Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

Use this forum to discuss matters relating to Caudiciform and Pachyform fat plants. This is where one posts unknown plant photos for ID help.
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Stone Jaguar
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Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

#1

Post by Stone Jaguar »

I suppose this thread might be more correctly filed under caudiciforms, but that particular subforum seems to be a bit of an orphan here.

This past week (soon to be AKA the week before "Hell Week" in Phoenix), I was in Scottsdale and spent a lot of my free time wandering around area nurseries, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and the Desert Botanical Garden. I was most fortunate in timing this visit to coincide with mass flowering of a lot of older adeniums in the area. The DBG has some really nice specimen-sized desert rose species and older hybrids that Gene Joseph and Mark Dimmit made and distributed. I used to breed adeniums in Guatemala, so it was great experience seeing some of these acquaintances grown to perfection at 4-5' sizes in decorator pots. The only things I grow now are seedlings of the recently-described Omani sp., Adenium dhofarense, since the faster-growing, larger forms are not really suitable for outdoors cultivation in the SF Bay Area. Great plants for people with the right climate. By "great plants" I mean those forms that did not originate as chimeras in an Asian nursery.
Adenium boehmianum - DBG.jpg
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Adenium swazicum.jpg
Adenium swazicum.jpg (82.11 KiB) Viewed 5841 times
Adenium Calypso and parents.jpg
Adenium Calypso and parents.jpg (178.3 KiB) Viewed 5844 times
Adenium Arabian Ruby.jpg
Adenium Arabian Ruby.jpg (219.52 KiB) Viewed 5844 times
Arabian Ruby.jpg
Arabian Ruby.jpg (127.32 KiB) Viewed 5844 times
Adenium prob obesum.jpg
Adenium prob obesum.jpg (197.08 KiB) Viewed 5844 times
Adenium Bolero.jpg
Adenium Bolero.jpg (247.33 KiB) Viewed 5844 times
Bolero.jpg
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Adenium obesum Big Bonsai.jpg
Adenium obesum Big Bonsai.jpg (204.94 KiB) Viewed 5844 times
Enjoy,

Jay
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

#2

Post by mcvansoest »

Nice! Did you catch the ones at BTA? They have two or three - usually they keep them in the small green house near the entrance (which is not always open to the public). They have a really old one that Dimmitt used as one of his original starter plants, I believe.

I think with the onset of hell week, most of the blooming will soon be over, too hot.

I have one that still has blooms (it has been going for a few weeks now), it came to me unnamed, but has quite nice blooms (I posted a different picture in the A. obesum entry a while back), it's got some growing to do to catch up to those DBG and BTA plants:
IMG_0831.jpg
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Azuleja »

These are gorgeous. This is the first time I've noticed their similarity to oleander, though much more elegant.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

#4

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Yes, the greenhouses were open. I think they had a few nondescript obesum-types and one of the ZAfrican species (A. multiflorum?)

OT, but in the greenhouse beds they had a nice, recumbent older Aloe erinacea that - no doubt due to soft culture - has held on to a lot more basal leaves than other veterans I've seen. To my eye, they can be rather unattractive when a depauperate rosette sits at the end of a long, naked stem like a mace.
Aloe erinacea older.jpg
Aloe erinacea older.jpg (160.4 KiB) Viewed 5838 times
Your plant looks like it wanted to be a double but had second thoughts. I was more interested in getting precocial flowering (<1 yr), fat caudexes and very large, flat flowers with deep red base color and very dark edges. Most of these lines originated with 'Black Ruby' in their backgrounds. They are very old hybrids and stylistically perhaps a bit out of fashion, but I always loved the look of taller 'Bolero' and 'Crimson Star'. Living Stones used to carry them, but I don't see them listed now.

Oleander!!! AAAIIIYYEEEEE!!!!!!

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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Azuleja »

Lol, sorry. Also pittosporum. I'll see myself out now.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

#6

Post by mcvansoest »

I not completely sure, but the heat here might have some influence on the double flower opening or not. I think I have a picture where the 'second' part of the flower is actually open. I think the green houses you are talking about are not the ones I mean. There is a relatively small green house like room, across from the little store where you enter. They have two (possibly three) large Adeniums in there, which are quite impressive. It used to just be open to the public, but they have been storing the cold sensitive plants of a collection they acquired at one point last year there and since then access has been spotty.

I have a picture at home of at least one of the plants, I will see if I can track it down when I get home.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by toditd »

Azuleja wrote:These are gorgeous. This is the first time I've noticed their similarity to oleander, though much more elegant.
Azuleja wrote:Lol, sorry. Also pittosporum. I'll see myself out now.
Too funny! There must be something to those resemblances though, as the exact same thoughts went through my mind as I was scrolling through the photos.

Excuse us both.
mcvansoest wrote:They have two (possibly three) large Adeniums in there, which are quite impressive.
I have seen BTA's large specimens several times, but, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever snapped their photos. They are quite impressive.

Thanks, Stone, for adenium tour.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Stan »

No,they are not outdoor plants here. Even in summer they are slugs at growing. Too touchy without a greenhouse. I'm sure the reason those are in pots is that even in Arizona a 3 day cold spell would ruin them. They must be sheltered someplace. Maybe as GW continues..they will be like canary plants- add another half zone to Yuma.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Stone Jaguar »

I did not get into the small greenhouse at the entrance to BTA since it was indeed closed to public access. They have (had?) a very good clone of Adenium swazicum with intensely-colored flowers that Mark Dimmitt used in some of his early hybrids. Perhaps they grow it there?

Stan, the best cool-growing adenium may be what is in the trade as Adenium "sp. nova" from the foothills of the Usumbaras in Tanzania, that appears to be part of the somalense-crispum complex that are INfamously INtolerant of crappy weather. I found them to be far and away the best subject for miserable cold, wet weather in Guatemala, even more so than the A arabicum ecotypes from upper elevations of the Jabal Shada in Saudi Arabia. Both ofthese plants ae quite fast-growing and have great caudexes even when young. I believe that some growers in Tucson and Phoenix have found "sp. nova" to be pretty easy outdoors year-round, so probably frost-hardy. I suspect you could grow it well over on your side of the Bay, with some overhead protection for the worst four-six weeks of the year. Perhaps some very carefully selected high-elevation arabicums would make it there, too. Check out Arid Lands price online list if you're interested since they offer both of the above. If I were not "over-adeniumed" after having grown all of the species and many, many thousands of select, line-bred and hybrid plants from seed over the years I'd have a few more here.

J
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

#10

Post by Stan »

Jay,I pass on them..they for me are in that Zone of plant that can and will live for a few years,teasing with good growth, a few blooms...but its inevitable they will die from winter cold,or indoors from pests. I had one die on me indoors from going too dry in winter or it was a cloudy winter..something shocked me by shriveling up. It was "Star" a nice red variety too. Pachypodiums seem to be good for decades here- some of them,and that family flower of Adenium can be seen in the many Mandevilla vines sold. Minus a fat trunk.
I have a near 10 year old Mandevilla "Parasol Red"..I was surprised that fellow bay arean's said they thought those vines are annuals. Nope..and they get a woody trunk. More of a shrub then vine here.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by mcvansoest »

Here are the three Adeniums they keep in the little green 'room' near the entrance. These are cell phone pictures so not super quality.

This first one is what I am pretty certain is the A. swazicum 'Boyce Thompson' with the bright purple flowers that Dimmitt talks about in his book. The flower shape and color match the pictures in his book and he mentions he dubbed it 'Boyce Thompson':
BTA Adenium
BTA Adenium
IMG_0409.jpg (145.31 KiB) Viewed 5755 times
This is one of Dimmitt's first cultivars 'Red Everbloomer':
BTA Adenium obesum cv. 'Red Everbloomer'
BTA Adenium obesum cv. 'Red Everbloomer'
IMG_0410.jpg (124.35 KiB) Viewed 5755 times
The picture does not do it justice, this is a pretty massive plant, it is what got me looking into growing some Adeniums.

And this the third plant, which was not in bloom:
BTA Adenium arabicum
BTA Adenium arabicum
IMG_0411.jpg (126.4 KiB) Viewed 5755 times
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Stone Jaguar »

Yes, that would be the plant he refers to in his writings. This clone and 'Perpetual Pink' are probably the most widely-cultivated swazicums since the species doesn't really have a following, except by hard-core caudiciform growers. I really like the tall stems and intensely-saturated flowers that their primary hybrids show. Seem to recall they're vulnerable to two-spot spider mite in the summer.

Thanks for posting the pics! I think maybe that arabicum was on display in the main building, together with some large pachypodiums, but I just breezed by it.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Stan »

I had A. obesum grow well..again,rarely bloomed. A.arabicum grew for 9 years..then this year it collapsed. It would have very light blooms- 1-3 at most at a time. The A.obesum "Red Star" I think the full name was bloomed much better..but it gave up in winter indoors. So,I've had them die every which way sooner or later. The kicker is - that larger plants meant even more sensitive. Younger ones are sure to live a few years. Go figure.
P.lameri and P.saundersi are 11 and 9 years with me. Still look great. No blooms!
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by mcvansoest »

Got to be too wet/humid for too much of the year rather than too cold if you bring them inside.

Mine winter outdoors and while we rarely even go near freezing these days it still gets well below 40 at night for a good number of nights, but as long as I keep them bone dry and protect them from any moisture they come through just fine. I stop watering them in November when it is still quite hot, just to make sure they are good and dry before it gets cold. Then I do not water them until the night time lows are above 50, and then only sparingly till they show new growth when I start giving them water once a week increasing to twice a week when we go above lows of 70...

My A. socotranum has decided that it is too hot and is dropping all its leaves... happened last year as well. Freaked me out then, now I will just let it sit in mostly shade and wait till new leaves show while watering very sparingly. the four obesums, one arabicum, and one crispum hybrid I have are still going strong. One of the obesums still has flowers, but I think once those are done that will be it till it cools off a bit.

Once I get my new shade structure built I am thinking of getting the rest of the species/ssp. right now I simply do not have the space.
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Re: Specimen Adeniums on display at Desert BG Phoenix, AZ

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Post by Stan »

I was watching HGTV. And in the Mexico shows,I see these in the Cabo and Sonora episodes. Some very large potted plants. Looking more like wild plants- much thick trunk shows,compared to those grown in wet tropical climates where they are all small branches and multi trunked.
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