Desert Rose

The Desert Rose is a member of the Apocynaceae family of plants, originating from East Africa's dry, desert areas. It's lovely bloom is the color of a traditional rose, hence its popular name "desert rose". The Desert Rose blooms between April through October, although as I sit here today in SW Florida on March 22nd, my desert rose plants are in bloom. Not a leaf in sight on any of the three larger plants, but lots of lovely deep pink blooms. The bloom is funnel shaped with the pistils and stamens well hidden inside the throat.

Desert Rose blooms in all shades of dark red, light red, deep pink, without or without white edges or a white throat. Modern breeding techniques are adding to the range of colors so that we now can have a pure white flower. Breeders are striving for a yellow adenium blossom.

Seeds look like little sticks, about a half inch long, with a tuft of soft fur on each end.

Desert Rose is a succulent, meaning it has the ability to store water in its swollen stems and roots. Like a cactus, it wants hot dry desert-like conditions and it will not tolerate wet feet. Soil should be allowed to dry out before watering. At least, that's what the text books say. My desert rose plants are outside year round and only get protection if the winter temperatures threaten to drop below 40 degrees. Otherwise, they sit in the sun and seem to thrive on whatever the weather throws at them.

We have near desert conditions during our winter months with sparse rainfall. However, in June our rainy season starts and we are more like a rain forest with lots of rain and humidity. I feared the daily downpours would kill my desert rose, but I learned quickly that, although the desert rose really can't stand wet feet, the key is to keep it well drained. I transferred my first plant out of its large decorative plastic pot into a large clay container and have had absolutely no problems with waterlogging since. Apparently the clay pot allows the roots to "breathe" better. During the winter months, I water my desert rose perhaps once a month, very sparingly. In the summer, Nature provides a good soaking just about every afternoon.

A desert rose plant grown from seed will develop the classic swollen stem known as a caudex. As it grows larger, roots grow out of this caudex, above the soil line and tend to twist and contort themselves around the base of the plant giving it the look of an ancient bonsai specimen. This happens at a very early age so the desert rose has become quite popular as a bonsai plant, even though there is nothing about it related to the practice of bonsai. Plants can easily be started from cuttings, as well as from seed, but those never develop the caudex. Since they are so much easier to grow from cuttings, many home improvement stores and large chain type garden centers tend to offer these desert rose plants in bulk quantities and at substantially lower prices than the seed-grown varieties. It's also possible now to find grafted plants that combine two or more colors or bloom types on the same root stock.
 -- Edna Kelly, Brier Ridge