Uy. That is beautiful, Mike. Good growing. What's the rest of the plant like?

Pagan

P.S. The lens are probably too close to the flower so the sensor is picking the objects within its focusing range.

Pagan--this is what the plant looked like last month--these flowers have all faded at this point....some were malformed, deformed, whatever.

And this is the same plant today--this photo was taken from the reverse side.

I also managed to get a shot of the current flower that is more in-focus.....just needed to shine a bit more light on the subject and not depend on the flash alone.

And for comparison....here's the first flower I got from it.....in Nov. 2013.

They are really coming very nicely, Mike. Beautiful.
Definitely a keeper.
Some thing how you really need to give them a few blooming cycles to really be sure.
Rick

Yeah, I agree with the bloom cycles....and even still there's other variables that can influence flower color. In a way, I'm very happy to have flowers at all--our growing season this past summer was utter garbage (read: too cool, rainy, and cloudy) to the point that I had no blooms whatsoever from my adeniums. I had maybe a 8 or 9 set buds--a few had several buds on different branches.....but none opened by the end of Aug. and our nights were already in the low 40's F. But once I got them all inside and gave them warmth and better light.....several then did bloom.

That's quite a difference, Mike. It's a very nice gnarly plant, too, which I personally prefer.

How warm do they get in that enclosure? I've been toying with the idea of building a similar set-up in the basement for next winter because I will be repotting my yearlings in the spring and they will no longer fit on the shelf there. I was wondering if I have to build an insulated box or just wrap the whole frame in plastic or something, with some front access. I don't want to have to put a heating mat there, just to maximize the heat coming from the T5 bulbs.

Pagan

Pagan, all my adeniums are just on a table, maybe 5' x 2 1/2'....and my 4' fluorescent light fixture hanging above via a PVC frame I slapped together. No enclosure or plastic sides though because the fixture puts out plenty of heat so that my room is the warmest in the house. I used a heat mat last year but figured it was overkill since I had to water constantly to keep them from drying out......so this year no heat mat so now I don't have to water as often.

I would think that even having yours in the basement, the most you would have to do is maybe wrap in clear plastic--unless your basement is really cold.

I'm totally convinced that it's a big waste of time for me to expect flowers from my adeniums when I have them outside for the summer since our short growing season is just to short and cool (normally!) with too much rain in June to go with the cool temps. My adeniums are far more reliable for blooming inside under the lights since I can control all aspects of their environment--heat, light, and water/nutrients.

Mike in MN

Mike,

This is my first winter in this house and I am still finding out how cold it gets in the basement. It is -14C outside and 10C right at soil level so I think I will opt for the plastic wrap next season, if only to avoid wasting all that heat.

This winter, about half of the yearlings I have down there have gone into dormancy but the rest are still actively (albeit slowly) growing and the high light prevents them getting etiolated.

My plants are not so deep in the north as yours are but even outside they bloom late in the season too--around October. For comparison, my sister's adeniums in Manila bloom all year round which proves your point--if kept warm, well-lit and watered, they will not stop blooming.

P