Perhaps you have ever been presented with a bouquet of exquisitely beautiful plants with unusual inflorescences. Calla is a flower with an elegant appearance and strong character. He can hold out for quite some time in the cut, delighting with his unusualness. Of course, it’s nice to get such an original gift, but it’s much more tempting to try to grow this miracle at home.
Despite the African origin of this plant, it is quite possible to cultivate it either in your room or on a garden plot in a greenhouse.
Greenhouse creation
If you decide to engage in growing flowers for cutting, so that at any time of the year you will indulge yourself with fresh inflorescences, then you need to allocate a corner for plants in your greenhouse. Calla is a flower very thermophilic, but in a heated indoor room with artificial lighting and ventilation, it feels quite comfortable. At the same time, he is even able to tolerate tolerably temperature fluctuations from plus 8 degrees Celsius to plus 50.
Of the special conditions, the thickness of the fertile soil can be noted. It should be at least 50 centimeters. Plants are planted compactly. On one square meter, it is permissible to place up to 5 bushes.
The plant has rather pronounced periods of activity and dormancy. The care that the calla needs needs is tied to these cycles. During growth and flowering, the flower needs to be watered and fed intensely (best of all with organic matter). And at rest, watering must be stopped.
There is also a little trick that allows you to increase the yield of the cut. In order for the new buds to form more quickly, you just need not to cut the stems with inflorescences, but carefully pull them out of the sinuses. Then you make room for the formation of the next escape. He, of course, will be slightly inferior in size to the first. But you wanted to get as many flowers as possible?
Potted flower - calla
If not everyone has a greenhouse, then anyone can try to grow an African beauty in an apartment.
For a pot with a plant, you need to choose the best place. The flower will feel comfortable on the windowsill, where a lot of sunlight falls. It’s good if they are not direct rays, but diffused light. If you have less than 12 hours of daylight , take care of installing an additional daylight lamp. Otherwise, your plant will refuse to bloom.
The period of activity in callas is replaced by a rest cycle. This usually happens in winter. The plant stops growing, the leaves dry out, sleep sets in. During this period, it is necessary to achieve a decrease in temperature to plus 18 degrees Celsius.
When it is time to wake up the plant, the temperature rises to plus 24 degrees. This is enough to wake up your calla. The flower begins to actively develop.
Care Rules
Do not ignore the composition of the soil in the pot. In specialized stores they sell ready-made substrates for aroid. It is to this class that our exotic plants belong. In the composition of these mixtures are present in equal proportions: leafy earth, humus and sod. In addition, clay, river sand (washed) are added to them in an insignificant amount.
Calla is an indoor flower with a very strict watering regimen. The earth in the pot must be kept constantly moist. But do not flood the plant. Better put the pot in a special tray filled with expanded clay, pebbles or sphagnum. Add water regularly to the filler, which will slowly enter the substrate. Do not forget about daily spraying of leaves with water.
It is noticed that shoots gaining strength after hibernation are very responsive to irrigation with acidified water. A little citric acid is added to the water (but only a little), and then the resulting solution is carefully poured into the pot.
As soon as the cycle of activity begins, with its rapid growth and development, the plant needs good nutrition. Both organic and mineral fertilizers are suitable. But by the time the buds are formed, exclude nitrogenous fertilizing from the “diet” of flowers.
Negative Prevention
Like all plants, your exotic beauty is prone to disease. Yes, and pests are not averse to start it.
Especially carefully you need to track the appearance of rot. It is easy to recognize by a change in color and deformation of the leaves. In case of detection of even the slightest signs of damage, it is necessary to treat the plant with a soap solution.
Often thrips attack a flower. To avoid these pests bypassing your plants, always remove the smallest accumulations of dust and dirt from leaves and sinuses of callas in time. Also maintain humidity. If prevention is unsuccessful, then again resort to water procedures using soap. Also spray with insecticides.
Multiply
You can try to propagate your home flower. Calla can not boast of good germination of seeds, but it is responsive to the division of rhizomes. It is the latter method that is used in the conditions of “apartment” cultivation.
The procedure is not too complicated. In the fall, when a cycle of decrease in activity begins, a part of the roots is separated from the mother bush. This piece is placed in a separate pot with pre-prepared fertile soil.
After which we leave the pot alone until spring. Try to keep containers with the bushes asleep in a room with a temperature regime of plus 12 or plus 15 degrees Celsius. Humidity in the room should be high.
If the wintering was successful, then in the spring you will see young shoots.
Do the same with tubers.
Roots or tubers?
So what roots does your flower have? Red calla has tubers, but white has rhizomes. Where does this diversity come from?
The thing is that this culture includes varieties that were bred from Ethiopian calla lilies , as well as plants that emerged from Calla Remann (red) and Elliot calla (pink-lilac). The former are characterized by a white color of inflorescences and the presence of rhizomes. The second are tuberous plants.
It is believed that red and pink callas are much easier to grow .
But in any case, no matter what callas - white or red - you begin to grow, you will need all your patience to get the result. Only attention, love and everyday work will allow you to admire such exquisite and delightful inflorescences.