Perennial ornamental plants Achimenes, growing in natural conditions in the tropics of America, with proper care for a long time will delight you with its long and bright flowering. In a temperate climate, these plants bloom only in the warm season: with the onset of the first spring heat and until late autumn.
Beginning gardeners will be interested to learn the rules of home care for Achimenes, whose photo we posted in this article, the characteristics of planting and propagation of this plant. This will allow you to replenish your collection with beautiful and rather unpretentious flowers.
Features of Achimenes
These flowers, belonging to the Gesneriaceae family, are herbaceous plants with underground scaly rhizomes - rhizomes. The name of the flowers is translated from Greek as "afraid of the cold." All species of the family have creeping long, drooping stems. Pubescent leaves with serrated edges densely cover thin shoots. Often, green leaves on the underside have a reddish hue. The size and shape of the flowers are diverse, in accordance with the species. What unites them is that they are all bell-shaped and funnel-shaped.
Indoor achimenes do not exceed 50 cm in height. Each flower blooms and keeps on branches for only a few days, and then it is replaced by more and more new ones. Some species have upright stems. There are varieties with an ampelous form of a bush. This allows you to choose the appropriate design options for the room, balcony, veranda. According to the shape of the flower, Achimenes are divided into simple and terry (ampelous). Ampelic achimenes, which today is represented by numerous varieties, has a drooping stem, which during flowering is literally strewn with flowers. These plants look very beautiful in the interior.
Popular varieties
Achimenes flowers, care for which will not cause problems even for beginner gardeners, have long been successfully used in indoor floriculture. The most popular varieties of this plant include:
- Amie Saliba. Compact bushes strewn with simple flowers with a yellow core. Petals can be pink or orange.
- Peach Cascade. The variety is fully consistent with its name due to the peach color of the flowers. It was launched in 2009. Color saturation largely depends on the illumination, in bright sun it does not fade. Ampelic this variety is not considered, despite the fact that the shoots may be inclined.
- Blue Star. A plant with large flowers painted in blue-violet tones. Petals are wavy and jagged. The pharynx has a brown hatched spot. The plant is erect, with white rhizomes.
- Glory. Compact bush with light green leaves and beautiful flowers. In the center they have a yellow spot, and the petals are painted in scarlet with brown strokes. The variety is characterized by abundant flowering.
Growing conditions: basic requirements
This is not the pickiest houseplant. However, this does not mean that there are no rules for caring for Achimenes at home. To flowering was long and plentiful, the plant needs to create comfortable conditions. These include:
- the abundance of scattered light with mandatory shading that protects from direct sunlight;
- moderate but regular watering and the exclusion of spraying, from which spots may remain on the leaves;
- To maintain the necessary level of humidity, it is necessary to spray indoor air or install humidifiers during the heating season;
- the soil should always be moist, especially during the flowering period, but its excessive waterlogging or drying out should not be allowed.
We make the soil mixture
With the preparation of the necessary soil composition for plants, care begins for them. Achimenesa home flowers need loose soil, which includes:
- leaf humus (3 parts);
- turf land (2 parts);
- river sand (1 part).
Some gardeners believe that adding a small amount of humus and peat is not out of place. The plant is not too demanding on the composition of the soil. You can buy a ready-made composition for decorative flowering plants or for violets. It is imperative to make good drainage, since Achimeneses do not tolerate stagnation of moisture in the pot.
Flower pot selection
Ahimenez does not need a spacious container for landing. Choose a wide and shallow pot, as the root system of the plant is small and superficial. The closer the capacity is, the more intense the achimenes will bloom. A small pot with a diameter of not more than 10 cm is quite enough for a two-three rhizome.
Ahimenez: landing and care
Most often, rhizomes are used to plant this plant. Sellers often call them roots. You can buy them in a flower shop or order by mail. The rhizomes of these flowers externally resemble small pine cones or mulberry fruits in shape.
Large rhizomes can be divided into several parts when planting. However, do not grind them strongly so that young plants bloom well and are healthy and strong. Over time, Achimeneses produce daughter rhizomes.
Pour the substrate 2/3 of the volume into the pot over the drainage layer. On its surface very carefully, without pressing into the soil, spread the rhizomes - up to 10 pieces can be planted in a container with a diameter of 25 cm. They need to be covered with a layer of soil (about 3 cm).
After planting, the roots are watered with warm water and the pot is covered with plastic wrap. After that, the container is placed in the warmest and brightest place in the house. Planting, as well as transplanting awakening flowers into fresh soil can be carried out in February. When the shoots appear and begin to develop, the film shelter is removed and the traditional care begins.
Achimenes at home requires regular watering, spraying the air, loosening the soil in a pot and applying fertilizing regularly. Read more about these agricultural activities below.
Flowering usually begins four months after planting a rime in the ground. During flowering, increase the number of fertilizers. If you want your Achimeneses to be more bushy, you need to pinch the tops of young shoots. The same applies to faded stems: the tops are removed, which stimulates the formation of side shoots and new buds. Upright species need support, otherwise they will fall, and the stems may break. Ampel varieties should be grown in flower pots. And now we’ll figure out what the Achimenes needs at home.
Lighting
In our country today, these multi-colored "bells" are very popular. You have probably seen photos of Achimenes in floriculture magazines. Home care is simple for them, but certain conditions must be observed that will allow you to grow such beautiful plants. Good lighting Achimenes loves. However, in the summer it is undesirable to keep the flower in the open sun. The plant feels more comfortable under diffused lighting.
It should be said here that depending on the variety, the degree of lighting requirements can be different. In the shade, the stems of the flower are stretched and exposed, losing leaves, the flowers of many varieties lose their brightness.
Temperature
When caring for Achimenes at home, this indicator should be treated very carefully. During the growing season, the room temperature should not fall below +20 ° C. The optimum temperature during this period is considered to be within +20 ... + 24 ° C. The plant does not tolerate cold drafts. In the summer, at a constant daytime temperature, the flower feels great on the balcony. However, cold nights can harm him, so in the evening it is better to bring him into the room.
With the onset of autumn, the temperature should be gradually reduced, but not allowed to be below +15 ° C. During the period of rest, it is necessary to maintain the room temperature near +10 ... + 15 ° C. The flower feels fine on a glazed loggia.
Watering
Caring for Achimenes requires proper watering, since the plant does not tolerate either drought or excessive moisture. Humidification is carried out only after drying of the topsoil. In other words, watering should be moderate. For him, it is advisable to use water at room temperature. Moreover, it should be maintained for at least two days.
We already mentioned that when caring for Achimenes, water should be avoided on leaves and, of course, on flowers. This may cause brown spots to appear on them.
Air humidity
The question arises: if a plant does not tolerate water on flowers and leaves, how to ensure a high level of humidity, which Achimenes loves so much? In this case, a tray with wet moss is used, on which the pot is installed. Slowly evaporating from the sump, the water creates additional moisture around the bush without damaging the flowers and leaves.
Top dressing
For most indoor plants, timely top dressing is important. In this sense, Ahimenez is no exception. Plant care begins already 1.5 months after planting with a rhizome. Sprouts during this period need frequent top dressing. Liquid fertilizers are applied every week. Complex fertilizers for ornamental flowering plants are suitable for this. A good effect is given by such drugs as Pokon, Etisso, "Agricola".
Rest period
In the beginning, and in the southern regions in mid-autumn, when daylight hours are shortening, the leaves of Achimenes begin to turn yellow, and then die. During this period, watering should be gradually reduced. It is necessary to cut the dried stems, leaving the roots in the same pot. They can be placed in sawdust or sand and put in a cool dark place. The temperature in it should not be lower than +10 ° C and not exceed +15 ° C. Moisturize the sand (sawdust) no more than once a month, only so that the rhizomes do not dry out.
In the last days of February, pots with Achimenes are placed in a room where the temperature is maintained at not lower than +16 ° C, gradually increasing the frequency of watering.
Ahimenez: breeding and care
Achimenes perfectly propagates vegetatively (by cuttings, dividing the rhizome), as well as by seeds. But it should be borne in mind that when propagating by seeds, varietal characters are not transmitted. Rhizomes of rare and valuable varieties of this plant are germinated to increase the number of shoots, sprinkled with a thin layer (0.6 cm) of soil. It is possible to use cuttings for propagating the Achimenes flower. Caring for young plants in this case is somewhat more complicated.
Cuttings are rooted in water, a light substrate, or in moist coarse sand from early to mid-summer. However, in this case they can not be sent for wintering, because they still do not have a rime or they are too small and can simply dry out during storage. Therefore, many flower growers resort to this method of reproduction extremely rarely.
If you artificially pollinate flowering achimenes, you can get seeds that ripen two and a half months after the plant withers. Small seeds are extracted from the fruits that have become soft and sown on the surface of coarse sand or light substrate in early March. The container with seeds should be covered with a film or a sheet of glass and put in a warm place. Humidify the substrate from the pallet. Seedlings appear twenty days after sowing. The grown seedlings dive into pots. Next year, young plants will delight you with luxurious flowering.
Ahimenez has a long, plentiful and bright flowering. This turned him into a welcome green pet for gardeners. Those who once bought at least one variety of this plant dream of expanding their collection with these wonderful flowers as quickly as possible.