Adenium Blooming in Autumn

They do this every year, at least one will spend the summer just sitting there while all your other adeniums are busy putting on their annual floral show. Then the literal late-bloomer will start developing buds when it starts getting cold at night. If your plant does that, bring it inside immediately--these buds are extremely sensitive to temperatures below 16C. Put it in the sunniest, warmest room in your abode and keep watering it with very weak fertilizer every week.

Spring Surprise

In the wilds of Madagascar, photo by Christophe QUÉNEL, used with permission

It is now being vigorously alleged that spring has arrived. Whatever, it’s still very cold. So the heat mat needed to be switched on to speed up the germination of new coleus seeds—the go-to plant in these parts if you want to discombobulate the local woodchucks who appear not to know what to make of these gorgeously resilient things. 

The seeds were started in a small cell pack, just small enough to fit in the Precious Plant Unit where only the most special plants are housed, receiving 14 hours of gentle light from two 17-watt T5HO bulbs. The mat is underneath the small pots and was off for most of the winter. A couple of A. obesum seedlings had to be kicked out, having beautifully recovered from root pruning earlier on.

In this PPU, however, is the most precious in the not-so-impressive collection: a Pachypodium brevicaule seedling.

Part VI Adenium Seedlings: One Year Later.....

This is the 6th and final part of the series on growing adeniums from seeds. The seedlings we are looking at here are now one year old and almost ready to be treated as adult plants. 

First, a few words about growing hard. It is the easiest way to grow adeniums--all you need to do is leave it in the most killing sunny spot outdoors and forget to water it regularly. The plant's reaction to this neglect is to grow fat (to store water) and short (since it doesn't have to stretch towards the light the way it would if grown indoors).

The best thing about Adenium obesum, however, is that they can take a tremendous amount of abuse short of a flamethrower. 

In previous posts, you'd have read that these seedlings were repotted quite often, mostly because experimenting with roots is fun. These seedlings will probably stay in these pots until they outgrow them, though. They are planted in gritty mix, with two to three lava rocks underneath so that the roots will have crevices in which to curl around. The plan is to check them out at the end of spring when it is warm and sunny enough to power the seedlings through the abuse of being uprooted.  Someday, those roots will look great. We hope.

Part IV: Transplanting Adenium Seedlings (with 2020 update)

Updated February 2015

So you have successfully germinated adenium seeds. What's next?

Adenium seedlings are not really delicate or sensitive. In an emergency (say, someone knocked your pot off the shelf or a cat sat on your week-old seedlings), you can repot them anytime. If sowing and germination has been uneventful; you can wait a couple of months, maybe more. Usually though, seedlings in their cribs will start demanding more nutrients and the more aggressive ones will siphon supply off of their neighbours, leaving you with runts. To avoid this, it is usually better to move the seedlings into their individual pots after two to three months.

Part III: Adenium Seedlings Care

I think the most entertaining stage of adenium cultivation is when they are seedlings---that is the period after they germinate up to about a year, maybe even two. 

After sowing the adenium seeds, my arbitrary cut-off is two weeks--if seeds have not come up after two weeks, I consider the exercise to be over and done. At this point, you can remove the lid from your seedling container as well as the propagation mat, if you are using one.

Adenium obesum seedlings, Week 3

I have discovered that after three weeks, the seedlings are significantly more sturdy. By no means should you subject your seedlings to deliberate abuse. I'm just saying that if your cat should bat at it, it would still be fine.