New Adenium keeper

Yes, I am a fairly new adenium keeper. I have many plants in the garden now. As with many plant things I got too many plants because I wanted the different varieties and colors, and well, I just didn’t understand what I was getting myself into.

The first thing I chased was the different colors of flowers. I didn’t understand that these were mostly created through hybridization of various plants. So, a business of creating variances in flower shape, colors, and petals in order to sell MORE. I was a newbie and just got new colors.

Have I learned anything yet?

Probably not. I became confused as to why people would graft plants and then sell them instead of just plant the seeds.

Then I searched for books to read to understand things. Mostly the books I found are basic entry books and not well enough detailed or written to learn the specifics about breeding or propagating these plants.

The following is just some of the stuff I am hearing and NOT a definiitive statement that I now know how to do everything with these plants.

Growing from seed?

Well, plants will produce flowers and they get polinated, right? Yep, but a plant producing flowers needs to be polinated by a second plant to produce seed pods. If that other plant is a different type, you have a new variety, a cross, not another plant just like the ones with the seed pods.

Some choose to polinate the flowers by hand. They seem to think this ensures the flower produces seeds that will stay true to the mother plant. I guess when the flowers begin they can be placed into a mesh bag, then hand polinate, then stay in bag and hope the seed pods develope, then I guess the seeds should produce plants the same as the mother.

A lot of work, especially if done in a commercial enterprise. Just not economically sensible I think.

The above shows a 3-pod or triangle pod set.

Grafting

So the next option is forget about the seeds stage and just get anything growing. Once large enough this Adenium becomes a new host plant for grafting. Since the graft is from a know blooming plant segment it will produce flowers just like Mom did.

The issue this presents is that you ahve to have both enough host materials to work with and even more af a challenge is to have enough graftable materials of a wanted strain of plant. This is kind of the commercial area for the Adenium obesum plants and the vareity of colors, shapes, etc.

It isnt just the color of the flower that gets marketed, it is the color of the Caudex, the color of the leaves, ad who know what the next fad will be. below is the DHA Curly. It does have curly leaves and a compact growth that is unique.

Arabicum

Arabicum are another line of plants. Here most of the plants will have simlar flowers in shades of pink, but then the growers are breeding for other traits, Tower, Black Skin, Golden Caudex, blah, blah, blah.

Arabicum are also different enough from Obesum to have a striking appearance of the own merit.

Other options?

Yes, there are. These other plants took my interest completely. They are the natural plants as you might find them in the wild.

This one is supposed to be a natural Somalense. We shall observe it for a time to see.

Now, BUYER BEWARE! You never know what plant you might be getting. I have tried to find the other speices and I think I have done well to try and find some natural plants. Maybe they are not the right species aor true to the species, but I am still going to get them and work with them. Time will tell what I have.

Missing one?

Yes, I am missing the Adenium oliefolium. I am not sure why I can’t find this plant, or how long it might take for me to get some of them to work with, but I WILL keep hunting to get them.

With all of the others now in this garden I think I can spend more time observing and working with the plants and try to learn more.