Rob, at some point they will. Which is annoying. ;-)

Stuart, btw, so far 1 out of 9 multiflorum seeds from Kakteen Köhres and 5 out of 9 obesum seeds have germinated. After 3 days.

Time will tell if the multiflorum seeds acutally turn out to be real multiflorums. I'll keep you updated if you like. :-)

Martin yes. We all loves your plants so keep posting updates. The black somalenses were sown on april 12, 2016. Not all will turn black skin Kesorn said on his website.

Hi Stuart and Martin.

I want to ask each of you. How deep (if at all) do you plant your seeds?

Rob

Rob. Not more than 5 mm deep and do not compact the soil to much. i am using river sand and universal potting soil 1:1. Sprinkle some soil on them until you don't see the seeds anymore.

Obesum Update
I transplanted this tree (from May 2015, about 11.5 months old) to a 1 gallon/3.8 liters Smart Pot:

I hope that this will be the first of my own seed-grown trees with truely remarkable flowers. ;-) When it finally decides to bloom, that is...

And some more seedlings for sale...

What kind are they?

Rob

Arabicum 'Kaset' to the left (the one with the large leaves). The rest is arabicum 'RCN'.

Arabicum 'RCN' Update

2015-09-15:

2016-04-08:

Next step in the training is to wire the tree and get those branches under control...

Good work Martin. I have just place an order for Kaset and PNW from Kesorn.

Hard to believe the 1st photo is the same plant. Cool!

Rob

Part V already, Martin?! I have those pots too. It never occurred to me to use that lip to wire things in position until I saw that last pick. Shiny!

Pagan

I love the plants, and those pots!

Martin, do you find that the arabicums flex eaiser? I am kind of leery to use wire . To tie them sounds quick. My tree from Rinoa is a mini and has crazy bend branches. All facing down and on top of each other. I won't tie it up till it is growing again. It is hard to wait for Spring and new growth. I am always watching them.

I love a lot of you big thick caudex's and can't wait to see the change like in yours.

Arabicum 'Yemen' and 'RCN'

Two fat buddies (about 8 and 11.5 months old respectively). ;-) Don't ask me why the left branch of the 'RCN' is so thick compared to the others...

OFF-TOPIC: Operculicarya decaryi Update

The succulent species originates from Madagascar but it is not related to adeniums. I just wanted to show you the progress of my little gem:

2005-05-26 (seed sown):

2016-01-09 (check out the twisted swollen roots!) :

Oh Man! Are you going to re-expose the roots later on down the road? I'm a big Nebari fan.

Rob

Rob, oh yes. ;-) The tree will be raised again but I will let it grow another year before raising it and training it.

Nice plant - and roots! What is it? Some kind of Ficus?

Cleaned out one of my tents today. It took like forever! Once again stuffed with my own seed-grown adeniums (and one pachypodium):

Martin - It' a "Serissa Japonica" (Tree of a Thousand Stars). I have six more I'm doing the same thing to.

Your tree will look awesome in 1-3 more years. :-)

Rob

Martin. Is this the same plant? the one in the front was een air layering from the big one. The big plant was a bonsai plant but i am planning to propagate more from air layering. I nevet saw swollen roots on the plant.

Stuart, nice plants but these are probably legumes, plants in the botanical familiy Fabaceae. Operculicarya decaryi grows thick roots from early on. Even tiny seedlings have a bulberous root. And the gnarly bark is another characteristic of the species.

Martin. Zanthoxylum beecheyanumChinese Pepper, Sichuan Pepper

http://guide.makebonsai.com/bonsai_species_guide_training.asp?SpeciesID=5006&name=Zanthoxylum_beecheyanum

Here it was in a bonsai pot.

That link say's they only get about one meter tall. Yours look's like an air layer from a much larger, or very old plant. :-)

Hmm, produce's peppercorns. Chinese Coriander. (Wiki)

Rob

Spring has come and I moved some of my adeniums outside. 70F/20C is not much but thanks to my Vitopod, the adeniums love it "outside". ;-) It's pretty hot inside the box:

Oohhh, you can just keep adding sections to make it taller? That's cool.

Rob

Rob, yes. ;-) The Temperature hit 75F today - and I forgot all about the Vitopod in the sun and my adeniums inside! The temperature inside the box was way over 120F and the seedlings were being cooked slowly. Fortunately the majority of them did not get any visible damage. Only a few adeniums and my Pachypodium horombense got a few scorched leaves.

A similar thing happened in one of my prop trays today too!?lol

Rob

Both grown under LED light, about 12 months old:

The Adenium arabicum 'Yak Lop Buri' ('YLB') to the left has slowed down growth even though it is still under lights. I think it is going dormant. Something which cannot be stopped by cultural means.

The Pachypodium saundersii on the right is growing happily under lights and has fattened up nicely the past weeks.

Adenium arabicum 'RCN', about 12 months old:

Time to rest and recreate. I put these mostly yearlings in the basement, a small selection of arabicums, somalenses, an obesum and a Pachypodium saundersii:

Awesome Martin! You have achieved fantastic results. I can hardly believe that the RCN, YLB and the pachy are only 12 months old, they're all so huge and well developed, then theirs the basement gang....words fail me. Those shallow pots are very nice to, they really do set off these plants to their very best don't they? They're much more suited to their general form than the regular tall pots.

I am hoping to go to the huge garden show at Birmingham's NEC centre in June, I will be keeping my eyes peeled for Adeniums in any shape or form. I did spot a single diminutive obesum specimen several visits ago, but the price was way out of my league for the size of the thing...so I may come back with just some seeds...we will see!

Gill UK

Gill, thank you for your comment. I appreciate it.

The large somalense to the left is the only one older than 1 year. I revived it after maybe 10 years stuck and neglected in a too small container. I almost forgot all about it in the past years.

The heated grow tents and LED light have really done wonders here. The only real downside is the power consumption and the electricity bill. About 60 GBP monthly! So a few weeks ago, I decided to shut down my largest tent with 2 LED units. This has reduced the bill to about 20 GBP.

Let us know if you find something of interest! We do have garden shows here but pachycaul and caudiciform plants are pretty much absent. But honestly, I do not mind. I prefer to grow my own from seeds anyway.

EDIT: I like the pots, too. They are hand-made from the botanical garden in Copenhagen. They are a bit pricy but I think they are worth every penny (eh, "øre").

Yes, I will certainly let you know if I come across any. Off to finish painting the pergola now as we are having a sunny day or too....finally! I have so many jobs to do, everything now takes one person twice as long. Hope the weather in Denmark is good too....lots of free light and heat for our treasures. I was somewhat surprised as to the running cost of the tent, way out of my league now....I packed in work last week, need to spend more time with my lovely family, they are much more important to me than bacon butties!

Gill UK

Gill, yes, we have nice warm weather again. Up til 25C. Once again I am cooking adenium seedlings outside in my Vitopod. ;-)

Electricity usage is expensive in Denmark (like everything else).

Yes, do spend more time with your family. I was away for 3 days, visiting a dear friend of mine with his family and afterwards I attended the wedding of my dearest friend. The rural surroundings there were so beautiful, almost like in the UK (you know, I am big sucker for everything British, especially the countryside ;-) )!

That does look English, speaking from my vast experience looking at pictures of the English countryside.

My interest is graveyards though. The husband keeps talking about this particular one in Copenhagen except the only detail he can remember are the topless people sunbathing there.

Gill, I want to see your pergola! We have an out-of-topic thread for just such things!

PPagan

Haha, Pagan. ;-) I do not know about the outside world, but in Copenhagen a graveyard is a kind of recreational place. A perfect place for sunbathing, strolls, reading etc. However, I do not recall seeing any topless people there. ;-)

He said it's the one right across where he lived on a street whose name roughly translates to "North city street", at which point he produced a sound that vaguely reminded me of an old goat whose neck got caught in a tangle of bogainvillas.

Assistens, he now recalls. lol I love taking pictures of graveyards!

@Pagan, pergola pic perhaps tomorrow on the OT thread. That view does look very reminiscent of the countryside over here....'green and pleasant'. as the song goes, well, mostly! Apologies Martin for going OT here :/

Gill UK

Obesum Update

Both are about 1 year old now (seeds sown in May last year):

Btw, the buds are dark pink. The flowers will probably just be of the standard obesum kind. :-/

After a break, the "Golfball Obesum" decided to start growing again. It has several branches on the base/caudex and apical branches, too. Never trained:

Martin. Are you sure your Golfball is a obesum?

Stuart, yes. Or a hybrid with plenty of obesum genes. ;-)

Interesting. These plants basically never or hardly ever shed their early leaves. Their trunks grow as normal but are basically still peppered with them. Given enough light, heat and nutrients, I suppose there is no need to ever drop a leaf since the plant is able to support it.

If you ever repot these, Martin, would you mind showing us the roots?

Pagan

Pagan, yes, some obesum hybrids are evergreen under such conditions. The one in the first photo has never shed a single leaf (I removed a few near the caudex myself).

The one in the second photo has shed maybe 5 leaves in total. Probably a drought response (I forgot to water the plant).

I do not plan to repot them anytime soon but something is clearly "going on" inside the Smart Pots. ;-) One of the Smart Pots now has a curved, oval underside, not flat. It almost needs support. Otherwise it would tilt. I suspect that some big roots are causing this distortion. ;-)

I will document the good stuff below when I repot the two obesums.

Some odd trivia, but Bristlecone pines have needles that can actually stay green for 40 years. Pretty neat, but that's to be expected from some of the longest lived trees in the world.

Interestingly, they live in the Great Basin, which is a pretty harsh environment. Kinda funny how it produced a tree that lives several thousand years.

The operculicaryia reminds me of my little seiju chinese elms. Would probably make an interesting bonsai. It has some good characteristics, small leaves, neat bark at young age, and interesting base and roots. Hmmmm.....

I agree with zombie, adenium are survivors, but the Bristlecone pines are the Champions in that respect. Longest lived creatures on the planet, and they do it in truly harsh conditions. One of nature's miracles

I guess I will have to look for Bristlecones when I go over the mtn. I never tripped to them..

Martin, I love all your threads and I know this is old but saw you were selling some of your arabicums (rcn and others) id more than happily pay 30 or more for a fat caudexed one.. plus shipping ofcorse no matter the cost, I have a home in Canada and America.. so you can ship to either as I live on a border town.. and am a dual citizen.. anyways if you still have some for sale or are interested in selling some my email is sarasgreenthumb@gmail.com.. really looking for a nice fatty lol if anyone has any for sale please feel free to email me as I'll buy more than one for sure, I'm addicted Haha :) thank you

Sara,

I'll email you with some info.

Rob

(Not for Sale) lol

RCN.... From adeniumcenter two years old from seed.