I do have a question. My 2 year old Adenium bloomed happily March thru May. I pripuned it back a month or so ago to get a better shape. It now has lots of new growth and I have put it in a sunnier spot.
Do you think it might bloom again this season. I am in SW FL. So it's hot and sunny here.

It could. I recommend a bit of fertilizer at this stage.

I'm happy to say that I reduced the watering of my adeniums and put them on sunnier spot and now both my red and pink have buds.

Cindi, most likely they will bloom again. My A. obesum are right now budding up and about to start their second flush of blooms this year. There is plenty of active growing season left for yours to bloom again.

FWIW, I try to never let my Adeniums go dry. The soil drains well, but I try to keep it always moist, even during winter. As long as they are growing and have healthy green leaves, I keep them watered. And the flip side to this is, by always keeping them watered they always have healthy green leaves (and are growing). Mine never go dormant, although of course they do grow more slowly in cool weather than in hot.

I have to protect them from our frosts and from really cold weather (under 40°F) during winter, but I will also get blooms during winter. Not as heavy as spring and summer, but hey, I'm not turning any blooms down!

ive been trying to find out how often adeniums flower, mines in bloom now, we have one more month of spring left then we hit summer and where i live it gets very hot and humid. this is my first adenium to flower just the pink picotte but it looks stunning but i have no idea how often they flower.

A lot depends on your climate, how large the plants are, and how you take care of them.

In a hot, dry climate, A. obesums will go dormant unless kept well watered. Same is true with chilly, dry winters. (Cold, wet weather may cause root rot.) Our winters here in southwest Florida are mild, with lows in mid 50's and high's in mid to upper 70's°F, and as I mentioned above, I don't let my Adeniums dry out even during our dry season, so they never go dormant.

My large Adeniums range 3-4' tall above the soil line and are multi branched. All stems don't start budding at the same time, so the flush of blooms lasts quite a while. I have noticed that by the time the last buds are spent, the plant is almost ready to start budding up again. Sometimes by the time the slowest stems to bud are finally blooming, the earliest ones are developing buds again. If the plant is small with only one or two stems, the bloom cycle will seem relatively short, with longer periods between blooming.

There is a very large potted Adenium at Busch Gardens in the Tampa area, the plant being maybe 5-6' tall and 4-5' wide. I'm not a frequent visitor, but I've never seen it out of bloom.

I do know that with my plants, a surprise temp drop at or below 40°F, or a period of sequential daily rains with high humidity will cause the buds and many leaves to drop. I should add, that during winter or spring, when humidity is low here, rains do not necessarily cause bud-drop. But if the buds can't dry out fairly quickly, they will die.

Sorry I don't have a more definitive answer to give, but hope this helps anyway.

I agree with all you have said, Ron, and my adeniums behave exactly as you have described.

rattlebox said:My large Adeniums range 3-4' tall above the soil line and are multi branched. All stems don't start budding at the same time, so the flush of blooms lasts quite a while. I have noticed that by the time the last buds are spent, the plant is almost ready to start budding up again. Sometimes by the time the slowest stems to bud are finally blooming, the earliest ones are developing buds again. If the plant is small with only one or two stems, the bloom cycle will seem relatively short, with longer periods between blooming.

@christines, I am guessing you live in Australia? I would love to see pictures of your one-year-old babies, as well as those you acquired recently that are flowering now.

Kadie

@rattlebox
Ron, someone from another site said in so many words that there are male and female adeniums (in other words, adeniums are dioecious). I have never heard this claim before. I have always thought them to be monoecious, though they are not self-pollinating and need human or insect intervention to pollinate.

Pray tell, what info or reference source might you have to enlighten on this matter. I have looked and looked and cannot find anything that indicates a differentiation between male and female flowers.

Thanks--Kadie

Hi, Kadie!

As it happens, Adeniums are neither monoecious nor dioecious. Monoecious plants, such as corn, have separate male and female flowers on the same plant. Dioecious plants, such as holly, have separate male plants and female plants. Adenium flowers are perfect, meaning both male and female reproductive parts are contained within the same flower.

Images can be found here: https://adeniumlove.wordpress.... along with instructions for manually pollinating.your Adeniums.

I'd also like to take a moment and address the term "self-pollinating". This term is generally used to indicate a plant type either will or will not readily produce seed without outside intervention. But I think it is important to note that just because a plant does not self-pollinate does not necessarily mean it cannot produce viable seed from pollen from the same plant. Most plant types will accept their own pollen and produce fully viable seed, but there are those that will not. I can't think of an immediate example, but there are plants that require the pollen donor to be genetically distinct.

So in that sense, although Adeniums do not auto self-pollinate, they can be manually self-pollinated.

Aha! Ron, thank you so much for this info...this is so enlightening and it makes perfect sense to me. Please, may I quote you but leave your name out?

It just so happens that about an hour ago before my post, I read the link you referred above and starred it on my favorites bar. But the article did not address the male/female issue and that is why I begged for your enlightenment.

So very grateful to you for sharing your knowledge!

Kadie

Kadie, the first photo in the article referenced the pollen and the "receptive surface". The pollen of course is male; the receptive surface is the female part.

Here is another excellent article, with better photos: https://groups.google.com/foru...

David of Venezuela, the author of this last article, states in the article that "Most Adeniums are self sterile and will not set a seed pod if self pollinated". I defer to David, as he has much more knowledge of and experience with Adeniums than I. Guess I had just been lucky with my limited experience.

I since found it much easier to just order seed from Ko of Taiwan than worry with producing them myself. Plus the genetic diversity available is awsome.

Hi Ron,

My brain must have continued working as I was sleeping because the first thought that came to mind when I awoke was pollen and receptive surface. I am not into hybridizing...just experimenting with pollinating.

Again thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Kadie