Adenium obesum. Well, probably. If it's some other kind of Adenium, then you have my apologies, pretty flower, for misrepresenting your heritage.
A desert rose by any other name....
I love this intensity of color. The odd-looking shape is great too. And there's a whole subset of plant fans that are gaga over the caudiciform base on various plants - this, famously, being one of them.
See, its other, far less dignified name, is Fat Plant.
Another word describing that kind of base is *elephant's foot.* A prettier turn of phrase, there. Especially if you like elephants.
This plant will set seeds. If you grow new plants from the seeds, you don't know for sure what color the flowers will be. They're never quite duplicated. Maybe there's less white, or the reds are less intense. Or more.
What you WILL get, though, is a good fat foot.
If you root a cutting, you'll get the exact same color of flower. Sure. Same exact plant, right? BUT!!! You'll almost never get a fat base.
So a person who wants a Desert Rose needs to know, if it hasn't bloomed yet, that the color of the flower is unknown.
And if it's a cutting, that they're choosing flower color over base.
Now...If they get very lucky - or have the patience to watch and look and wait - they get a great flower on a plant with a great base.
k was not only that lucky, she got the little one for like $7.00, a few years back. WAY below retail.
At this size and quality of color and development, it's a good candidate to be stolen now. (A lot of plant thieves around these days.) And, we also get people coming by offering to purchase it for ridiculous sums. Hundreds of dollars. I'm not selling.
I love this flower so much. I feel like I could fall inside those colors. And then...rarely, and only at certain times of day...it releases a gentle and delicate fragrance, barely there, that makes you want to bury your head in that plant for hours. And just breathe.
12 comments:
The photo of the flower looks unreal, like a painting. Its color is so intense. Beautiful!
Oooohhh...beautiful beautiful flower!
And hey - you are NOT a lame blogger! NOT! I'm enjoying your entries. I'm sorry about your kitty's death, ks.
Got you bookmarked and will put on the blogroll ASAP - if I EVER manage to create a blogroll!
Now, how about them biscuits?!
Gorgeous flower....and, did not know it had a scent at times.
Sigh, what a delicious way to waft off to a restful slumber. Thanks for sharing. Incredible. Marti
thanks everyone! I love that baby.
Sometimes is gets an Attack of the Fritillaries. Their caterpillars are orange with tufts of long black hair. They crawl all over the Desert Rose and eat all its leaves, and scare Walter half to death, and make him stomp around and say long long curses in Hungarian.
But then the caterpillars go away and pupate. It grows its leaves back, and takes a deep breath, and bursts out in bloom all over again.
And yes i AM a lameass blogger! As opposed to the writing part - I'm a technophobe with a blog. This is why you don't see such basic and ordinary things as a blogroll hanging around here...but I WILL, one day. I just know it.
mistme, i mistyou.
and biscuits are soon to follow.
Dang, I almost got one of these too, but they were at full price. I may have to keep an eye out for one, I had no idea that they bloomed. Tho, I've got lots of frittilaries too, but most of them I find on the passion flower vine.
(kisses)
I know you still miss yours as I still miss mine.
Frittilaries! Frittilaries! What a super name for little hairy caterpillars!
Or, would that be, fritillaries?
Ain't it grand? Such a fine musical sort of word! Like in *Pilgrim,* talking about *sycamore.*
Gulf Frittilaries no less!
And I used to have them all over my passionvine. They LOVE passionflowers. But they love lots of other stuff in my yard too, so I still have plenty around.
Nancy, part of the adjustment is getting used to the house having no pets at all now. I want it to stay that way for a while, for a lot of reasons. Some people tell me I should get another right away. I think in this particular case, not yet.
I've been a cat momma for over 23 years straight, and my health is certainly not what it was. It was very hard to take good care of my baby at the end. Plus, I don't want to, sort of, layer over his presence with a different animal's presence? not just yet. I need to be catless for a while.
I feel his cheerful sweet mother around a lot lately. Not him so much yet - just a sort of quiet underlying constant. With her it took a while, I felt nothing, then on the 18th day after she passed away she came around, and has been visiting ever since.
With some humans I've lost, I felt them around a lot at first, then they diminished away. My fabulous grandma Helen? Not a thing. Ever. Rats. And perfectly in character for her, too. *What's next? Down the road there? Okay, let's GO! Bye now!*
Wonder if that will grow in the middle of TX.
bb, it probably would. It comes from Africa, equatorial I think; it's a succulent, and does well in a wide variety of rain situations. I never water mine - I very rarely water my yard. Of course, we do get a lot of rain here.
But I bet it would like mid-Tx just fine.
Keep up the good work » » »
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