This desert rose is extremely important to my aunt, and i need to know very soon if i can cut off, what appears to be rot, (cover the cut with cinnamon, unpot it, hang it to dry a bit, repot it), and someone please tell me if it'll grow back..
It is about 11yrs old, it came from my aunt's son's funeral, we live in Southeast Texas, but she moved with it to Utah for almost a year, and the desert rose Did Not Appreciate it.. It was then left in the care of 3 teenagers for a couple months, until it arrived to me, back in Texas today. The caudex looks great still, and i swear for all the years I've seen it, it's been lush and vibrant, full of limbs leaves and blooms.. Til now. - Someone please tell me what to do. Ty.

You have the right idea. Slowly make cuts until you find normal tissue. I hope there is some! You can do the rest of the things you mentioned. I have done that. It takes a long time for the plant to recover, but if there is good tissue left, you can probably have it back to growing nicely by next summer. Good luck with it. It does have a very nice caudex. These are very special plants!

Thank you so much, esp for the quick reply. I'm fearing that every moment longer it's left like that, the less chance it has of being Ok again. Could you possibly tell me how i should keep it in plant icu after plant surgery? Should it be in full shade, partial sun, inside, outside? Should i do anything to the root system when i repot it besides cut off anything squishy? Like should I sprinkle a little rooting hormone on the roots just to give it a little kick start? I'm good with a multitude of plants, but ive heard these guys can be Quite Fickle. I'm a bit worried im going to do something slightly wrong and push it over the edge. Any advice on how i should keep it while it recovers?

Also, please tell me what type of potting mix should it be in? I'm going to Lowe's in the morning to get stuff for it and I'm not for sure what to get, ive read alot of different ideas on what they should be in. Everything from clay mix to perlite mix to cactus substrate..

A mix of half organic, half rock ought to work. So regular potting soil with an equal volume of perlite/pumice/gritty equivalent mixed in ought to work fine. Do not water right after potting your plant up, wait a week minimum. Keep your plant on the dry side for the foreseeable future. Do not water deeply on a regular basis until you see new growth on top (which realistically might be next year). Strong light is important but lots of direct overhead sun would not be helpful. Bright shade or filtered light is probably ideal when a plant is in this extreme a degree of crisis. I do not think the odds are great but I also believe one should never give up prematurely. Skip the rooting hormone, avoid fertilizer. Just cut away the soft parts until you see clean, healthy tissue, and allow cuts with a big cross section plenty of time to heal before you expose them to soil.

I am going to move this thread to the Adenium forum where hopefully you should get more specialist advice.

pull the plant from the pot and knock off potting media from around the root ball

inspect the now cleaned roots ....they should be white & firm - but not shriveled and squishy ....

Next ....remove any roots that are shriveled or squishy - cut back to solid "wood" ....removing any mushy parts

before the plant is re-potted / watered ....the cut areas must harden, "callus over" (dry out) ....this will take about 5-14 days (depending on local humidity)

next ....amend your potting soil to make it more "rocky" or "gritty" .....by adding coarse sand, pebbles & rocks .. this will improve drainage

New growth should reappear once the plant re-adjusts - be patient - as adeniums seem to take forever to re-adjust

Ty so much. Right now its 8.20am is 77 degrees and is 91% humidity. Where I live it's nearly always really hot and really sticky outside. I'm going to the store after i finish coffee and get all the medium i need. Should i get a new slightly larger pot for it? I read they like being in a pot not too much larger than the caudex. I'll keep y'all posted on how it goes. Everyone say a pray for it.

the pot it is in is ok ....but I might suggest a terra cotta azalea pot ....perhaps a 6 or 8" diameter

for summer months outdoors you do not need a dish under the pot

This is what's transpired.. Please tell me it'll come back from this.

I am thinking it will make it ....

let the cuts heal over.... pot it up ....

watering -

watch daytime outdoor temperatures

highs in the 70's to 80's, water plants every 10 to 14 days ...
highs in the 90's water once every 5 to7 days .....
highs 100+ water once every 3 to 5 days

While that information is helpful, I would caution against following somebody else's watering schedule for these plants. The actual timing will depend on the soil type, the size and type of pot, the exposure, and the state of growth of the plant. Compare the schedule above to mine (50% pumice, limiting pot, full outdoor sun):

highs in the 60s and 70s (most of the year here): water every 3-4 days when in leaf or every 7 days when leafless or nearly so

A seasonal adjustment is important, and the key thing is that the soil should not go completely dry for any extended period during active growth. To repeat: I do not recommend you follow my watering schedule (our climate is incredibly mild), this is just to give some idea of the variation in how different people treat their plants.

Well, where I am, it's about 60mi from the Gulf of Mexico, and our weather is flipping crazy. It'll be low of 60s at night one day with a high in the 80s then high of the 80s the next night with highs over 100 the next (in Jan. Then in May) sometimes in winter it'll be 17 degrees in the morning and snow and then 2 days later be a high of 80s during the day. They say we only have 2 seasons in Texas - Summer and Winter and they're usually in the same week. It's -always- humid here. Right now its 8.40am and its 80 degrees with 87% humidity. Everyday's different the only constant is its normally hot and really sticky outside. I have a few questions now. I got all the rot off, i cinnamoned it, i hung it, and i bought everything from Lowe's above mentioned that i might need. I got a terracotta pot about the same size of the pot it was in, a smidge larger bc the only other terra pots they had were either Way too small, or Way too big.. I figure i can just put a fair layer of the pumice on the bottom and call it even. The root system on it is quite long tho, i also didn't want to smush it where it had 0 room to grow. I got perlite, reg Miracle grow potting mix, "red lava rock" which I'll have to smack a little bit, and they didnt have any variety of "coarse sand" to speak of, so i had to get this fancy pants "beach sand" which is a nice large gauge grit. Do i water the adenium after i repot it, since it has to hang out to dry first? Like i said - its rly hot here.. Also, how do i know when it callouses over? I sprinkled that part i cut with cinnamon too. Didnt figure it could hurt. And semi-unrelated question: On the terra pot, since im waiting for the adenium to dry out.. Can i paint it? It's quite large, and rather... Bland. I read alot last night about the adeniums liking the terra bc its porous and helps to dry them out, but the pot it was in for years was plastic, would it really make too much of a diff if i sealed the pot and painted the outside? Does the acrylic sealer on the inside have any effect on the plant? Chemical wise? I have too many questions. Im sorry. Thanks again.

Omg. I think i did something wrong. I cut sprinkled and hung that adenium yesterday, and there are these tiny white patches of what look like some fine fuzzy mold ontop of the cinnamon on the cut base. Help!

Sorry, picture:






Is it the humidity? Should i cut a thin layer more off of it, and let it dry w/o the cinnamon on it? What did i do wrong?

I hung it under an overhang where it wouldn't get direct sun, and it would get alot of airflow.. Oh crap. I hung it outside after i cut it yesterday, but i was worried it would get covered in dew and the wind might smack it around, so i brought it inside.. Where it's mighty cold. The extreme change caused it to sweat and the moisture caused the mold. I did it :O I failed you desert rose.. What do i do now?

you're good ..

that "whiteness" is just the "sap" from living tissue that's "wetting the cinnamon" .....am sure those white spots will continue - and will get larger ...all's good

it will take awhile for the cuts to "harden" ...you will see a visible change ...looks a little like a "dried transparent film"

yeah you can paint terra-cotta ...but if using traditional paint-and-bucket type paint is used, ya might mess up the "drying" properties of terra-cotta .....

spray paint will work - look into: "textured spray paint" or "fleck spray paint"

It was fuzzy like mold, not so much sappy, but I'll take your word for it. You seem to know what ur talking about lol. Also, I have boat loads of Acrylics. I do alot of painting and craft stuffs. Can i seal the inside? I dont want to paint the inside, i just didn't want the moisture from watering leeching thru over time and cause the paint to come off. Or would this be one of those plants, that since they dont appreciate too much moisture, wouldnt get wet enough to peel my paint? And BIG question.. Your name suggests ur from the south, you must understand the heat and humidity.. Im worried that while the stem is callousing over, the roots will suffer greatly. Should i pot up the adenium and -not- water it til the stem callouses over, just to protect them from the elements?

if I had tons of paint ...I wouldn't paint adenium pots ...because it would defeat the purpose of the properties of terra-cota pots ...... painting would "seal" the surface, so no moisture could escape ...
and ya really want moisture to escape ....

adenium do not like wet feet ...and may die because of it ....you want super fast draining soils

adenium is one of those plants that have 2 seasons ...wet & dry .... the summer months are the "wet" season and the winter months are the "dry" season .....
in short, in the summer months you want to water like a tropical plant (alot of water) and in the winter months water like a cactus (barely any water)

yeah I know southern weather .... hot & humid right now ...rain predicted everyday this week ...90's this weekend ...with maybe a sea-breeze

no you do not want to pot up your plant just yet ...wait a few days - let those cuts harden over ...it is important that the new cuts do not contact wet potting media .... that will make your problem worse if not out-right kill the plant - the plant as is, can survive awhile by taking resources it needs out of its caudex ....

in the meantime ....mix up your potting media in a tub or something ....get it nice and gritty or super chunky

Will it get dew on it hanging under an overhang? Should i be worried about the possibility of dew anyways? I dont feel like bringing it in from hot and humid into cold AC, would be all too great for the plant having that extreme temp change. It's also scheduled to rain Sun. thru the foreseeable weather forecast. What do i do with it then? And can i leave it outside hanging overnight too? I mean, will it be ok with possibly getting dew on it? Im sorry i have so many questions. I have -alot- of plants. Tropical, native, flowering, edibles, carnivorous, etc. But ive never had one of these, and its in rough shape, and it is quite special to my aunt so i dont wanna off it. I'm even pretty good at growing things from cuttings.. So I'm kind of nervous with this plant, i know over thinking it is never a good thing, which is why im asking so many things.