The Secret Kalachuchi Page

Really? Yes, I have a secret kalachuchi. I have two secret kalachuchis and this is their secret page.

Although fairly common (sometimes to the point of obnoxious) in the tropics, kalachuchis turned out to be prized ornamentals that people collect (accumulate is closer to the accurate description). Because of enthusiastic hybridization by collectors and commercial growers alike, kalachuchi in its many forms has become so varied and even dazzling in its inflorescence that a catalogue of plant cuttings looks like a house painter's swatch. This was quite a shock. (Kalachuchi? People like them? Really?)

You'd never guess it but picking which kalachuchi to experiment with was not easy. There are so many pinks to choose from (eyeroll) and you really can not trust people's wanton, often unethical, use of photo editing software. This is also a common problem with adenium sellers who purport to sell plants with blue flowers. Just so you know, there are no blue adenium flowers. Or kalachuchi, for that matter.

Many weeks of sporadic research later, here finally was the first kalachuchi, arriving in the post under the postman's crushing armpit. The cutting, called Nebel's Rainbow, was broken into two pieces. The break was on a bad spot, too--most the green part came off, probably all of the previous year's growth.

On one hand, you can say yay you have two plants now. But let's not shit around, that bit will not root. Also, since the tip of this rooted cutting broke off, that exposed bit had to be sealed to protect it from fungus or whatnot. People normally use wood glue but the nail polish was handier so I used that.

Now, here is the problem with using black nail polish---kalachuchis or plumerias are prone to what is known as black tip disease. It is a fungal infestation that, guess what, turns the tip black. This eventually spreads downwards until you run out of plant. The way to see if this is happening to your cutting is to not paint it with black nail polish, obviously.

I tried to root that tip, having nothing else to lose. Planted in a turface substrate and placed in a warm, shaded location, the tip dried up in three weeks. It was a long shot anyway.

The bottom part has been successfully rooted by the seller so it was effortless to put it in a pot and wait for it to do something.

Despite the winter, however, that tip did not succumb to the dreaded black tip disease. It actually tried several times to sprout some leaves throughout the winter because I had it in a pot against the baseboard heater where it also got a considerable amount of sun.

Putting the dormant plant in a warm, sunny place in the winter allows it to get some head start but by no means, don't bother bending over backwards to do this. They will grow fast as soon as it gets warm anyway. This broken cutting, for example, only took two to three weeks to sprout leaves, as did the second rooted cutting I got in case the broken one died. As a result, this Nebel's Rainbow now has two branches and hopefully will bloom from both.

Kalachuchi plants appear somewhat unattractive to common pests but they are monkeybars to squirrels. This plant was alright even after two attacks but after the second, it was buttressed between other pots to keep it from spilling over.

When sufficiently warned, the postman was more careful with this second order of Lava Flow.

As it turned out, these are huge plants when in leaf. They also need full sun--as much as you can give them for as long as possible during the day.

Unlike adeniums though, they can not tolerate as much cold. In mid-autumn, bring them inside and the leaves will just fall off one by one was the days grow shorter and temperatures get cooler. However, being indoors, it will stay relatively warm and they will probably continue attempting to grow new leaves. If it is in a pot, give it a bit of water every once in a while (i.e. every month, if that).

Lots of growers just snap the leaves off, remove them from their pots and wrap them up in newspaper for storage in closets or basement where temperatures do not go below freezing. Then they are exhumed in the spring and replanted for another go during the growing season. This winter, these two were just allowed to stay in their pots in a warm, sunny room, with no particular attention to care. I just considered them semi-dormant. They also got moved around whenever the space is needed by another plant, but always near the baseboard heating, sometimes right against it. This is probably why the plant never went completely dormant.

Just now, end of January, both pots were brought back to the warm room where they will be eased back into growth. That means getting a prime spot in the sunniest window, right above the baseboard heater with humidity level above 50 percent. If they did not need so much sun, I would probably keep them fully awake all year but there is no way I could provide that much light for so large a plant indoors in the winter when it is also colder than it requires.