@jericson22, I apologize, but I took the liberty of downloading and cropping your photos to highlight your variegated Adenium seedling. Here are the two photos, with the oldest first:




I hope this grows into a nice plant for you! It certainly is looking much better now it's developing more chlorophyll.

I currently have five 9-month old seed-grown variegated specimens split between seed from two different pod parents [purchased from Ko of Taiwan]. Here is the largest, my favorite:




It's running smaller than it's fully green siblings due to the reduced chlorophyll, but better than the other four variegated ones. The second two are doing relatively well, but much smaller as they have less chlorophyll. I think the biggest difference is that with the first one the newest tiny leaves already have some chlorophyll, while in the other four the newest leaves are pink/white and develop much more slowly. The leaves with little or no chlorophyll are also more subject to rot.

Here are the next two, very similar to each other but one from each of the two seed packs:



The last two are really struggling. They can't seem to keep leaves long enough to grow, so at nine months are still less than two inches tall with hardly any leaves at all. They keep hanging in there so I haven't given up on them yet!

I may move the last two into a shadier position, as it seemed the variegated plants had more chlorophyll when they received more shade. At least, in the mass planting, the variegated seedlings started really growing and coming into their own when their siblings began to tower over them. Maybe it was just coincidence, but what have I got to lose by experimenting? As it is, it's primarily the chlorophyll in the caudex that's keeping them alive.

Here is my variegated one.

That's really nice, Hetty!

I like the yellow with green and the multiple shades of green.

Mine are all the same as far as color areas are concerned: either green or white, but which I also like. Your's is obviously a different mutation.

I wonder what they would produce if crossed? Most likely a bunch of solid green plants!

yea lack of chlorophyll makes them a slow grower, i dont even know what on earth is variated plants, dunno if its gonna die or not, as you can see on my picture, the other 2 grows faster than her

Hetty, did you grow your variegated Adenium from seed?

jericson - at a small size the variegated do need more TLC and patience. At least for the green/white variety. I don't know if the yellow/green variegation is any more robust.

Anyone had both?

No I bought it.

I have the yellow/green, it has red flowers, too. An OK grower. It's grafted, and just has two long stems with leaves at the top. Not a pretty plant, sigh.

OK, here's my one. I bought it at a local nursery two years ago. It's bloomed once, and has buds now, white single flowers.


Kind of a dumb looking plant! Time to prune, I guess. I stuck a bit of cereus in the pot, that's the green.

It's a shame the variegated ones grow so much slower than the solid green ones, which are already slow-growing compared to other plants. You know they will branch out if you cut them back, but that's so hard to do!

I'm glad mine, for whatever reason, are already multi-branched. I'm thinking if the stems =ever= get long enough to start looking leggy, taking an exacto knife and cutting out just the tip will force side branches but leave the mature leaves to keep feeding the plant. A thought to remember.

Melissa, be sure to post pics when the variegated one blooms.

I'm really curious how the different color flowers look against the variegated foliage. Do they add or detract from the look of the plant?

Add, very much to the beauty of the plant! I will post once it blooms.

I still think of braiding or macrame when these guys get 'leggy'. haha

I tried pinching, but if the plants want to go straight up, they went straight up. Many of the obesums here that are in the ground started branching when they were two feet tall. Others are bushy, but they look like arabicums.

I still think of braiding or macrame when these guys get 'leggy'

@Kaktus how did things turn out with your white Adeniums? I have been awol from the Garden.org site for some time, and just saw your post.

Of the five variegated seedlings I had, the two weakest didn't survive, but the other three all grew into beautiful plants.

I did have a few "albino" seedlings that did not develop chlorophyll. These didn't last long as, not having chlorophyll, they could not feed themselves; they died as soon as they used up the food stored in the seed.

rattlebox said: @Kaktus how did things turn out with your white Adeniums? I have been awol from the Garden.org site for some time, and just saw your post.

Of the five variegated seedlings I had, the two weakest didn't survive, but the other three all grew into beautiful plants.

I did have a few "albino" seedlings that did not develop chlorophyll. These didn't last long as, not having chlorophyll, they could not feed themselves; they died as soon as they used up the food stored in the seed.

Would love to see how your variegated adeniums look like Ron!

Only @Wildbloomers and @Kaktus have variegated adeniums.

All the variegated adenium seeds that I sowed last year didn't make it, all dead because of no chlorophyll.

And thanks to @rattlebox and @GigiPlumeria for tagging my ID in this post, I almost forget to harvest the variegated seed pods.

Just harvested these 2 variegated seed pods, they are cracked open but wet because of 3 days raining on and off.
Get 10 and 17 seeds out of them, all wet, let them air dry. Will try to sow them again next month.

Kaktus said: All the variegated adenium seeds that I sowed last year didn't make it, all dead because of no chlorophyll.

And thanks to @rattlebox and @GigiPlumeria for tagging my ID in this post, I almost forget to harvest the variegated seed pods.

Just harvested these 2 variegated seed pods, they are cracked open but wet because of 3 days raining on and off.
Get 10 and 17 seeds out of them, all wet, let them air dry. Will try to sow them again next month.

I was just going to ask you if your variegated seedpods ripened.

@Kaktus I know that this may be too late but it may not be a good idea to let those seeds dry out. If they've been wet for three days they may have initiated germination and if you interrupt that process it may not restart. If they were mine I'd sow them immediately. Or, as a learning/teaching tool, sow half now and let the other half dry. See which way gives better results.

Wildbloomers said: @Kaktus I know that this may be too late but it may not be a good idea to let those seeds dry out. If they've been wet for three days they may have initiated germination and if you interrupt that process it may not restart. If they were mine I'd sow them immediately. Or, as a learning/teaching tool, sow half now and let the other half dry. See which way gives better results.

That explains what happened to my long beautiful seedpod on my dwarf adenium that was full of tiny seeds*. The seedpod was wet and I dried it but not a single seed sprouted when I tried to germinate them.

Wildbloomers said: @Kaktus I know that this may be too late but it may not be a good idea to let those seeds dry out. If they've been wet for three days they may have initiated germination and if you interrupt that process it may not restart. If they were mine I'd sow them immediately. Or, as a learning/teaching tool, sow half now and let the other half dry. See which way gives better results.

Aaarrhh... Thanks a lot, I did not aware of those at all.. I have just sowed all of the seeds, hope they are ok. They are not completely dried yet, as today is cloudy 3 to 4 hours do not make them completely dry. Thanks.

GigiPlumeria said: Would love to see how your variegated adeniums look like Ron!

Only @Wildbloomers and @Kaktus have variegated adeniums.

I"ll have to see if I have any older photos. I have almost three acres of two-year neglect (compliments of a position change at work), much of it needing urgent attention. Unfortunately, an unexpected cold spell one night this past winter cost me one of the variegated Adeniums (among many other things).

Luckily a few months ago my daughter and her husband opened an axe-throwing bar, and brought me in to help manage the venue. I now have a lot more time for daytime home projects. But my Adeniums are all looking rough right now.

One suggestion I will make re: variegated adeniums; give them some protection from intense full sun, at least here in southern Florida.

As with variegated Hibiscus, more sun means smaller, whiter leaves (less chlorophyll) and more stunted growth; less sun means larger leaves with more green and more lush growth, but with reduced blooming. A happy medium is needed.