My Nursery Garden In My Back Yard

Desert Roses with seed pods -------- Brad Vigansky July 2009
Pictures by Cody Hunter Roy©

The picture in the upper left is my Desert Rose with about 20 seed pods set on and seem to be doing quite well. It seems that open pollination is working just fine, so far. This is the third year that I have had that plant and moved it into my back yard where it receives full sun. Here in South West Florida in Port Charlotte, the summer sun is hot hot hot; however the Desert Rose is thriving. I was concerned at first and the first two years I protected it from the sun, but after some research I found that they like the full sun. The one thing I have been concerned about is the excess rain that we sometimes get here. However we have been in a drought for the last three or four years, maybe more and it appears that the Desert Rose loves it. I have three varieties setting together for the purpose of cross pollination. I may be in for some pleasant surprises.

It’s not very clear but at the top of the picture in the right corner is a screen covered frame that I have about 90 desert rose babies growing and doing nicely under the screen. By the time I’m 80 years old, if all goes well, I should have some to sell. It looks like I’m going to have plenty of seed. Next year, I may be able to sell some of them.

I was going to try cuttings and grafting but since it seems like I will have seed production, I’m going to stick with raising them from seed. It takes about three years to get a saleable plant.

Right at this time I am having a problem with little yellow aphid like looking little creatures. I am trying to be organic in my approach, so I have to watch very closely and am only dusting where I see the little critters. I think they are the Mexican Milk Weed beetle. They are voracious little varmints and would completely eat all the leaves off of my desert rose plants. I check them every day.

The desert rose is a megapode or big foot and that is part of the charm of this plant. If I grow them from cuttings, the new plants will not develop this megapode. If you copy the picture you could enlarge it and see better how the bigfoot grows. You also could see the seed pods better.

Thank you for reading my blog. Brad Vigansky

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