Displayed below is the 'Adenium Obesum var. multiflorum' also known in South Africa as the 'Desert Rose' or 'Impala Lily'.
The plant is grown for its unusual trunk shape that is called a caudex and its interesting branching habit. It is a beautiful and abundant flowering shrub with large bell-shaped flowers shaded pink, white or red (or in some cases, all three). The plant flowers mainly in July ,but will also bloom as late as mid-September when in cultivation. (Where temperature and the amount of water given can be done under controlled circumstances)
I've cultivated these plants from seed and out of the surviving (15) seedlings, I've chosen (3) plants to further develop into bonsai trees through the course of a few years. These adeniums are ideal because of their green foliage that can be trained into a canopy form.
The bonsai test subjects have been chosen according to the girth and width of the stems, the amount of foliage on the apex and the growth rate since seed germination - Those are only a few of the desirable qualities that I would look for in the cultivation of adeniums.
The plant has often been compared to a miniature baobab and I can see why.
