The leaves that you are speaking about that where growing off the stem? These leaves will not and do not grow back from those nodes. It will continue to produce new leaves from the terminal bud at top. When you prune it in spring, they usually will produce 2-4 lateral branches off stem. These will begin to grow. The leaves will fall off, but will retain them in situations such as Itran's having lots of natural sunshine most of the year. If the plant becomes etiolated the space between the leaves (internodes) increases and become further apart as they grow. Many unprimed Adeniums have a open branched habit.

I do not intentionally withhold water, I too prefer to keep them moist and fed during the summer growing season, mainly to fatten up the stems. Flowers are a bonus! But it does seem like when I go away for a week or 2 on vacation, or am so busy that I don't have time to water during a particular week, that there is a flush of blooms as soon as I resume watering as usual. It could just be coincidence. I have dozens of obesum seedlings growing now from named hybrids, in the spring I intend on planting them out in the garden and see if I can get increased growth with free root run. There will probably be mainly inferior [flowers] seedlings so I don't mind some experimenting and then having to dig them out and repot in the fall. If I can get 3 or 4 keepers I will be happy. Have you ever tried putting your Adenium out in the "field" for the summer? I have a true soco that I stupidly left too close to a heater that is in my propagation area for the other Adenium, and all the leaves and half the growth tip dried out. The bottom half and the caudex are fine, I anticipate some branching in the summer as a result of this inadvertent pruning. 2 yrs ago I forgot about a Pacypodium lamereii that was left out and got hit with frost in the mid-20's. All the growth points died back, but then in the spring so many branches resulted that right now I may need to cut some back because they are interfering with each other! x

I have a couple dozen DR's, some from seed, others grafted and some purchased as mature plants. When the seedlings are very small I treat them more as tropicals and keep them well watered. After a couple months I allow the soil to dry between waterings. I keep them quite root bound and when I do transplant I raise them up about an inch to expose more of the enlarging caudex. Most of mine go dormant over the winter. I cut way back on watering, just enough to keep the roots from drying out, maybe once every 6-8 weeks but I keep them warmer then my dormant plumerias.

Brrian, you should check out the adenium/desert rose forum. Ltran on there is in Houston and has the most amazing collection of big DRs. I've seen triples offered here and there but never quads. There's a link for a place to order online below. George, I went to Joseph's nursery in Pearland and they had a great selection (in June) of DRs, even doubles. I was told they only bring them into the sales areas when they're blooming though I saw lots of giant ones in cachepots that weren't. Definitely worth a call. Laura, like everything else you grow your DRs are looking fantastic! Here is a link that might be useful: DRs online