Desert Rose

We are back in the deep freeze again.  Sunday the temperature was in the upper 40's.  Snow melt water was running everywhere and we had "avalanches" coming off the steel roof all day long.  This morning, the actual temperature is minus 7 degrees and with wind chill, it feels like nearly 30 below.  Brrrr.  Still no outdoor gardening around here.

Another plant that spends time outdoors as long as temperatures don't drop below 50 degrees and the rest of the time in the four season patio is my Desert Rose (Adenium obesum) plant.  It is a deciduous plant that hangs on to its leaves until December, then finally yields to the short number of daylight hours and loses most, if not all, of its leaves until spring.  Even without leaves, Desert Rose is an interesting plant, with its swollen, elephant foot like stems.  In the spring, it will develop clusters of narrow, oval, bright green leaves and finally burst into a mass of bright red flowers that nearly cover the plant. 

Desert Rose is a succulent and needs to be watered moderately.  In the winter, when the plant is nearly dormant, I water once a month or less.  If the stems begin to look shriveled or feel softer, it is time to water.  In the summer, it needs to be watered to maintain a consistent soil moisture, but never any standing water.  This is a plant that if you are going to err in the way you water, it better be on the side of not watering.  Too much water will cause the roots and the bulbous stems to rot. 

Desert Rose prefers a well-drained, sandy and slightly acidic potting mix.  If the potting mix contains peat, it probably is going to have that slightly acidic formulation, so this isn't something I really worry about.  Fertilizing with a 10-10-10 fertilizer is generally sufficient, but when I want to foster more blossoms, I give it some high phosphate fertilizer, such as a 10-50-10 mix. 

It requires full sun, so indoors it is right next to the west windows.  As the weather begins to warm, I gradually acclimate it to the outdoors by first moving it outside to a shaded, sheltered area and increasing its exposure to the sun each day until I finally get it into a full sun location.  This is also a time when I prune off any leggy, scraggly stems.  This pruning fosters development of more buds.  Then I can sit back and watch the glorious bloom show.