Garden

[151949]

My avatar is a photo of one of my desert rose flowers. The plant isn't all that attractive but the flowers are amazing. 

[Gokat]

I read earlier about your successes with the desert rose in FL....not so much in PA, @151949 .   I doubt I'll ever have to concern myself with mine taking over here, but I do look forward to my first live view of this:

Wish me luck!

[151949]

@Gokat just make sure you have max sun and good drainage. Good luck.

[Jayjay]

Well, my plant did very well during the summer. Luckily we had a very sunny warm summer but now it's time to bring my plant inside.  It is dipping below 60 degrees here and the leaves started getting lighter green.

Any suggestions on what to do right now?  Do I trim back the leaves or just let it be?  I'm assuming it's time to just start watering twice a month?

I hope to get blooms next year. My plant came a long way from the first 2 weeks when the leaves turned yellow and fell off.  

How's everyone else's doing?

[grams2]

I brought my 3 in a couple of days ago because we were having a lot of rain and they were getting to wet. One started dropping leaves but the other 2 look fine. I got no blooms, not even on the one that I got last year. The Caudex has really grown on all the plants. Last Feb. I got one bloom on that plant. Funny thing I thought they bloomed in the summer. I did a hard prune on the one from last year and one of the plants from this year, to get more branches. That could be why I got no blooms. I expect most of the leaves will come off during the winter because that's what happened last year and by spring it looked pretty bad, but it came back when I put it outside in the sun. I love watching them grow and trying to get them to bloom. Good luck with yours.

[Jayjay]

Glad yours are doing well, grams2.

This will be my first winter so not sure how it will go. I know it is suppose to lose their leaves and look bare and frail but will look forward to next spring to see how it looks.

I, too, love watching anything grow but this plant really is different from my other indoor plants......this should be interesting!

[grams2]

Jayjay just wanted to let you know I found Pink Dessert Rose plants at Lowes for $1 ea. They were $12.98 but they were starting to drop leaves and they reduced them. Hope you can find some near you. I bought 3 today and they are a really good size. Caudex is 6-8 in. tall on them already. I think they will do great. She said they came in with pink blooms on them. Hope they will bloom for me next year. Good luck with yours.

[Jayjay]

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@grams2 wrote:

Jayjay just wanted to let you know I found Pink Dessert Rose plants at Lowes for $1 ea. They were $12.98 but they were starting to drop leaves and they reduced them. Hope you can find some near you. I bought 3 today and they are a really good size. Caudex is 6-8 in. tall on them already. I think they will do great. She said they came in with pink blooms on them. Hope they will bloom for me next year. Good luck with yours.

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@grams2  Thanks for the info but missed out on them.  I'll have to look again next spring although I may get another through QVC if they have them again.

They did replace my first one but I kept it to see if it would do better and it actually did. The original one was real small and looked bad right away. I kept it and it strived in the summer but as soon as I brought it in this Fall, all the leaves just fell off. Now I noticed a rotten section which grew and affected the rest of the caudex and now I believe it will die off. It never did grow much but it did survive the summer with new leaves but don't think it will make it through the winter inside.

The replacement is doing ok (much better than the original one) and that grew quite a bit. It's loosing leaves but not as many as the original or as fast. The caudex grew and looks strong so hopefully it will be ok. I've been looking for a larger shallow pot to transfer it to in the spring but hard to find ceramic shallow large pots.  I was going to use its current pot to transfer the smaller one this spring but that's dying off.

How's everyones' doing?  How much do you water yours in the winter?

[grams2]

All of mine are doing really good. I do have some leaf drop on all of them and 2 if them dropped all leaves but are getting new leaves now. I water mine maybe every 2 weeks with only an ounce or two of water. They don't need much. I'm hoping I can keep leaves on mine until spring and then they should really start growing once I put them outside.

The 3 that I got from Lowes in the fall are large plants in quart plastic containers. I will replant them in the spring. These are tall plants and have to be at least 5yrs. plus. The caudex is very large on them. I may have to plant them in a large deep pot but I will wait and see how many roots they have. I sure hope mine bloom this summer, if not, I am going to be very dissapointed. Hope both of yours live. Good luck.

[Jayjay]

Yes, my original scrawny one shriveled up and I had to toss it.  

The replacement plant  looks good, is losing leaves but nothing like the original one that lost all it's leaves within a month of coming inside. I believe this one will survive and I will start looking for a larger container for it and transplant it in the spring.  It looks healthy and has grown quite a bit unlike my scrawny one. Fingers crossed!