This is a Double Santa that has done this more than once. Getting stubs of seed pods, that never develope. I guess I should do some pollinating the next time she blooms.

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The only flower right now---

If one of them decides to grow think of me for a couple of seeds.

OK!

Doris, looks like this is an old thread, but if your still interested I have quite a few seeds and you would certainly be one of the first I would send some too, just let me know how many you want.

Jim

fooey, I planted a lot last week and they all rotted, I figure too cold. low 70's here

Melissa, I'm going to give it a shot and it's in the mid 60s here. Maybe I can put a heating pad under them during the night and turn it off and put them in the sun around noon. Our cool weather shouldn't last much longer. Do you figure it was the cool temps that did your seeds in? I can't begin to imagine you used the wrong sowing mixture.

Jim

Hi Jim. thank you for the offer but no thanks, I am not starting any more but I am happy to see it got you posting, I have reached that stage too I am afraid, I read all the posts but not answer as much, always good to see you Melissa, I see you often on my Facebook.

LOL, i get E-mails about notifications waiting for me on "facebook" I don't know how I got on it and I never look to see what or who is contacting me on it. Heaven knows it's amazing to me that I can pay bills, read E-males and be on all things plants. I'm satisfied with what little I know about computers. I saw that picture of your skin cancer, hope it's all healed by now and your feeling well. I've had three removed from my back a few years ago. I drunk driver ran over my yard and killed many of my Desert Rose, those that did survive look terrible. Nothing I can do except wait till hot weather and see whats worth trying to save. Years of digging them up and raising them to get that perfect caudex gone in one night. I still have some great ones on my porch which I will probably replace the ones killed.

Jim

OMG, Jim. That's terrible. I'm so sorry to hear about your tragedy. I would be so and depressed if that happened to me after spending the time (years) to grow them to that size as you did. Hoping that you do get to salvage many of them. Give us an update when it warms up.

So sorry to hear Jim! That really sucks!

Oh, bummer, Jim! That's just awful! Booooooooooooo!

I do believe my seeds rotted from the cold, and it's "only" down to 72 here. I want to move someplace tropical, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Melissa do not move here, we had more snow last night, schools closed again, act. temp is -5 wind chill is - 35 staying home a whole week is killing me but I will not drive in this weather,
News just reported a semi just turned over on the interstate just outside of town. snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

Oh well, it gave me a chance to walk the walk not just talk the talk. After a Hugh and cuss filled temper tantrum, I forgave whoever (it occurred at night) they also left me a little dent in my brand new Fiat, but it was the desert rose that made me the most angry, years of lifting and developing the caudexes. But, now, all is right with the world, and in the end all I have to do is a little transplanting and maybe buy another white or two since they wiped out both my white ones. Hey, now I have an excuse to buy white doubles, I just hope I'm given time to get them to have a great caudex. Melissa, I'm with you, I want to move some place tropical.

Jim

I'm so sorry to hear about your whites, Jim. I remember your saying that they were the more floriferous than the others. I know that the one I have is for me. I'd been wanting mainly flowers, but after seeing your caudexes, that's what I want. Bigger caudexes. Now to find out what I need to get some.

Hi Deebie,
If you have a young plant all you have to do is re-plant it once or twice a year raising it about one inch higher then it was originally, it takes a few years, but that's where the pride of having a great caudex comes in. It's the folks (only a few) who know what time and effort you put in to get it.

Jim

Thanks, Jim. Last year I had thoughts of putting my plants in the ground. I'm so glad that I didn't, as we had nearly 2 months of daily rain, with 3 or 4 heavy showers on one day, at times. July and August turned out to be the wettest months on record for SC. Most of my DRs in pots didn't bloom. Even though I used a well draining potting mix, I think it was still too much water for them. And, I'm sure that all that water washed out any fertilizer I gave them. Maybe I should have tried a foliar feed instead.

We had the rainiest December and early January I've experienced in my short twenty some years here on this little island of St. Croix. More than half of my plants went dormant! Never happened before, tho' I've only been growing these buggars for 5 or 6 years, seems like a lifetime.

Deebie, the plants would have been fine if they were on a slope, good drainage is the key.

Jim, I will air-layer a few stems of a big white that Wilfred sent me long ago. It blooms like mad, and I got seed pods, too. I'll send you one in a couple of months.

A fellow named Anucha worked for an adenium nursery in Thailand, and he was repotting every four months!

A nurseryman in India grows huge caudexi caudexes in three years. Lots of food, but he's in a truly tropical, with lots of heat and lots of rich soil.



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We've had the rainiest Dec and Jan, actually all of the fall and all of this year, since I've been coming here (15 years) and definitely since I've been living here (6 years). It's a common subject among those who have been here all their lives so it really is different. I guess if this is what global warming has in store for us it is better than drought, I keep wondering if we will become a true tropics instead of a dry seasonal tropics. My adeniums have not gone dormant but they are all in pots, they have lost a lot of leaves and it may be that the seedlings I think are suffering from the attentions of my male dog are really just getting too much regular rain, not yellow rain.

Melissa, it's weird that I've never given thought to air layering a Desert rose! I've done it on fruit trees, how dumb of me. I guess it got so ingrained in me that caudexes will only come from a seed not a cutting that I never gave air layering consideration I would get a caudex that way right?

Jim

What many folks call a caudex is actually the roots that have tried to imitate potatoes. But then I keep looking up the definition of caudex, plural they say is caudices, and I stay confused. Yes, from a cutting, I've gotten wonderful big lumpy roots. This one could be 'prettier' with better care, ummm... Maybe, at over 150, I have too many plants...
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