Adenium (Fu Gui Hua)

Adenium bloom

Today's posting is on Fu Gui Hua or Adenium. Frankly, I only get to know of this plant's scientific name today, after some research on Google. As we always refer to this plant as Fu Gui Hua (meaning Flower of Prosperity), I never bothered to check out its formal name. Would anyone know what's the name of this plant in the Malay language?

Young Adenium shoot grown from seedlings.

Adeniums are happiest when they have sufficient warmth, sunlight and ventilation. This plant is very suitable for my house that faces east. I placed my Adeniums under the bright hot sun. They would bask, glow and bloom gloriously under the heat.

Last month my adeniums were attacked by caterpillars. You wouldn't believe how much of food those little greenies are able to consume overnite. Although I have grown adeniums for some years, my knowledge of maintaining them is very minimal. It was always through trial and error that I learnt how to manage my plants. I saw my adenium's partly-eaten leaves with brown edges and witness 3 healthy, lush, green adeniums turned into very sick-looking, browning trees. Looking at them made me heart-sick. Yet, I am no plant doctor and can't offer the cure.

Fortunately, my close friend, Roxanne, who also loves gardening and grows adeniums caught sight of my problem and alerted me on the caterpillars attack.

As the caterpillars were hiding on the underside of the leaves, they were not visible unless you check carefully. Rox showed me the culprits - fat, green caterpillars!!! They have infested my plants. The sign of them can easily be seen from the tiny, black, sphere faeces found all over the plants, according to Rox! However, by then, it was too late to do much. I was advised to prune the stems of the adeniums and let them re-grow with new shoots.

Thanks to the regular downpour in the evening and bright sunshine during the day. After a month, I have beautiful, healthy growing adeniums and one of them is blooming. See the photos below that show before and after the flowers bloom.

Photo above shows the Adenium with buds.

Photo above shows the Adenium when the flower blooms eight days later.

I am no expert on Adenium. Due to today's posting, I have surfed online and found more information on Adenium. I will post the information that I found tomorrow so we can learn more about Adenium together.