Desert roses I grew from seed

Desert roses are something I suddenly decided to try growing from seed one year. Perhaps it was because I found caudex plants really interesting at the time and wanted to collect some different kinds, so I bought some seed and tried sowing it myself. That was around 2023, and I now have about a dozen or so plants.

I have honestly forgotten the exact names. There may have been varieties called 金剛 (Jin Gang) or 黑鷹 (Hei Ying), or something like that. As time went by, the labels went missing, whether they fell out during repotting or some just got missed, so my records are no longer complete. All I know is that the seller claimed these were varieties whose stems swell easily.

For a while, desert roses were actually a bit of a headache for me. My growing space is limited and the light isn't great (northern Taiwan, under shade cloth that blocks about 30–50%), and what I mainly grow is staghorn ferns.

So with light and water conditions that didn't really suit desert roses, in 2025 they ended up being the plants I pushed outside to grow in the open.

What I didn't expect was that once I pushed them out, they got fatter and fatter. Maybe it was back under the shade cloth that they were really having a hard time (ha).

Growing them seems to come down to sun. In the warm months, let the potting media dry out before watering thoroughly again. In winter, if they drop their leaves, going a month without water is fine. That said, I think during the rainy season in northern Taiwan it is probably still best to keep them somewhere relatively sheltered from rain so the media doesn't stay too wet. Overall, though, they are relatively easy to grow.

About the genus Adenium

The following is researched information.

• Classification and native range: Adenium, the desert rose genus, belongs to the family Apocynaceae. POWO accepts 6 species, native to tropical and southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
• Form: Succulent shrubs or trees 0.2 to 6 m tall, with the lower trunk sometimes up to 1 m across, and clear or white latex. The leaves are alternate and clustered at the tips of the branchlets.
• Fruit and seeds: The fruit is a pair of oblong, hairy follicles holding many seeds, each seed with a tuft of hairs at both ends.