Hi folks.
My wife has a desert rose and loves it. She's had it for about 11 years. I think I once pulled it out of its pot and trimmed the roots (like a bonsai), but that was a long time ago. It is now very leggy and doesn't have many flowers on its sparse little branches. I think that our cleaning lady over watered it.

My thought is to saw off the top and then trim the roots in the caudex and repot it. My question, other than is this an insane plan, is could I cut three or four of the small branches and try to grow them as new plants? Will they root? Should I root them in water? Do I need rooting powder? I've handled lots of plants, but I'm not acquainted with adenium obsesum.
David

A picture would help

But to answer a few of your questions ... its not insane to cut the top out of any plant ...
could raise the entire plant higher within the old pot ...say an inch or so....this will expose more roots ...giving it that bonsai look

Yes branches can be rooted, seldom worth the trouble, because rooted branches will never develop the fat caudex, that A.obesum is known for ...

BigAppleRoseGuy said:Hi folks.
My wife has a desert rose and loves it. She's had it for about 11 years. I think I once pulled it out of its pot and trimmed the roots (like a bonsai), but that was a long time ago. It is now very leggy and doesn't have many flowers on its sparse little branches. I think that our cleaning lady over watered it.

My thought is to saw off the top and then trim the roots in the caudex and repot it. My question, other than is this an insane plan, is could I cut three or four of the small branches and try to grow them as new plants? Will they root? Should I root them in water? Do I need rooting powder? I've handled lots of plants, but I'm not acquainted with adenium obsesum.
David

Please check out my post. I did exactly that and I have had great success. The cuttings are very healthy and growing quickly.
Cheers!
The thread "Cuttings" in Adeniums forum

My mother has a 10+ year old adenium that was originally purchased in a pot. She eventually planted it in her garden and it has been growing unattended for about 8 years. Here is my adventure in uprooting, repotting and taking a few cuttings to grow.

This past March 2019 I decided to remove the Adenium from its permanent home (In the ground), cut the roots and caudex and pot it. I also took a few cuttings. Check out this post: The thread "Cuttings" in Adeniums forum

1. I carefully removed the plant from the ground.

2. A good portion of the caudex was below ground.

3. Trimmed off all the small roots and cut the caudex to be flat

4. Pruned back the branches heavily. Looking back, I should have trimmed more...

5. Applied cinnamon powder to all cut areas to reduce chances of rot and fungus and placed it in a shaded/covered area of the back yard for 10 days to dry out and heal


Planting Day!
I decided to pot the plant in a shallow terracotta bowl (since I am interested in root training). The pot I chose had one single hole in the middle so I drilled four more drain holes.

1. Potting Mix: 40% Garden Soil, 40% Coarse Silica Sand (6-20 grade), 20% Perlite

2. Applied Rooting hormone to the base of the dried caudex

3. Positioned the plant and tied it down for stability with "electrical wire" LOL (It's all we could find)


The newly planted adenium was placed in a partially shaded, covered area for about two weeks watering sparsely every 3 days.
We watched and watched for weeks looking for signs of life or new growth. Finally, after about a month and a half (late April/early May), we started seeing tiny green buds emerging from the ends of the cut branches (sorry, no pictures of this). Once we saw the buds, we increased the watering's to 3 times a week. Each of the cut branches has now produced two new branches and it seems like they grow daily. The plant is doing phenomenally and has even produced a few flowers. We keep it in a covered porch to protect it from the South Florida downpours. It is taken out to full sun daily and we have reduced the watering to every 4-5 days.

I plan on repotting yearly and will try to train the radial roots so the plant can be lifted a couple of inches each year. Next potting, I will cut back the branches even more… It's too tall and I want to produce a nice canopy to give it a "bonsai" look.

I am currently working with a couple of adeniums that friends own trying to hand pollinate. I have seen a few videos with different methods. If it work out and I get a seed pod, I'll post the steps I followed and the progress.

Cheers!

March 2019:


Aug 3, 2019

Good job.