The homeland of a beautiful houseplant with the unusual name "calathea medallion" are the tropics of South America. This perennial rhizome flower belongs to the Marantov family. It is worth buying it only to experienced lovers of indoor plants. The fact is that the flower is very moody and requires the most careful care. At the slightest violation of the cultivation technology, he dies.
Short description
What is a "calathea medallion"? This plant is appreciated by amateur gardeners mainly for beautiful variegated leaves. Their color is very bright and spectacular. The wide plates of the flower are oval in shape. At the same time, another lighter āleafā with beautiful wavy white edges and a huge number of yellow and pink veins is drawn in the center of each of them. This color looks really original.
The leaves of this plant grow in the form of tubes, gradually unfolding. In the morning, the plates are arranged horizontally, and by evening they begin to take a vertical position. Their lower side has a dark pink color.
Leaves are the only merit of such a plant as the ācalathea medallionā. Its flowering is not too spectacular and plentiful. The corollas of this flower have only one value: the seeds formed in them are often used for reproduction. But there are interesting varieties of flower.
Sometimes on sale there are very effective hybrids of the plant "calathea medallion". For example, varieties with leaves painted in all shades of purple both from above and below are very popular among indoor flower lovers.
How to choose a place?
The flower "calathea medallion" refers to shade-resistant plants. Indeed, in the wild, it grows in the lower tier of tropical rainforests. Specialists recommend keeping this flower in partial shade. If you put the pot in the sun, then the plant may withstand such conditions that are not too suitable for it. However, in this case, its leaves will not be too bright. It is best to place the flower on the north window behind the curtain. An exception to this rule is only purple hybrids. They are best installed on the east or west window.
Humidity for this flower needs a very high - 90%. It is impossible to create such conditions even in the bathroom in an apartment or a house. Therefore, the flower should be sprayed very often. You can not neglect this procedure. Otherwise, the plant will die.
What should be the soil?
The pot for indoor flowers "calathea medallion" is filled with a substrate of this composition:
- peat - 1 part;
- land mixed with humus in equal proportions - 1 hour;
- sand - Ā½ h;
- frayed charcoal - Ā¼ part.
You can also purchase ready-made soil mix for plants of the Marantovy family in a flower shop. In order for the ācalathea medallionā to feel good in the pot, pebbles should be poured into the bottom of the container and put broken shards.
Care features: how to moisturize?
Water the plant should be quite often, but not allowing stagnation of water. Many beginner gardeners make a big mistake by endlessly moistening the soil in the pot. The result of such excessive zeal is usually the death of the flower. At the plant, the edges of the leaves begin to blacken, after which they die.
This variegated bush should be watered only when the soil beneath it is sufficiently dry and becomes slightly moist. In this case, you need to use only warm water at room temperature. This plant categorically does not tolerate cold. Overdrying the soil is also something that cannot be tolerated when growing such a flower as the ācalathea medallionā. The leaves of him dry most often precisely for this reason.
Spraying plants
As already mentioned, this procedure is mandatory when growing ācalatheaā. Spray the plant should be correct. Humidify only the air around the leaves. Water should not fall on the plates themselves. Otherwise, burns or dark spots may appear on them. Spraying should be carried out several times a day. If time is not enough, then you can do a little differently - put the flower pot in a larger container, and fill the resulting empty space with moist moss. Drying of this natural moisturizer in the future should not be allowed. Spray a flower, of course, in this case too. However, this procedure can be done less frequently.
How to fertilize?
To feed a plant in the spring-summer period should be approximately once every two weeks. Compositions for decorative hardwood indoor crops are best suited for this. Too many fertilizers do not like the ācalathea medallionā. Therefore, in the feeding process, only half the dose recommended by the manufacturer should be used. In order not to destroy the plant, this advice should be strictly followed. Feeding should be started in mid-spring. Finish fertilizer application at the end of summer.
How to transplant?
The root system of the indoor flower is ācalathea medallionā, the care of which is actually very complex, superficial. Therefore, the plant needs periodic transplants. Young flowers are transferred to new containers once a year. For adult plants, the period between transplants is two years. Carry out this procedure as carefully as possible and exclusively in the spring.
When transplanting into a new container, first drainage is poured, and then the soil prepared in advance, the composition of which is described above, is put in a layer of 2 cm. The roots of the plant are carefully lowered into a pot and sprinkled with the remaining soil mixture. It is not necessary to compact the soil too much. Otherwise, the roots of the flower will rot. You can also not deepen the growth point of the "calathea". She must stay on the surface. The pot should not be filled to the brim. After transplanting, the plant must be watered and put for several days in a cool, shaded place.
Breeding methods
To breed this flower at home is quite difficult. But it's still worth a try. In this case, the method of dividing the bush should not be used. His ācalathea medallion,ā which is very difficult to care for at home, does not tolerate well. It is better to try to propagate the plant by cuttings. To do this, cut a small aerial branch with a growth point and 3-4 leaves from the motherās flower. It needs to be slightly buried in moist soil and covered with a transparent plastic bag or a plastic bottle from above to root.
Sometimes the plant "calathea medallion" is propagated by shifts. This planting material should be mixed with one part of sand and two sheet of earth, and then put in a bowl. Top containers must be covered with plastic wrap. Germination should occur at a temperature of +21 - +25 degrees. After the seeds give roots, they should be sprinkled with two centimeters of soil.
What pests most often affect the plant?
With insufficient spraying, the ācalathea medallionā can be affected by a spider mite. This pest settles on the back of the leaves and envelops them with many thin white threads. The mite has a very small size and is almost invisible to the human eye. When a pest appears, the plant should be sprayed with some kind of insecticide.
Sometimes the "calathea medallion" is also affected by thrips. They form numerous colonies on the underside of the plant. As a result, the color of the plate even changes. For treatment in this case, you can use a soap solution or insecticide. After spraying, the bush needs to be slightly fed.
Often on the green parts of the flower "calathea medallion" scale insects also settle. So called small black bugs that feed on the juice of the plant. Like thrips, scabs can be destroyed with a soap solution. They should shed abundantly all the green parts of the flower.
Plant diseases
It often happens that even with good care, the flower's leaves begin to turn yellow. This problem usually arises due to the fact that the plant owners overdone with fertilizers. Also, casting a flower may turn yellow due to the fact that it is cold. The air temperature in the room where the pot with the plant is installed should not fall below 16 Ā° C. The optimal indicator is 25 ā°.
There is another problem faced by flower growers growing such a plant as the ācalathea medallionā. The leaves of this flower are curled with improper care very often. Thus, the plant usually responds to a lack of watering. If the flower began to curl leaves, the frequency of humidification of the earth beneath it should be increased.
Sometimes the wrong choice of the location of such a flower as the ācalathea medallionā becomes the cause of this unpleasant phenomenon. The leaves dry, curl and die off of this plant often if it is placed next to some household appliances. This can be, for example, a computer, TV, microwave, etc. Put the flower away from devices that emit electromagnetic waves, and take good care of it. In this case, "calathea" will delight you with lush foliage with a pronounced pattern.