365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Adenium Plum Beauty
Day 203: Last fall, I purchased a couple of new Adeniums for my indoor windowsill, on sale because it was the end of the season. I potted them up when they arrived, and almost immediately, they began dropping their leaves. Now Adeniums are spindly things anyway, generally a tall stalk topped by a few leaves on the newest growth, so I wasn't overly concerned until Plum Beauty had lost every leaf, every single one. I called the company I'd bought them from, and their advice was to flush the potting soil thoroughly because the genus is sensitive to elevated levels of fertilizer salts. Since I'd put them in enhanced soil when I'd potted them, it was possible that they were responding to being over-fertilized. I did as I was instructed, fully expecting to lose the one, but as you can see from this photo, it responded quite well to the treatment. Since this photo was taken, it's put on two more enormous blossoms and the first is still holding on. That's the reward for living with almost bare stems during the non-flowering months. When Adenium "does its thing," it makes it a major production number.
Labels:
Adenium obesum "Plum Beauty",
houseplants
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