I'm trying to emulate a pic I saw last fall of a different kind of Talinum in a pot that had been planted with the upper, bulbous part of the roots exposed, like a (real?) caudex or fat plant. IDK if this kind of cheating still counts?

Dug this often-mowed specimen out of the yard a few weeks ago & planted it at what I thought at the time was a surprisingly (for the plant) higher depth.
4/30:


It wilted just a bit the first few days, but has recovered already as if nothing had happened.
Yesterday:


I've already been picking off leaves every few days, to try to get it making smaller leaves. I guess it would be OK at this point to snip some of the extraneous parts off of the exposed part of the roots.

I've also seen this being done with 4'o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa...) I think there's probably some of these out there. What do you have? Do you have to manipulate it into oddness or does it do it by itself, like ponytail palm?

Tiff,
I know nothing about this plant, but I just wanted to comment that it's beautiful!

Plantp

Oops, I can't spell my own name. I'm sorry, I meant to say ty for the acorn the other day, but ty and ty for the one today!

Planto

That's interesting Tiffany. I didn't know that Talinum also produces a caudex. It's a little weedy, so after it blooms, I usually remove them and sometimes the plants to keep them from reseeding all over. So, now I need to leave a plant or 2 to grow and bring it in during the winter if I want to develop a caudex. Someone here recently sent me some seeds of Mirabilis to plant for the caudex. I've got to get that done soon. for sharing your progress.

Cool, I've never heard of this plant! I googled "Talinum caudex" and got this:

http://www.bihrmann.com/caudic...

Interesting!

I don't grow that one, but I do raise my Adenium obesum a bit when I repot, to expose more of the caudex.

TY for the comments! Yes, Kate, it was a pic like that which got me thinking of using the species at my disposal to experiment. (There's at least a dozen more in the "lawn.")

I'm just not sure if raising the roots is "cheating" as far as calling a plant a "fat plant" or if that's just one method to have one for a species that wouldn't do that naturally. Unless raised to expose the fat roots, the plant I'm playing with, T. paniculatum, doesn't make an above-ground fat caudex, at least in my zone. Winter knocks it down to the ground. I think I'll have to bring this inside or at least protect on the coldest nights now that the roots are exposed. Not sure on that, should probably get a 2nd one potted to experiment...

Other plants, like Adenium & Beaucarnea are definitely "real" fat plants.

Deborah, I'm anal about deadheading because my yard is pretty small and there's not much else to do, so I've never had a seedling, but have heard others lament they had to remove this plant from gardens because of too many seedlings. I'm not a fan, generally, of plants that drop a lot of seeds either. It's a valid warning!

I keep trimming off the oldest leaves, the overall leaf size is starting to shrink. Hoping to make this plant really gnarly & freaky looking.

Fat plants are mainly what I grow.

Also I have a Tailinum caffrum that's slowly coming out of dormancy it has a new growth nub on it right now.

Update pics on the manipulated Talinum paniculatum: