Healthy and beautiful indoor flowers always ennoble and enliven the interior of any home. Unusual tropical plants look especially interesting.
In this article, we will share with readers the secrets of growing a decorative flower with the interesting name Afelander. Home care for him is quite complicated. This plant requires a careful attitude and needs constant attention. Most often, in a home environment, it quickly discards leaves and dies. However, when creating favorable climatic conditions, timely watering and proper agricultural procedures, the flower will actively and quickly grow, pleasing the eye with its well-groomed appearance for a long time.
What do Afelander flowers look like?
About 150 varieties of these evergreen shrubs and shrubs are known. They belong to the Akantov family, their homeland is the vast territory of the tropical rainforests of South and North America. You can recognize the flowers of Afelander by the following characteristic features. These plants are usually stunted. They have juicy lignified stems reaching a height of 25-30 cm. Their leaves always attract attention. They are large, glossy, rich green hue, with bright silver veins and white stripes. At the end of August, golden spike-shaped inflorescences resembling cones in their shape appear in the afelander. Typically,
flowering continues throughout the fall. When it ends, all inflorescences are immediately removed. Otherwise, the plant forms fruits with seeds that ripen during the winter. They look like boxes with two nests, in which there are two seeds.
A decorative flower for your home collection is Afelander. Home Care
In indoor plant growing, two species of Acanthus were most widely distributed - orange apelander and bulging aphelander. To grow something like this at home, you should make a lot of effort. It is believed that the whimsical and capricious indoor plant of Afelander. Care for it consists in selecting the right fertile soil, providing sufficient lighting, constant hydration and timely feeding, as well as pruning young shoots and faded inflorescences. Afelandra prefers good, bright enough lighting, but at the same time does not like the ingress of scorching sunlight. Therefore, it is advisable to shade it when necessary.
In the winter season, the plant needs additional illumination. If the afelander is not provided with the necessary additional lighting with fluorescent lamps, it will lose its decorative appearance, and its flowering may also deteriorate. In the warm season, you can take out a pot of plants on the balcony or loggia. The main thing is to arrange the afelander so that rain does not fall on it and does not burn the direct rays of the sun. In the open air, the plant will feel great. And in the cold season, it is advisable to install a flower pot in a warm room and not to drop the plant under the influence of drafts.
Optimum temperature
How to grow an indoor Afelander flower? Caring for it consists not only in the selection of optimal lighting, but also in maintaining a favorable temperature and humidity in the room. In the warm season, the plant prefers to establish a comfortable temperature for it at 22 ° C - 25 ° C. In winter, a slight decrease in this parameter to 20 ° C is allowed. At temperatures below 18 ° C, the plant may not tolerate wintering. The only species called protruding afelandra can withstand colder climatic conditions (up to 10 ° C).
Room humidity
Like many other people from the tropics, this shrub prefers high humidity. You can maintain the necessary 60-80% with a household humidifier. Also, the afelander should be sprayed regularly from the spray gun. This procedure should be performed both in the morning and in the evening. In the winter season, experienced gardeners are advised to put a pot with a plant on a layer of wet expanded clay. This will create increased humidity around the flower.
Watering and feeding
The humidification mode of this interesting plant of the Acanthus family is as follows. In the summer, potted soil is watered twice a week, and in winter - once every 10 days. It is very important that the substrate always remains moderately moist and never dries. On the other hand, water stagnation must not be allowed, otherwise the roots of the afelander can rot and die. For watering, it is recommended to use only soft boiled warm water. Moreover, when moistening an earthen coma, liquid is not allowed on the leaves. It responds well to feeding the afelander. Caring for it involves the regular introduction of nutrients. Fertilizing is carried out in the period from May to October, while fertilizer is applied once every 14-15 days. For afelandra, a liquid complex fertilizer for indoor plants is perfect . In the dormant period (November-February), feeding is stopped.
Plant transplantation into a new substrate
In addition to proper watering, spraying and top dressing, timely transplantation of an afelander plant is required. Care at home for young specimens is as follows: they are annually transferred into pots with a new substrate. Spend this operation in the spring. Adult specimens are transplanted every two or three years. For afelandra, they select fertile soil or make up the soil mixture on their own. It is recommended that you make a substrate of ingredients such as sand, peat and
turf, in proportions of 1: 1: 2, respectively. If you buy the soil mixture in the store, choose loose, moisture- and breathable. Rooting of an afelander is carried out by cuttings.
Annual pruning of a bush
As a rule, in late February, pruning of the mother plant is provided. This procedure is performed so that the bush has a beautiful magnificent shape. When pruning, all shoots are removed from the plant, leaving only 30 cm tall stumps. After that, a regular spraying of the flower is carried out. Sometimes, for better adaptation, after removing the shoots, it is advised to cover the afelander with a plastic bag. If the old plants are too stretched, and the trimmings do not help to give them their former beautiful shape, they produce cuttings.
Breeding
After cutting, the resulting side shoots are placed in a mixture of peat and sand and covered with a cap. At a room temperature of 23 ° C-24 ° C, rooting is easy, especially if you constantly ventilate and spray the cuttings. Sometimes shoots are treated with growth stimulants and bottom heating is used. After 15-30 days, apical cuttings form the roots, and after 50-60 days, stem. After that, they are planted in a soil mixture of humus, leaf, peat and sand. In addition to cuttings, propagation is sometimes made by the whole leaf and seeds of the plant of the afelander. Care at home with reproduction is as follows. Sown seeds in March or late February - after harvest. A good substrate consisting of sand and sheet soil is selected for the seeds. In a greenhouse, a favorable temperature (22 ° C) and air humidity are necessarily maintained. When propagating by leaf cuttings, a well-developed leaf having a
axillary kidney is used. It is rooted in a mixture of sand and peat under a glass cover.