Marie... I can only use superlatives when describing this magnificent display of DRs! Grown and staged with absolute perfection!! You have inspired me to strive for better results when growing. Seeing these perfect examples of what can be done, at home, makes me want to buy some plants. By the way, can you identify plant with date 5/18/2012 @ 17:29....a dark red, with black border around each petal? The roots are really very interesting....almost as interesting as the top end of the plant. Thanks for all the wonderful photos. I cannot understand why this plant is not more commonly grown and seen in more homes and garden centers. What other plant can offer such a display of flowers over so long a period? Frank

Hi, thanks for the reply. It did have a bud developing when I brought it home, bud the bud never opened and ended up dropping. On the outside of it, it had one of the same spots. I looked at your pictures, and that's not really what they look like. The spots are about the size of a pencil eraser, and are a yellowish-dark brown color. I did a little research, and I'm almost thinking that it might be something like a calcium deficiency. I water the plant thoroughly every five days. The leaves are doing great, perfect, actually. I just need to get this bloom problem solved. It was kept in a greenhouse before, so it might be an acclimation issue.

A few more photo's of Cheryl's. Christine is from Australia and I know that she has some remarkable blooms she has grown herself from Seed. I wanted to show these so that it would confirm that we can get some remarkable blooms such as the ones above. These people have been growing these for decades and using their own hybrids to produce new blooms. Remembering that they have most likely started more seeds than we will ever start and they can keep them outdoors all year. They have purchased seed from both Ko & Rinoa. Many others also. Rick

@Sultry, I do nothing when it rains... ok, maybe I will smile a bit more than normal as I don't have to water as much. The main thing with adeniums is that they need fast draining soil with some organic material in it. As I water the plants, I watch the water run down immediately. If the water pools on top of the soil for even ...lets say.... 5 seconds or more, then you do not have soil draining fast enough. I have watched my plants get rained on daily for a week plus with no ill effects. Pls also note that now all my plants are in clay pots. This also allows faster drying A wise adenium grower (Mark Dimmitt PhD) said to treat adeniums as a tomato plant when in growth, and i do. That means plenty of water and fertilizer when growing. I placed 1 TBS of slow release fertilizer in each pot for the season and then I use water soluble stuff every couple of weeks. When the plants approach dormancy due to cold ... then you need to cutback watering and watch the temps. Wet adeniums and cold weather are a bad combination and it will cause a lot of rot problems. My adeniums wintered in my garage after they completely dried and had minimal to no water for 3 months. Still out of 45 plants 6 rotted. If I had left them outside all winter they would have all died during one of the several freezes we had. The soil mix I custom make has some coconut coir, pine bark fines, perlite and some coarse sand, if all these items are available in my shed. If not then I make adjustments to get the necessary drainage level that these plants require. I may test a pot with the new mix to make sure water runs through it and adjust the blend until it does by adding more perlite and pine bark. You can also use the snowball test to see if mix is light enough. That means take a handful of the mix and try to make a snowball with it, the snowball should fall apart as soon as you separate your hands. If it stays together it is way too dense and needs more perlite or bark.