My garden tour this Saturday included visiting Mrs. Cardinal, who is still sitting in her nest and checking out the flowers on my Desert Roses. Having grown up gardening in the Deep South, a bastion of summer humidity, I have never grown real roses as fungus and I just don’t get along. In South Florida, Desert Roses (Adenium obesum) can be easily grown in containers and thrive on benign neglect. At long last, I have roses.
Mrs. Cardinal in position:
Desert Rose in pink:
Desert Rose in red:
These plants are from the desert of the Arabian peninsula and are considered succulents. The trunks can take unusual forms. They prefer dry conditions and rarely need water. I have enjoyed these plants in containers, they are evergreen, have interesting forms and flower regularly. They are available in many colors and some people collect them. I prune mine occasionally and water and fertilize if it crosses my mind. Mostly they sit in the blazing full sun and bask.
That’s it from South Florida this week. We are enjoying a cool, dry spell of spring weather and it is a beautiful day. I need to get outside!
To see more SOS posts, visit Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations and follow the links in the comments section.
The Shrub Queen 
Very pretty. I hope Mrs Cardinal has a successful brood too.
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I think they should hatch soon.
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Ah, Mrs. Cardinal! I like adenium, yours are looking lovely.
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Thank you.
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Your Desert Roses are really interesting. Would they make a good house plant in a sunny window?
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I have no idea. It seems like a good idea, they really like the frying hot sun. These sit on the driveway in front of a wall and I rarely think about watering them. They are extremely poisonous.
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Desert rose plant is truly a beautiful plant ! I have never tried growing it so far… I follow a guy from the Emirates on Twitter who has a very nice collection, (but I think it’s even hotter there than where you live)
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People grow them from seed here. They are very easy to root as well. It is rare to get a seed pod. I have had these for maybe 8 years and never had seed. I’m not sure how they fare as house plants. Very poisonous.
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A lovely mother cardinal!
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She is. I have not seen the Mister yet.
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Desert rose is not bothered by the humidity there?
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No, they thrive here. Some older ones are huge.
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Huge? They get huge?
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yes, very rarely I see one that is decades old and they are impressive.
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How big can they get?
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I think they will go 10 feet. I am at the northern end of the range and have seen them 4 or 5 feet tall and wide with impressive trunks.
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I think that I would prefer a plumeria for a specimen that big. I have not seen many that were three feet tall.
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Actually, I remember one in Los Angeles that was five or six feet tall. It was scrawny, as if it grew like that in a hurry, perhaps because of its partially shaded exposure.
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I am now a desert rose fan, so beautiful! Good luck Mrs Cardinal, I hope you have a fine brood.
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Love the Desert roses, they sound like they would grow well here! 🌸💞
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They love heat!
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Beautiful blooms, and this is a great reminder that most of us can grow things in pots–both inside and outside–that might not grow as well naturally in our gardens. I had a potted lemon tree that I brought indoors every winter (I live in the Midwest), and it performed well for about a decade…outdoors for 6 months, indoors for 6 months.
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Wonderful! I couldn’t grow citrus further north.. 💕 containers.
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I had heard of desert roses, but I don’t think I had seen any before. It would love our paved yard in summer as it gets really hot there!
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