I have this desert rose for a couple of years. When I got it, it was a little bit smaller, but it had aphids. I fixed that problem. It’s had issues on and off. Has anyone cut this back? It has not flowered. I just repotted it in some cactus/succulent rocks. My husband took it to work to see if it flourish and it didn’t. So I just brought it back home. Can someone help with the care on this one with me, please?
Oops, sorry. I didn’t look at it carefully enough. I see those all the stems are growing from one bulb so of course you don’t bother to separate. Also, I’d leave the stem with the biggest leaf uncut.
0 likes So would you chop some or all of those stems back? Yes it’s in a bulb type plant. I’ve never had it flower.
0 likesMy desert rose took forever to flower too! Do you use fertilizer?! I recommend you do to help get those blooms going! Best of luck!
1 like Who’s foliage pro. What are you using for it? Thank you for responding. How do you feel about cutting back some of the stems? I’ve repotted the plant twice one because of aphids and the other it was just losing its leaves and dying.
1 likeSo I haven’t had to cut back stems and my blooms come from different ones at different times… you could try though? I live in Texas and keep her outside in the part shade part sun from April-October then inside the rest of the year with a grow light. I notice during the winter months she loses her leaves also. The fertilizer I use is miracle grow pour and feed plant food and I follow the planta schedule for it which is like every 25 days
1 like I live in Phoenix area. I think if I put her outside for a minute, she would die. So she’s been inside most of the time. Thank you for the input. I really appreciate it. Do you have a picture of your plant? If you don’t mind.
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Wow, that looks great! How long have you had your plant? I’m just shocked that I actually had aphids on this plant when I got it. It’s definitely had some issues over the past couple of years but it looks like it’s in a good state right now. I do have miracle grow and I can definitely use it on the plant. But I have fertilizer. I am plant food so we’ll see how that goes too. Living in Arizona if I put that plant outside, it would probably die. For the next couple of months, it’ll definitely be over 100° almost every day. So I don’t want to put it out there and kill it. So it’s just gonna have to stay inside all your round. Maybe I can put it out in the winter months when it’s perfect weather. Definitely thank you for sharing for sure. I appreciate it.
1 likeI am so late to this party but are you still interested in some care tips? I don't have my desert roses any more sadly, and I was a beginner when I had them but I think I learned quite a bit. In terms of flowering they won't flower if they don't get enough sunlight. I think they need a minimum of 6 hours direct light to flower, if I remember correctly. In summer the best thing to do is to let them have all the morning sun/up to midday and take them away from the afternoon sun, unless you have a shade cloth. After winter if they haven't been outside in the sun you needbto slowly introduce them so that they don't burn straight awat. So you start with very weak sunlight, an hour or whatever in the mornings then slowly build it up over a couple of weeks.
1 like Thank you so much for the info! I love it. Mine sits in a east north corner window. So it gets some morning light some midmorning. It just started to have some leaves turn yellow. So I’m assuming it’s going into dormancy? So after reading through what you said, leaves will all fall off during the winter. I live in Arizona, it’s indoors, and I don’t know if I wanna put it outdoors yet. I don’t think it needs to be repotted. When I first got the plant, it was doing well and then it got aphids. I’ve never seen those on a plant at all. Except roses that are normally outside. I sprayed it brought it back to health. It was doing great. But if I understand that in the winter, it shows its leaves and comes back in the spring then maybe I’ll be a little bit more understanding to the plant if this all makes sense. It’s a tough plant. Especially if you don’t know what’s happening when it’s supposed to happen. Other plants I feel like you can read and you understand maybe it needs more light or less water. But this doesn’t roses a finicky little sucker.
0 likesI don't know why it won't let me reply directly to you, hopefully this works. If it hasn't had many yellow leaves over spring/summer theb I would assume it is going into dormancy. Although it's hard for me to say without knowing what temperature it is with you at the moment, or how cold it gets inside your house. Yes if your house is cold in winter, and you don't have heat blasting all the time, like it's spring or summer then it should go into dormancy. Which means if it's starting to do that now then ease up on the watering, don't water it as pften. Once it loses all it's leaves don't water it all, only every 6-8 weeks or so. I actually loved these plants, I found them easier than some others I had, but mine were outdoors and left mostly to their own devices. Once spring starts to come and the winter temperatures outside aren't so cold I would put it out, it will fair better outside. Let it slowly acclimate. It will survive in summer over there. They're desert plants, they survive over 40°C. Once they are conditioned to the heat and sun, they fair very well, you just have to keep on top of watering. If they're outside in very well draining gritty soil, as long as the soil is drying out each time fully between watering, you cab water them every other day in summer, especially when it's that hot. But just a little tip, when it gets above 35°C/into the 40°C (if they live outside) you should water the plants in the evening, once the temperature drops a bit. Or if your heat wave is only for a few days wait to water until the temp drops a bit. All plants enter a semi dormancy phase whenever temperarures get that high, they're teying to protect themselves so their roots won't take up water till the temp cools slightly, so at night they will "come awake" again. If that makes sense? Everything is trial and error when you first get plants. The longer you have it the more you'll learn how to read what it wants. Let me know if you want to know anything else, and I'll try and help to the best of my abilities :)
0 likesSince you've planted them in quite gritty soil you can water them quite a bit in summer without risk of root rot. Everytime the soil is completely dry all the way to the bottom you can water again (only in summer), in spring and autumn wait for soil to be completely dry but you can water every few days, every week etc. Desert roses go into dormancy in winter, unless kept in a warm houses indoor. So in autumn once they start having yello leaves that drop off decrease your watering a lot, it means it's going into dormancy. Once all the leaves have fallen off it's dormant. Over winter you don't need to water at all really, maybe only a couple of times over the winter months, so it should be at least a month or so apart. They are very prone to root rot in winter if they get too much water. Do not start watering properly again until you see new leaves appear in spring. That's when the plant is waking up. In term of fertilising, only fertiliser in spring and summer and be careful, dilute it, you don't want to burn the plant. If I remember correctly I think a 10-10-10 fertiliser is best, but you should probably do some research on that. Depending on the fertiliser they do different things. So if you want it specific for flowering look up what you need, otherwise some of them just focus on growing the leaves and keeping those healthy, rather than the flowers.
1 likeIn terms of pruning. There's a lot of conflicting information about when to prune, some people say in autumn before it goes dormant, others say in spring once you see the first leaf etc. I prefer spring personallu otherwise in autumn I won't know when it's dormant if I prune everything. These plants are quite hardy so you can really prune hard. But make sure you know the plant has woken up in spring before you prune! I did it once before I saw any leaves and I nearly killed them all, luckily they survived. In terms of pruning it depends on the look you are going for. Everytime you snip a branch the leaves will double when they regrow. So people who want lots of flowers like to prune theirs often. I liked mine to be short stemed and compact and bushy so I pruned mine back quite short to near the caudex. Maybe a couple of inches long. You can do every branch, or just a couple, whichever ones you want. After you do them pop some cinnamon over the open wound to try combat any infection. Make sure you wear gloves, desert rose sap is toxic and can be very irritating to the skin. You can find some good videos on youtube on how to prune them as well, they're very helpful.
1 likeAlso just a quick thing about repotting, only repot in it's growing season, not in winter. And repot into dry soil, once it's been repot, like most succulents do not water it for about a week. Let the roots re-establish first otherwise it's prone to root rot. Also in spring when you prune, once it's woken up it's a good time to repot the plant (you can keep the same pot if it hasn't grown much) so that you can raise the caudex out of the soil by a couple of centimeters. Once the caudex is exposed to though it can never be buried again, so make sure everytime you repot or raise it you're not accidently putting it in deeper than it used to be.
1 likeI hope all that was helpful to you or to anyone else who reads it. Sorry for all the really long messages! It bothers me how they can't be broken up into paragraphs on this thing.
1 likeMy desert roses, it was going into winter. I'm trying to find photos of when I first bought then, but I'm struggling.
Also forgot to say they will survive outside in the cold very well, as long as it doesn't get below freezing. Mine stayed outside in 2-3 degree weather and were undercover so that theu didn't get hit by the frost.
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