Here Comes The Sun

Tender loving care is usually a better strategy than neglect for most everything, including plants, but occasionally, all that attention produces exactly opposite of the expected result. Such is the case with my Adenium arabicum ‘Shada’.

I became fascinated with caudiforms several years ago, and wanted to acquire an Adenium to start my collection. When I saw this good-sized specimen at a show, I just had to have it. It was not cheap—in fact, I paid more for it than any container plant I had ever purchased. I was determined to give it the best of care to protect my investment, so I kept it protected under my covered patio, carefully watered and fertilized it, and repotted it the second year. It looked great year-round with its unblemished caudex and full leaves that never dropped, even in the winter months when Adeniums usually go dormant. However, as well cared for and attractive as it was, it never flowered.

Although the ‘Shada’ variety puts more effort into growing a huge caudex than it does producing flowers, It should have flowered at least twice since its purchase. Adenium arabicum ‘Shada’ is native to Shada, Saudi Arabia, and the arabicum 'Shada' produces pink flowers that are smaller and less profuse than the more common obesum species, but I didn’t need a profusion of flowers—just some—so I lavished it with even more care, using a water meter, special fertilizer and anything else I could think of, and still no flowers.

In April, I attended a Cactus and Succulent show and found the dealer who sold me the plant. I told him about its lack of flowers and explained my care routine. He immediately said that the problem was too much shade, and that I should put it in direct sun (in Phoenix!) and let it “harden.” I told him I had moved it to partial sun the first year and it had burned and yellowed the leaves, so I immediately put it back under the patio believing it couldn't take much sun. He said the only way I would get flowers was to give it full sun and forget the burned leaves. As it acclimated, it would begin growing smaller leaves that could take the hottest summer day, and perhaps later this summer, or surely next spring, I would have flowers.


My formerly beautiful Adenium is looking kind of bald and pitiful right now. It has the tiny, “hardened” leaves that the dealer said it should have and it appears to be growing. The base is not sunburned, so I guess it's healthy, regardless of its current appearance. I just hope I get some flowers!