-income backyard growers who are out to make a buck with very little or no understanding of the needs of a plant.. Because of our wonderful year round climate, most plants will grow despite incorrect light, watering, fertilizer and potting media. From the look of these plants, they were probably kept in overcrowded conditions, with inadequate light and over fertilized to achieve maximum growth to get them into the stores as soon as possible. Because of the demographics of Maui ( people from many Asian and Pacific Island countries), I imagine that someone might think that they are buying a tropical rainforest plant and not the desert climate plant that it really is.. With no growing instructions on the plant label, I am afraid that many buyers will be throwing away their money expecting one thing and getting another.. I had to educate the other day (again at Lowe's) a man from Vietnam about succulent culture.. He just saw a pretty plant in a small pot and was absolutely clueless about its needs and its potential for growth.. Not everyone is hooked up to the internet for education or realizes that plant research is necessary. There are so many people like that shopping at the garden centers here. Maybe I should just park myself on a chair permanently at Lowe's and Home Depot to dispense garden advice.. The staff don't always know the needs of the various plants and don't have the time to help.