Adenium (Desert Rose)
Days to Germinate (3 to 10 days)
Days to Bloom (6 months to 2+ years)

Important: Seeds and seedlings are toxic, so keep away from pets or children.

Adenium (Desert Rose) Seeds Growing Instructions:

1. Soak seeds overnight (or up to 24 hours) with a mixture of 1 tbsp of hydrogen peroxide and a cup of lukewarm water. (Normal for seeds to float.) Use the left over water mixture for the initial watering.
2. Use any clean seedling trays or plastic containers with good drainage. If using humidity dome, remove dome once seedlings start to emerge.
3. Discard unhealthy-looking seeds. Sow the healthy-looking seeds on coarse sand, or 50/50 cactus soil (or potting soil) and perlite. Place the seeds horizontally and using just enough soil to barely cover the seeds. Do not bury deep.
4. Spray the soil with water as needed to keep the soil moist but not too wet. Occasionally, use water mixture with hydrogen peroxide to prevent damping off.
5. Transplant seedlings to individual pots when 2+ months old, same depth, do not bury the caudex deep. Do not water for up to 3 days after transplanting, keep in shade and gradually introduce to direct light.
6. For older seedlings, use fast draining mix, let soil dry in between waterings. When seedlings are 3+ months old, occasionally water with low dose blooming liquid fertilizer and let it enjoy 6+ hours of direct sun.

Repotting of Desert Roses Seedlings:

Wildbloomers said: I don't wash the soil off Adenium seedlings until they're crowding 3" pots.

DO NOT DO THIS (even if youtube says you should!)


DO THIS! (I will add a photo when I am brave enough to repot !)

Wildbloomers said:
I just "up-pot" them. Lifting the entire plant with as much of the surrounding soil as possible without affecting the nearest seedling and then just backfilling the new pot. When a plant is big enough to push roots through drain holes in a 3" pot it will be strong enough to recover from the minor damage caused by cleaning and inspecting the roots.

Hand pollination of Adeniums is fun!
I noticed these seedpods 2nd week of April so these are 2 months old. Still not ripe.



Same plant rebloomed, which I tried to cross pollinate with other adeniums. These are the new seedpods, which are about a week old, and hopefully will not fall off.




1 month old seedlings from last fall's seeds (same momma plant), which I kept in the fridge to keep them fresh.



Here is the Momma plant (gift received from hubby Mother's Day 2014) with blooms in April 2021.



I didn't pay close attention to how old is this baby seedling but this could be 4 months old (very small/dwarf) but the Momma plant is very small too. Got neglected so it is just now starting to grow.


Feel free to post your adenium babies here!

BlueMoondog said:Thanks Gigi, I will keep that in mind. I have wired up the current seed pod to hopefully catch a few of the seeds, and see how it goes when the time is right.

@Bluemoondog, I like how you wired your seedpod. I copied it here since this will be a good example in this thread

I will wire mine too. Although I check on mine everyday, I always worry I will miss it when it opens. And I missed them openseveral times before .

@deepsouth James, do you have a picture of how you cover the seedpods with mesh bags?

Also would you please repeat your response to the age of adenium to start producing seeds or no. Of days the seedpods mature along with the cool pictures of your measurements and seeds collected.
My "MD Addie" has produced a lot of seeds but I wasn't really religious in collecting them Or when I do, I would give them to my coworkers right away or put them in the fridge and forget to germinate them.

no pictures of seed pods in mesh bags

I use one bag per pod .... the bags are often too small for 2 .....
just slip the pod in the bag ..opening of bag towards stem tip
secure it with a twist tie

seed pods -

plants need to reach 7-8 years old ....

after flowering, do not prune or trim-up plants ..seed pod production wont happen

water and fertilize as usual

flowers must undergo pollination - either by self pollination (wind), cross pollination, insect pollination or hand pollination

a week or so after flowering, a pair of seed pods form at the end of single stem tips (where flower clusters were)

seed pods take about 70 days to mature ....

seed pods reach about 5-8" in length -

seed pods will change in color as they mature - from green to a molted purplish brown

near the end of that 70 days ...seed pods will begin to split open - the shell of the seed pod peels back releasing seed (this is a very slow process)

once the split appears .... cover the entire seed pod with a plastic mesh bag that allows air to pass through freely....

the type of mesh bags that is often used for loose produce at the grocery store...used for: bulk garlic, new potatoes, onions & avocados (and some cheese)

collect the seed ....store in something that air can circulate - but not blow the seed out - allow seed to air dry for several weeks (fluff up) -
carefully remove the tufts of bristles ......once dry, the tufts will snap off with a slight twist

carefully fold the clean seed in a paper towel ....
place in mason type jar ....
store in dark, cool, dry place ....refrigeration not necessary ...
wait to spring to sow

Seed to Flat to Pot

previous year

following spring

3-5 years later

Oh wow that is some serious business James! Do you sell them online? That is way too many seedlings to keep.

And I thought I had a lot, 4 grown ups, 5 grafted, 3 seedlings grown
And 2 seedlings purchased.

thanx ... of that lot ....had no place to put them ...so I gave away a lot of them ...neighbor, TV repair man, sister, brother, friends nearby & out of state ....

to sell *commercially* online I need a "certificate of health" from the USDA

sold a few locally on a cash & carry basis

Same here, I give away mostly the seeds. I don't want to grow them, get attached to them but I keep some to grow as seedlings and give away as gifts. For as long as I don't have to mail anything.

Good thing that my sister, niece, sister in law, and friends now seem interested of growing them. So I have plenty who like the seeds and I would keep maybe just a few to grow.

Some members used to bring them to flea markets to sell.

And here are my "MD Addie" seedpods all tied up. Hope these seedpods will not do a "Houdini" on me and still escape




And my new seedpods came off, hence the saying "watched pot never boils" so no cross pollinated successful seedpods yet.

deepsouth said:Seed to Flat to Pot

previous year

following spring

3-5 years later

Is the big one to the left "Big Mama"?

Yep ....had to string her up

GigiPlumeria said:
@Bluemoondog, I like how you wired your seedpod. I copied it here since this will be a good example in this thread

I will wire mine too. Although I check on mine everyday, I always worry I will miss it when it opens. And I missed them openseveral times before .

@GigiPlumeria, I used some copper wire to wire up my pods. Left over from wiring up bonsai trees I used the same technique you would wiring up the branches, starting in the centre of the 2 pods and worked my out.

Great to know @BlueMoondog I don't have a bonsai wire and hoping that my ties will keep these seedpods in place.

One -month old today my adenium seedlings, got a diluted taste of miracle gro yesterday and will add osmocote today:

@SylviaSummertree, i also started this thread for anyone who would like to keep tabs of the progress of their seedpods, seeds and seedlings. It is so much easier to see their progress here than browse through my photo album a year from now.

Please feel free to post your seedpods, seeds and seedlings here as well.

Update on my seedpods from "MD Addie"

The quality of my seeds not too good. Too much rain and stress of repotting/lifting of caudex (bad idea) resulted to less viable seeds than I would normally have harvested.

2 Seedpod stalks turned black when opened all seeds looked empty. Some Seedpods brown and split open the normal way, seedpods are healthy looking.

And 2 seedpods broke, lesson learned cutoff seedpods with scissors and don't just twist it when there are other new seedpods not yet near being ripe.

Oh well, at least it looks like I will have enough to give away to friends I already promised to give them seeds or seedlings.

Uh oh, should I let this baby go with me?

for sure

Uh oh thanks James. It jumped into my cart I could not tell if seedling or grafted. It is so small and none of my seedlings has that impressive caudex.

And it has the narrow fuzzy leaves.

Update: definitely a seedling. No sign that it is grafted.

uh uh ....it just jumped into your cart ... bet it landed on its feet

sez its a bonsai houseplant ....what else does it say ?