Can you take cuttings from a desert Rose? If so How?

[Green Mantis]

I NEED to know if I can take cuttings from my desert rose cactus? If I can how do I go about it???? Thank you in advance.........I REALLY need to know soon. AS my big desert rose got overwatered and went all mushy, So now I need to know if the branches I cut off it, before they went mushy, should just be in soil or if they can be saved????? Need some HELP Please. Thanks in advance.

[adobo]

Yes you can. That is how it is propagated here. I just don't have first hand experience but from my understanding, you can cut off a branch and make it to root on your growing medium.

[Green Mantis]

I tried that, with the proper soil mix and root supplement. Didn't work. They all died.

[Andie]

When taking cutting a from a desert rose/adenium obesum the cuttings will root better if they are left for a couple of days to cure the wound. It will form a callous and then it will be ready to plant.

[imafan26]

What Andie said is true of most succulents. BTW desert rose is not a cactus. All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti.

Adenium obesum is in the dogbane family , Apocynaceae, which means it has milky sap. It is a closer relative of plumeria.

If you have another desert rose, and want to make cutting. Cut a healthy branch and make sure the end dries and calouses off. You can stick it in your potting soil and the pot you are going to leave it in. I am in the habit of rooting everything in perlite first before planting out. If you do propagate from a cutting, it may not form the "belly" that you see on a seed grown plant. It is also relatively easy to graft a desert rose onto another one. If you have a flower you particularly like, grafting is the way to go since, you never know what the flower will look like from seeds.