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Adenium, Desert Rose, Impala Lily originally from the arid regions of Africa, it appeared on the domestic flower market relatively recently and immediately won the enormous sympathy of indoor plant lovers.
Adeniums are classified as succulents. They store water and nutrients in a large thickening of the trunk at the bottom of the plant. Under natural conditions, adeniums grow up to 10 m in height, and at home their sizes vary between 30-35 cm. With good care, adeniums can bloom from 1.5 years or even earlier.
Mini adeniums ideal for those who have limited space for keeping indoor plants. And in general, they will be a very valuable and incredibly charming piece in your collection. Such adeniums are distinguished by their compact size, neat crown and dark green shiny “curling” leaves. Adenium dwarfism manifests itself already in the first days of life. Remember that mini adenium seeds germinate more slowly than regular ones. Shoots appear from 5 days to 1 month.
All parts of the plant are poisonous.
Care.
The most important condition for normal development is a sunny location. The plant should receive bright light with direct sun. In the warm season, it is recommended to take it out into the fresh air (balcony, terrace).
The optimal temperature for growth is from +25 to +35 C. In winter it can drop to +12+15 C, during which the plant enters a dormant period and can partially or completely shed its foliage. The need for a dormant period is not essential when growing adenium, so in winter you can use heating and artificial lighting.
In summer, water the plant, drying the substrate between waterings, and in winter, watering should be minimal, depending on the condition of the plant. Once every 2-3 weeks, adenium is fed with fertilizer for cacti or universal fertilizer in half the dose.
Transplantation is carried out if necessary in spring and summer. Young plants are replanted every year, adults - once every 2-4 years. Use neutral, light soil (universal or peat soil for cacti, coconut briquettes) with the addition of a large (up to 50%) amount of cultivators (perlite, sand, fine expanded clay, brick chips, vermiculite, etc.). To stimulate branching, pruning and pinching is recommended.
Growing from seeds.
Seeds begin to germinate within 24 hours, and germination rate, if all conditions are met, ranges from 70 to 100%. They can be pre-soaked for 4 hours (no more!), but this is not a necessary procedure. In summer, seeds are germinated on a sunny windowsill, in other seasons - heated.
For planting, use moisture- and breathable, drained neutral soil. Coconut flakes, perlite, charcoal, sand, and vermiculite are used as moisture-absorbing additives. The seeds are laid out on a moistened substrate; they can be slightly pressed into the soil, but there is no need to completely cover them. Cover with film.
Important! The air temperature at this time should not fall below +25 degrees and not above +35 (it is better to place a thermometer nearby). Warmth in the cold season is provided by heating from below, for which a mini greenhouse is placed on a heating pad, radiator, or shoe dryer.
Also, do not forget to open and ventilate. Ventilation is necessary for air access to avoid rotting of seeds and seedlings. When using heating, adjust air humidity by spraying. You should be wary of drafts.
Caring for seedlings.
More recently, adenium mini was inferior in popularity to its larger counterparts. But now the miniature baby is deservedly loved by flower growers, who especially appreciate the early, almost from germination, branching, slow development and wonderful flowers.
Unfortunately, the color of mini adenium flowers grown from purchased seeds may be unstable. Adenium growers suggest that the manufacturer is not very careful in pollinating mother plants, because having bought seeds of a variety with scarlet or snow-white petals, the result is often pink flowers with a lightened throat. However, many gardeners buy cute dwarfs into their collection because of their growth and are not very upset by the flowering that is not as expected. Sometimes babies delight their owners with unusual curled leaves.
Adenium mini (Adenium Mini Size) arose a little over 10 years ago thanks to the efforts of the Taiwanese breeder Chi-Lung Ko. The dwarf was obtained from plants of the species Adenium obesum, which underwent a spontaneous genetic mutation.
Through selection over several years, slow-growing babies were bred, not exceeding a height of 12–17 cm in adulthood. However, even with such a small stature, they have a pronounced caudex. The foliage is bright emerald green, dense, covering the stems with a dense “cap”, so that the thickening of the trunk is imperceptible. Flowers, often appearing for the first time already in the second year of life, are practically not inferior in decorativeness and size to large-growing adeniums.
Mini adenium varieties
Today, 4 varieties of Mini Size adenium are considered officially recognized, differing from each other in the colors of their corollas:
Sunup Star is the ancestor of mini adeniums with snow-white petals outlined by a wide pink border. The variety appeared first and received its name “Morning Star” after other varieties were bred;
Pink - with soft pink flowers, the edges of which are richer, and the shade is lighter closer to the throat;
Red - with velvety scarlet petals and a white neck;
White - with snow-white corollas. The variety was bred last, but is in the first positions in popularity. However, for him, a pure white flower is still rare, despite the fact that the seed producer claims that the planting material from plants sown in 2014 is completely white-flowering.
Growing mini adenium from seeds
Mini adenium seeds have low germination rate - approximately 60-70%. In order to increase it, the producer often uses pollen from tall species and varieties during pollination. This is precisely why both ordinary adeniums and dwarfs are often present in crops. Experienced adenium growers believe that pollination of small ones and among themselves gives good results when sowing, and the involvement of large-sized relatives in the pollination process is the usual reinsurance of the breeder-producer.
Accommodation requirements
Like its ancestors, Adenium obesum, mini loves bright lighting. Due to their compactness, plants are placed on windows predominantly facing south, placing pots in several rows, as far as the width of the window sill allows.
Make sure that there is no cold from the window glass; the plant is sensitive to hypothermia. With sufficiently abundant watering in hypothermic conditions, the caudex will suffer from rotting.
The optimal temperatures for keeping mini adenium are high - from 22 to 28 degrees and above; in winter, the thermometer readings can be reduced to 15-18 degrees above zero, but watering should also be less water and less often than in summer.
Care for adenium mini
Watering mini adenium differs from watering tall relatives in reduced abundance. The crown of the baby is well developed, evaporates moisture not much less than a tall succulent, but the caudex is more compact and, therefore, stores moisture in small quantities. That’s why watering the baby should be more balanced to eliminate the possibility of both overwatering and lack of moisture.
Complete drying of the substrate should also not be allowed. There are cases when a mini, after a three-week absence of watering, completely dropped all its foliage, recovered for a long time and for a period of 8 months, whereas usually plants of this adenium variety form buds almost constantly throughout the year, with the exception of a short dormant period.
They feed the babies once every 2 weeks with fertilizers for succulents, preferring formulations with a low nitrogen content. When preparing the solution, the dose is reduced by half or three times compared to that indicated by the manufacturer on the packaging. In winter, fertilization is not stopped until the plant forms buds, but it is applied less frequently - once every 3 or 4 weeks. During the rest period, feeding is stopped.
Adenium mini branches very early, starting from 3–8 months of life, and is not needed. In general, the crown develops compactly and without pinching that stimulates branching.
Possible difficulties, diseases and pests
When caring for mini adenium, it is important to maintain the correct watering, lighting and temperature regimes. If any maintenance conditions are violated, problems begin with the health of the plant: due to waterlogging at low temperatures, the leaves soften and fall off, due to lack of watering, the leaves turn yellow and fall off, due to lack of light, the plant inactively forms buds, and sometimes even drops them.
Usually, after eliminating mistakes in care, the succulent restores its healthy appearance, but with rot it turns out to be much more difficult: diseased plants are removed from the soil, the affected areas of the roots are cut off and treated with antibacterial agents. If the damage is extensive, and the root system is almost completely destroyed by rot, all that remains is to cut off healthy pagons and re-root them or graft them onto healthy seedlings.
Oleg Georgievskiy 04/25/2011
Photos by Oleg Kovalev and Vladimir Khegetyan
Adenium Mini Size is a relatively new variety of adenium and, among the huge variety of adenium of other varieties, it is, of course, quite rare. At first unnoticed among the handsome giants, Mini Size adeniums are now becoming increasingly popular among amateurs.
Adenium Mini Size Sunup Star, age - 3.5 years.
Adenium Mini Size- a real genetic dwarf. There are currently four varieties of Mini Size adenium.
Adenium Mini Size Sunup Star with white-pink flowers can be considered the ancestor of this series. It received its name – “Morning Star” a little later, when other varieties of this dwarf appeared.
Adenium Mini Size Pink- variety with pink flowers.
Adenium Mini Size Red- variety with red flowers.
Adenium Mini Size White– a new variety with white flowers. Currently the rarest of the Mini Size adeniums. According to information from the manufacturer of these adenium varieties, sufficient genetic stability of this variety during seed propagation has not yet been achieved and therefore the seeds are sold in very limited quantities.
The germination of seeds of these adenium varieties is quite unpredictable even with fresh seeds, because some of the seeds are not viable immediately after collection (due to their underdevelopment). Therefore, seed germination of 60-70% can be considered good for this variety. According to information from the manufacturer of adeniums, in order to increase germination, Mini Size adeniums are pollinated with pollen from ordinary adeniums, but then the mini yield is no more than 30%, the rest are ordinary large-size ones. If you pollinate mini on mini, germination will deteriorate. And indeed, when sowing relatively large quantities of Mini adenium seeds, ordinary adeniums and semi-dwarfs can also grow from the seeds. However, I think the seed producer is playing it safe in this case - the repeatability of the variety from seeds is very high.
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Perhaps it is precisely because of cross-pollination with other varieties of adeniums that the varietal characteristics of mini adeniums are not entirely stable in color and flower shape, and lovers can get flowers that are quite original and unusual for this variety.
Adenium seedlings Mini Size.
The seeds of adeniums of this variety usually germinate later than the seeds of ordinary adeniums. Moreover, it is quite normal if Mini adenium seeds sprouted 2-3 weeks after sowing (which, in general, is not typical for adenium seeds), although germination is quite possible after 4-5 days.
Adenium Mini Size is a dwarf tree in a pot. Adeniums of this variety grow very slowly. It will take approximately 3-5 years for your adenium to become a truly dwarf tree in a pot. By this age, the plant grows to a height of only 12-17 cm and even without flowers looks very decorative.
Mini adeniums, unlike their larger counterparts, begin to branch very early - usually from 3-8 months. Crown formation is not required, except in cases where it is necessary to change the direction of growth of plant branches.
Typically, Mini Size adeniums begin to bloom at the age of 2-3 years. However, it is not uncommon for adeniums of this variety to bloom (or try to bloom by forming buds, but then dropping them) even at the age of one year. The diameter of the flower is 5-7 cm. Depending on the conditions, the flower stays on the plant for 5-12 days.
An adult plant can bloom continuously all year round. Even winter maintenance with limited watering and a lack of light and heat, although it limits flowering, is often not able to stop it completely.
In general, caring for Mini Size adeniums is not particularly different from caring for other varieties of Adenium obese. However, the relatively small caudex and the large total surface of the leaves that evaporate moisture require more balanced watering. I would also not recommend keeping mini adeniums dry in winter with falling leaves and very infrequent watering, especially if this leads to significant softening of the caudex. Lack of watering for 3 weeks in winter led to almost complete loss of foliage and softening of the caudex in my 4-year-old mini adenium. As a result, the plant took a very long and painful time to recover from this state, had difficulty growing new foliage and stopped flowering for almost 8 months.
Growing this variety of adenium from seeds is an interesting and exciting activity for flower lovers, causing a lot of positive emotions. In addition, this plant is ideal for our small window sills.
Adenium Mini Size is a relatively new variety of adenium and, among the huge variety of adenium of other varieties, it is, of course, quite rare. At first unnoticed among the handsome giants, Mini Size adeniums are now becoming increasingly popular among amateurs.
Adenium Mini Size is a dwarf tree in a pot. Adeniums of this variety grow very slowly. It will take approximately 3-5 years for your adenium to become a truly dwarf tree in a pot. By this age, the plant grows to a height of only 12-17 cm and even without flowers looks very decorative.
Perhaps it is precisely because of cross-pollination with other varieties of adeniums that the varietal characteristics of mini adeniums are not entirely stable in color and flower shape, and lovers can get flowers that are quite original and unusual for this variety.
Lighting.
Mini adeniums require direct sunlight. Therefore, the best place for it in the house is south windows. But even despite this love of light, during the summer heat it is better to slightly shade it to avoid burning the trunk (this is its weak point). The pot with the plant should be rotated periodically to ensure uniform growth of the plant.
Temperature.
Adenium mini is thermophilic, feels good in summer at a temperature of 25-30°C. With decreasing daylight hours and air temperature, the growth of adenium mini slows down and it enters a period of rest.
During this period, most of its leaves turn yellow and fall off. During the winter dormancy period, the optimal temperature is 12-15°C, not lower than 10°C. In the warm season, it is recommended to take it out into the fresh air (balcony, terrace).
Watering and air humidity.
In summer, watering is moderate and the substrate is dried between waterings; in winter, watering is significantly reduced. If it is not possible to provide it with a cold winter, and it is kept at normal room temperature, the plant should be watered after the soil has completely dried.
Lack of watering for 3 weeks in winter for adenium mini can lead to almost complete loss of foliage and softening of the caudex. As a result, the plant will take a very long and painful time to recover from this state, have difficulty growing new foliage, and may stop flowering for up to 8 months.
Adeniums do not need spraying.
Formation.
Mini adeniums, unlike their larger counterparts, begin to branch very early - usually from 3-8 months. Crown formation is not required, except in cases where it is necessary to change the direction of growth of plant branches.
Bloom.
Typically, Mini Size adeniums begin to bloom at the age of 2-3 years. However, it is not uncommon for adeniums of this variety to bloom (or try to bloom by forming buds, but then dropping them) even at the age of one year. The diameter of the flower is 5-7 cm. Depending on the conditions, the flower stays on the plant for 5-12 days.
An adult plant can bloom continuously all year round. Even winter maintenance with limited watering and a lack of light and heat, although it limits flowering, is often not able to stop it completely.
Fertilizers.
Once every 2-3 weeks with cactus fertilizer or universal fertilizer in half the dose.
Transfer.
It is best to replant mini adeniums as needed (for adult plants), while young plants should be replanted annually. Transplantation is carried out in spring or summer.
It is necessary to take into account that its root system develops in breadth, therefore the pot should be shallow, but wide enough. To avoid overheating of the soil, it is better to take a light pot for replanting (if kept on a sunny windowsill).
The pH is neutral, light (universal or peat soil for cacti, coconut briquettes) with the addition of a large (up to 50%) amount of rippers (perlite, sand, fine expanded clay, brick chips, vermiculite, charcoal, etc.).
Reproduction.
Cuttings, layering during the growing season, seeds at any time of the year.
The seeds of adeniums of this variety usually germinate later than the seeds of ordinary adeniums. Moreover, it is quite normal if mini adenium seeds sprouted 2-3 weeks after sowing (which, in general, is not typical for adenium seeds), although germination is quite possible after 4-5 days.
Precautions.
Adenium is poisonous. After handling it, be sure to wash your hands.
Main pests: spider mites, mealybugs.
