Congratulations, Mama!!! You made our Tom a Grandpa!!!

Wow, your one looks better than any of the babies I have from Tom. Good job!

Becca

AAAWWwwwwww now that's just CUTE!

Thanks, Kay and Tina and Becca!
And this little guy is a willful child, and only looks this good by sheer luck. I can't get him to straighten up and fly right.
I'm just thankful for the bloom and today the second bud opened.

This game I play called "gardening" is an amazing thing.

That those funky things Tom mailed us could turn into something so adorable just floors me!

I love it!

Susie

awww Susie, you have an adorable baby. what a pretty face :-)

Denise

P.S. I have a neighbor with desert rose mania. he has dozens. I gotta go take a picture of them.

Nice job. It is pretty special when you grow a plant from seed. I get a big kick out of doing that. And what a pretty flower too. :o)

Did you all see they now have an new forum for the Desert Rose? Adeniums!
I like the planter for your lil baby. Congradulations on your new baby!

Susie, if you want him straight, dig it up and replant it in the pot so it is straight. You might have to cock it at an angle so it appears straight stemmed. Hope that makes sense to you, wish I could show you. :o)

Katkin - yes, I know exactly what you're talking about (I straighten up alot of potted plants that way). And that's why I mentioned the willful spirit of this guy, since when I planted him into this little blue pot, I put him in perfectly straight!

A couple of weeks later and he's leaning again. Maybe he's trying to tell me it's just too shady where I placed him.

And yes - it's a blast to grow stuff from seed. I've developed a keen eye for pretties that're going to seed (right now, it's amaryllis and geraniums) and I knock on doors to get permission to harvest them . . . or take cuttings, as the case may be.

Katkin, have you gotten any seeds yet from the Garden Hoard?

How lucky for you, Denise, to get to see your neighbor's desert rose plants all the time. Must be pretty cool. Can't wait to see some pics.

And I will visit that forum and see if those folks are as nice and intelligent as you guys on this forum! I'd like to learn how to grow adeniums from cuttings - something I've been trying to do, but with no success. I grow tons of regular roses from cuttings, and plumeria, too, but desert roses don't like the way I do it.

I'm hoping more people with Tom's babies will post pics so we can compare the flower colors.

Susie

Very nice Susie, I never know what the blooms are going to look like since these are crossed with a red/white and soild pink. That one looks closer to the original red/white...you have that special touch to get that baby to bloom so early ;-)

The pink has stopped blooming for now and the r/w doesn't have very many , too dry I guess. There are a few new seed pods so I'll have more seeds in a few months. Here's a picture today of the parent closer to your color, and upcoming pods, the pink is just to the left of it but as I said, it's stopped blooming now :-(

Tom

Tom, you just amaze me - always have!

Susie, glad you knew what I was talking about. :o) No, I don't know what the Garden Hoard is? Please tell me.

I grew my 30 ft tall royal poincianna from seed, that's my baby. lol And several other trees as well. I love my trees. I am going to have my own rain forrest here soon.

If you like adenium, you have to visit the website linked below. Nr. Sundaram lives in India and owns an adenium nursery. His photo albums are like mini tutorials. Each picture in an album is part of the lesson. He shows how to prune, graft, etc. The album labeled "27 hours 2836 grafts" is especially interesting - incredible to see how they cut the plastic wrap without wasting one square inch. He has a 95% success rate with his grafts.

For cultivators of adenium, the interest feature is not so much the flowers as it is the caudex, or root system. Adenium should be lifted an inch or more every year to expose more and more root above the soil of the surface. During the lifting process, take the adenium completely out of the soil and brush off any loose dirt. Small roots should be pruned off and the remaining large roots can be arranged or even braided in whatever way pleases you when you repot. When repotting, as shown in the photos linked below, leave at least an inch or more of previously unexposed caudex above the soil line.

Tom, it looks like it may be time to lift/raise yours (?). It looks like quite a bit of the caudex is below the soil line.

By the way, lifting an adenium is also a natural insurance/protection against rot in the winter.

I'm impressed with your plants and seedlings - they look great!

Carol in Jacksonville

Here is a link that might be useful: Nr. Sundaram webshots albums

Here is a link directly to the root pruning album.

Here is a link that might be useful: nr.sundaram - creating a nice caudex-adenium

And here is a link to a GREAT example of how to lift the adenium. You are going to be shocked at how high it is lifted above the soil.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: nr.sundaram - immediate potting adeniums

Here's another good adenium-specific blog: http://siamadenium.com/. Yes, the do sell plants but if scroll half-way to two-thirds of the way down the page, there are lots of good "how-to" blogs.

I linked the blog for root-shaping on seedlings, below. I thought it might be helpful to Susieqsie (cute name!).

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Seedlings - Growing technique to make nice form

Kay - thanks, we all have our successes and failures.

Carol - I'm lazy with my adeniums, I know I should work on the caudex but these three are not from seed so there's only so much that can be done them.... You, on the other hand, have some amazing plants ;-)

Tom

Unfortunately, mine got hit with either rain or the hose one too many times in winter a couple years ago and I lost them BOTH to massive rot. I knew better but it still happened. But before that, I did raise mine twice a year and the caudices were getting pretty darn cool. I just followed some videos on YouTube - monkey-see-monkey-do - and the advice in the websites linked above.

So, unfortunately, I don't have ANY adenium/desert roses at the moment. But I would love to have a seed or two if anyone should have extra. Would be happy to send a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Carol in Jacksonville

Carol, thanks for the cool site! Now I have one more thing to be overboard about . . . but this is just so fascinating. And I love how the author writes what's in his/her heart.

And that's so sad you lost your adeniums. But it's a good lesson for the rest of us to be aware of.

Thanks again -Susie

I'm so sorry Carol. I wish I'd known, I just gave away a bag of probably 100 seeds at Silvia's swap. I'll send you some seeds from this one when the pods mature.

Tom

Tom, you are just so kind! I would appreciate that if you have plenty the next time you have some. I think that is very cool that you have over 100 seeds spread across Florida. It is like your Everglades tomatoes. By the way - just like you said they would - I have Everglades tomatoes all over the yard in various flower beds. It actually makes me laugh but I let them grow wherever they come up. Doesn't matter to me where the tomatoes want to be.

I'll send you an email. Thank you again for your incredible, always-offering (like Sylvia) generosity.

Carol in Jax