Medinilla, care at home for which requires responsibility and immense care, is a worthy decoration of any garden, its pearl. Almost every connoisseur of beauty wants to have a spoiled beauty, but not everyone can afford it: the plant is too capricious.
Medinilla, which is very laborious to take care of at home, is difficult to adapt to an environment that differs from the usual humid tropics. In nature, an evergreen plant - a native of the island of Luzon (Philippines), Madagascar and tropical Africa - is much larger than a room copy, grows with bushes and reaches a height of 2 meters.
Medinilla: Description
The flower got its interesting name in honor of Medinella - the governor of the Mariana Islands - one of the former colonies of Spain. The English call this plant a “chandelier tree” for its huge drooping inflorescences.
You can admire the natural pearl in botanical gardens, greenhouses and true connoisseurs of exoticism, where medinilla (home care for which not everyone can do it) royally majestically occupies its niche, standing out from other plants.
Indeed, several tiers of large leaves with many small bright pink flowers, collected in elegantly hanging racemose inflorescences (about 10 cm long), are truly mesmerizing by the delicate beauty and splendor of pink shades. The leaves of the medinilla are no less impressive; oval, grayish-green in color with prominent light veins, they are huge (reach about 30 cm in length).
Medinilla: capricious foreigner
Compliance with the temperature regime and ensuring the necessary humidity are factors that demanding medinilla is in dire need of.
Home care (the photo shows this) with full compliance with the plant's comfortable conditions will cause it to bloom twice a year (in the spring and summer), and the duration of this bewitching spectacle is about 10 weeks. After flowering, overgrown exotic beauty is recommended to be qualitatively cut.
In search of the best place to place the medinilla, it is better to stop your choice on the eastern and western windows; direct sunlight will negatively affect the plant on the south side , on the north side it may bloom poorly. In the summer, the flower can be grown on the street, in partial shade. When the first buds appear, you can not change the location of the plant.
Temperature and humidity are the main conditions for growth
It is very important that not only is the place where the medinilla will stand correctly selected. Home care consists in observing the main requirement: the correct temperature regime, which should be 20-22 ° C from spring to autumn, in winter this figure needs to be gradually reduced to 15-17 ° C. It is during this period that the plant nucleates flower buds. One of the enemies of the medinilla is drafts, so for placement you need to choose a well-ventilated and at the same time quiet places. During the dormant period, it is important to provide the plant with maximum illumination, for which fluorescent lamps (or phytolamps) can be used.
An important factor determining the normal growth of medinilla is air humidity; the optimal indicator is 75-80%. The leaves of the plant must be constantly sprayed (without falling on the flowers) or use a humidifier. You can put a container with water for evaporation next to the flower.
Watering
Watering the flower requires water at room temperature. An important condition for quality plant care is moderation and prevention of stagnation of water in a flower pot, which, by the way, is desirable to be placed on a pallet with expanded clay, wet gravel or moss, which will ensure water evaporation and the required humidity. In the autumn, watering should be reduced and practically limited in the winter.
The plant will not bloom or may discard leaves when temperature conditions are violated, insufficient lighting and low humidity. This can lead to frequent changes in the location of the pot with a flower. Therefore, it is very important to find the very right place in which the medinilla will feel comfortable.
Home Care: Pests and Diseases
Low humidity can cause damage to the medinilla by pests such as thrips, scabies, spider mites and red spiders. Against thrips, drugs such as Karbofos, Argavertin, Actellik, Karate, Fitoverm are used; the red spider can be combated by spraying with special means and increasing air humidity; the scab is destroyed by systemic insecticides. The spider mite is afraid of chemical and herbal preparations. It is important to timely identify the symptoms of the possible appearance of pests in order to prevent the death of the plant. After all, it is always nice to see in your flower collection such a unique instance as medinilla.
Home Care: Diseases
A plant may begin to hurt if its growing conditions are violated. Their manifestation will be noticeable in the form of brown spots on the stems and leaves. If such signs are found, the affected shoots should be urgently removed.
From March to August, the plant needs to be fed with complex liquid fertilizer twice a month. Fertilizer for orchids is great as a top dressing . The rest of the year, fertilizing is not required.
Medinilla Reproduction
Medinilla is propagated by both seeds and cuttings obtained during spring pruning. Cuttings are planted in containers with sand and covered with polyethylene or glass, where they are kept at a temperature of 26-30 ° C. After rooting, which occurs a month after planting, young plants need to be pinched to stimulate branching, after which they should be watered and fed liberally. Seeding is carried out in February – March in a mixture of sand and earth (1: 1 ratio). Crops are placed in a warm place, and in May – June, rooted seedlings are transplanted into a larger container. Thus, there is already an almost-formed adult plant - medinilla.
Home care: a young plant is transplanted every year, adult flowers - every two years. At the same time, a small pot is sufficient for successful growth. The substrate can be made from peat, sand, humus, turf and leaf soil, taken in a ratio of 1: 1: 1: 2: 2. In the process of transplanting, the plant needs to be cut, the cut branches can be used as cuttings to plant a new beautiful flower.
Do gardeners like medinilla? Home care (reviews of which are different and diametrically opposed) is difficult, but possible. It is easy for someone to grow a medinilla, but for several years someone cannot breed it in their garden due to the capricious nature of the latter. In fact, everything is very simple: you need to follow the above recommendations and love the plant, and everything will work out.