First Blush Desert Rose Bulbs

Adenium obesum — First Blush. Young plants rather than show specimens: compact pear-shaped caudexes, roughly the size of a thumb joint, each already pushing two or three fat buds that open white with a pink blush. This is the variety to buy if you have never grown an adenium — small enough that a windowsill is enough, and quick enough to flower that you see the result in the first season.

What you get

• Dormant bare-root caudex, compact and firm, with buds already set at the crown.
• Flowers the first season — often within 8 weeks of potting.
• One plant per bulb ordered — order 5 and you get five pots’ worth of plants.

How to start it

• Pot: 3–4 in / 8–10 cm terracotta is plenty to begin with. Free-draining mix, 50/30/20 cactus soil, pumice and coarse sand.
• Water: dry for 7 days, then soak-and-dry. Small pots dry fast — check every four or five days in summer.
• Light: 6+ hours of direct sun. A south-facing sill is ideal at this size.
• Cold: USDA 10–12 outdoors; indoors keep above 50°F / 10°C, and barely water from November to February.

These are young plants, so the caudex will look slimmer than the mature specimens in the other listings — it thickens noticeably in its second summer. Ships dormant and bare-root, wrapped in dry sphagnum. 5–7 working days to dispatch, 8–25 working days in transit.