Plum Beauty Desert Rose

Day 259: My Adeniums are doing better insofar as hanging onto their foliage now that I've begun misting them daily. It stands to reason. They are a desert plant which in the natural setting receives very little moisture other than that in the air. However, when they are too dry, the leaves will drop or be stunted and curled. I won't say I have the magic formula, but at least they no longer resemble the potsful of sticks which make my friends wonder why I bother. "Plum Beauty" is a grafted cultivar. Mine is the tallest of the three Desert Roses living in my south-exposure kitchen window sill, a sheer delight to behold while I'm at the task of dish-washing.

Adenium Plum Beauty

Day 200: With no internet, no land line, no cell service, I spent a quiet day making occasional forays out into the yard to feed Beaks and putter in the flower beds and garden. Sometimes it's nice to have down-time, even if it's not by choice. The brightest spot in today's activities was taken by "Plum Beauty," a grafted Adenium which spends most of its time looking like two tall sticks topped by a few leathery leaves, but when it decides to put on a show, it pulls out all the stops. The flowers (only one at present) are fully two and a half inches across, a rich purple-red on the outer margins, marked with hot pink surrounding a deep yellow center. I have two other Adeniums in my collection, but "Plum Beauty" is the showiest and the most reliable. It's nice to have something reliable. My internet and phone service certainly aren't.

Plum Beauty

Day 122: It does not matter to me that they spend most of their lives looking like leftover plant stakes, their stalks rising a foot or more from a grey, lumpy caudex before putting out a scant display of foliage. When the Adeniums flower, they do it with a show which will knock your socks off, as this almost fluorescent bloom atop "Plum Beauty" will attest. The occasional blossom makes tending those "dead sticks" well worth the effort. These plants prefer their soil quite dry, thriving in conditions which would kill most other houseplants. If over-watered, the caudex (swollen base) will rot, but if the leaves yellow and drop from UNDER-watering as mine usually do, there is no reason to panic. As long as the caudex remains firm, the plant will undoubtedly survive. I water only when the pots become light to lift, and then flush water through them and allow them to drain before returning them to the saucers. I've kept three alive for several years now, and they bloom two or three times a year.

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.

Buddies

Day 30: I can't honestly claim that there is something always in bloom at my house, either indoors or out, but there are fairly few dull moments. The Christmas cacti are starting to flare (the yellow and white ones, at least) and the two new Adeniums arrived in bud and seem determined to bloom despite having been transplanted to larger pots. I've made a mash-up of "buddies" here, Christmas cacti in the foreground and Adeniums at the top of the photo, but in full bloom elsewhere in the house are Hoya bella and Adenium Joyful. Plum Beauty is what you would expect from a plat so-named: its blossom will be a rich plum purple. Star Cluster is yellow with broad red stripes central on each petal. I find myself wishing for more shelf space, but that's a dangerous path to walk for a crazy plant lady.