My arabicum seedling. The base starting to have buds.



Picture of my niece's arabicum rooted cutting, The top cutting is healthy and growing but no buds yet.



Please feel free to post pictures of your beautiful arabicum desert roses here.

Hybrid, perhaps arabicum (fuzzy big leaves):






First time to bloom, hybrid desert rose seedling.




Blooms are large:

@deepsouth, I just realized that arabicum entry is under its marketing name "fat guy" synonym "arabicum".

So I uploaded "Bulboso" there:


I will also transfer Bulboso's picture there.

Since Bulboso is an inside adenium, I converted it totally to "Leca" grown and will have the same feeding schedule as my orchids.

@GigiPlumeria, in here usually Leca is used for water plant in a glass, or used for toppings of indoor plant... Maybe it's too expensive and considered a waste if let them burried inside the pot.

Kaktus said:@GigiPlumeria, in here usually Leca is used for water plant in a glass, or used for toppings of indoor plant... Maybe it's too expensive and considered a waste if let them burried inside the pot.

It is quite expensive here too but they are reusable. I only have a handful of indoor plants because we don't like any kind of dirt inside the house that can bring fungus or gnats. I'm using it as an experiment to see if I can grow them successfully like an orchid.

@deepsouth, are these arabicum? How are these two doing?


I love this set up!


I uploaded my Arabicum here, since I read that is the nickname of Arabicum.

Desert Rose (Adenium obesum 'Fat Guy')

There is not a lot of Arabicum photos here and I know you have a lot of Arabicums.

No, not Arabicum ...the bigger of the two is Big Mama ....she is a regular ole Adenium obesum

the smaller of the 2 plants died ....because Big Mamas roots took over, choking it out ..leaving it high and dry (one of the few that root rot didnt get) ...then a year or so later - Big Mama broke that pot and she got a new place all to herself ...she broke that one too

as for Arabicum ....I tried starting entries as/for "Adenium arabicum" ...but was turned down ...because "Arabicum" is a Synonym ...not a different species according to some

A. arabicum leaves have about the same shape as your picture....but are very different in texture and color ....the texture more like supple leather - and color - light dull green, like that of Lima beans ....not gloss green
the caudex is also "stumpier" more squat ....a more white

Have had a very hard time capturing those differences in pictures .... but in person those differences are night and day

Yes. I was also denied the "Arabicum" entry because it is synonym of "obesum".

However, I learned from one that sells arabicum that they market it as either "arabicum" or "fat guy".

Yes, this one I have was identified by the store employee as "arabicum" leaves are huge but dull and had fuzzy feel. It does look shiny in this photo though. I was shown the comparison. I was warned that this will not stay in the small pot it came with for long. And true enough this is now on its second pot and looks like it will need a bigger pot soon.

@deepsouth would love to see your arabicum in the "fat guy" entry including photos of leaves, caudex, blooms etc.

It would also be nice to see a documentary of them as seedlings and how fast they grow. Some of the mystery seeds that hubby sent me was supposedly mixed with arabicum but they all look obesum to me. All leaves are shiny with no hair fuzzy feel and not dull looking.

posted most of my A arabicum plants under the Database entry: Adenium obesum subsp. obesum .....

deepsouth said: posted most of my A arabicum plants under the Database entry: Adenium obesum subsp. obesum .....

Yes, I've seen them but so hard to browse through tons of photos. I like big Momma Obesum. She looks elegant to me!

Big Mama over the years

Wow! How old is she now and how often do you prune her?

around 20 years old

she gets a haircut every now and then .... maybe this year, maybe not

Wow! 20 years is amazing! You must really be good "desert roses parent".

I've had my original 5 dessert roses (now 4 only because I gave one to my neighbor) for 9 years by next month, May. But judging by the size of their caudex when I got them they may have been over 3 years old already. So I am guessing that they will be 12 years old this May. They had been neglected and had been pruned twice only. I will try not to repot them this year since i almost killed two last year from root rot.

a repot and raise every two to three years makes a world or difference .....

deepsouth said: a repot and raise every two to three years makes a world or difference .....

I will keep that in mind.
I have close to 70 now excluding seedlings so that's a lot of repotting.

a "repot", makes plants "take-off" in growth ....

a "raise", will keep plants in the same pot longer ...

deepsouth said: a "repot", makes plants "take-off" in growth ....

a "raise", will keep plants in the same pot longer ...

I will just raise not repot.

raise an adenium



over about 20 years .... only lifting 1 to 2" in height every 2 to 3 years

the area within the neon green lines is roughly the same area