Achimenes flower, care and reproduction at home
Indoor flowers with a pronounced dormant period are the best solution for urban apartments with their limited space. One of these plants is the achimenes flower, the care and reproduction of which will not cause much trouble. Pleasing with abundant flowering and a lush deciduous cap the entire growing season, the bush falls asleep for the winter. You can safely transfer it to a dark and cool pantry, freeing up space on the windowsill for other plants. And with the arrival of spring, Ahimenes who comes to life before our eyes will feel good on the balcony.
Characteristic features of the plant
The main advantage of achimenes is flowering. It is very abundant and long lasting, from May to mid-autumn. The flowers themselves do not live long, but a new one immediately opens to replace the wilted bud. They resemble bells with an extended neck. The color can be very different, there are even two-color varieties.
Achimenez's closest relatives - gloxinia and violets.
Achimenes flower, care and reproduction
A tropical guest does not have the most harmful character. If you provide him with proper conditions and take care of the rest, he will delight for more than one year. Ahimenes loves good, but diffused, light and moisture, but does not tolerate waterlogging. It has no special requirements for the soil, the main thing is that it is loose. There must be drainage in the pot.
Features of care depending on the season
From spring to the very beginning of autumn, the flower should be watered regularly and abundantly. It is better to take rainwater or settled water, at room temperature. It is important to ensure that no water remains in the pan after watering, otherwise the roots will rot. To maintain humidity in the air, it is advisable to put the flowerpot on a pallet with wet pebbles. During the growing season, the bush can be fed twice a month with mineral complexes for flowering.
You can also spray achimenes, but rarely and carefully. Ugly spots appear on fluffy leaves from drops of water.
At the end of autumn, Ahimenes must be sent to rest so that he gains strength before a new flowering. The plant itself will tell you what it needs: the aerial part begins to dry. The root system remains in the pot for the winter. For the winter, the flowerpot should be placed in a room with a temperature not exceeding 15 ° C, while the flower does not need lighting. Accordingly, watering at this time will be rare (once a month), only so that the roots do not disappear. With the arrival of spring, you can return the achimenes to a warm room and resume watering.
Reproduction methods
A flowering perennial can be diluted both by a seed and a vegetative way, namely:
- Sowing seeds in the spring in a greenhouse in a mixture of sand and leafy earth. Sowing should be shallow. Grown up seedlings dive into separate cups.
- By rooting the apical cuttings in water or directly in the soil. The cut site is pretreated with a growth stimulant.
- Dividing the rhizome during spring transplantation. The overgrown rhizomes are divided in such a way that each division has a shoot. Before planting, they must be dried and the cut is sprinkled with crushed coal.
In indoor floriculture, achimenes is most often propagated by the third method. Bushes grown from seeds often lose varietal characteristics, and rooted cuttings die during dormancy due to weakness.