Senpolias, or, as they are usually called, violets, are plants not only for the home, but also for the offices of various companies. Red terry violet Bullfight, simple purple with yellow eyes, white with a graceful blue rim, light pink, in separate small pots or placed among other types of flowers - the variety of hybrids of the African (Uzbek) Saintpaulia provides room for creative solutions.
Ideal for a room designer
Almost every respectable modern company has indoor flowers. Floristics as a component of room design is present in almost every solution.
Florist designers love to decorate offices with indoor plants. Hybrids of very beautiful violets - worthy execution of projects: they bloom constantly, care is minimal, and training the employee responsible for plants is a quick matter.
Among creative interior design solutions, violet Red Bullfight is used quite often: the variety has been known for over eight years. It looks original in high-tech, baroque and English styles.
The purity of the classic lines and the artfulness of art deco give an excellent opportunity for mutual existence with a rich (good red wine) shade of the hybrid Saintpaulia Gold Bullfight.
Where and when did the uzambar violets come from?
Among the subtropical plants are many interesting small and huge flowers. To pay attention to an interesting specimen, collect the seeds and send them to their homeland (in this case to Germany), Walter von Saint-Paul was lucky, who served in Africa in 1882. His father, Ulrich von Saint-Paul, passed them to Herman Wendland, a botanist (it was not difficult - the baron was president of the German Dendrological Society). Wendland grew a flower from seeds, described it (1893) and named it Saintpaulia teitensis - Saintpaulia violet-flowered (violet-colored) in honor of his father and son .
Industrial breeding of senpolis was purchased by E. Benari, but it was not until 1927 that the fascination with this plant as an indoor plant in the USA began. By 1949, breeders all over the world bred a hundred varieties of senpolis. The plant is popular among ordinary gardeners and breeders. Demand is unchanged, especially since today more than three thousand varieties are already known. Violets of Russian breeders occupy a worthy place among varietal hybrids; red terry violets of breeder Elena Korshunova are in special demand.
Hybrid EC
Any sort of violets has not only its name, but also the prefix - as is customary among breeders. EC are hybrids of Elena Korshunova, a breeder from Togliatti. She specializes in obtaining large-flowered (simple and terry) violets. Her EC violet brand Bullfight immediately became interesting to amateur flower growers from Russia and the CIS countries. Today, many nurseries near and far abroad offer this variety for sale.
Violet Bullfight: Description
The hybrid gives a very smooth dense green rosette of leaves of a relatively large size (25-30 cm). Flowers are the largest (just huge - up to 8 cm) among the red flowers.
Depending on the illumination, the violet Bullfight (photo confirms this) can be colored in different ways: from bright scarlet to ruby (red wine). It blooms constantly (this is a feature of the variety): first, three short peduncles appear, one or two flowers on each, buds open, and the next three peduncles grow. A hat, like other terry
senpolia, violet Bullfight (the photo clearly shows this) does not form, but this amount of huge flowers is enough to enjoy the plant. Each subsequent flowering gives the same size of the petals - this is also a feature of the variety.
The variety gratefully responds to top dressing and compliance with light and humidity conditions.
According to the advice of flower growers, it is better for violet Bullfight to remove the bottom row of leaves of the outlet in a timely manner.
What is the sport of violets?
Violet Bullfight Gold - a sport from the main hybrid Bullfight.
In new fantasy varieties, children of the next generations do not always convey its main characteristics when working on a hybrid. These kids are called sports. Sometimes they are very worthy, on their basis new varieties are obtained.
Violet Bullfight Gold opens large semi-double flowers on strong peduncles. The socket is variegated, at the very top under the flowers it is very light.
Against its background, ruby-red flowers look very impressive. Compactness, strength of flower stalks, along with an intense shade - such a combination of characteristics can not always be achieved with delicate violets.
The propagation of the senpolia
To obtain the claimed variety, you need to know how to propagate, how to plant a violet, how to care for it to bloom constantly.
There are three ways to get offspring from violets Bullfight: rooting a daughter outlet, growing from leaves, seeds. The first two are available to any grower, and the third is used by breeders.
- To get a new plant from the outlet, you need to grow a stepson on the violet. How? The variety of violets Bullfight rarely develops daughter sockets, so it needs to be forced to release a stepson. To do this, she pinch the growth point. Violet will begin to create new growth points - these are the future outlets. When they are 2-3 cm in size, they are carefully cut from the violet and planted in a pre-prepared wet mixture in a pot. Cover with a plastic bag to maintain constant humidity. After 2-3 weeks, the outlet will give roots, evidence of this is the growth of leaves of the outlet. The package can be removed.
- The most affordable way to breed Hybrid Bullfight and Bullfight Gold hybrids is leaf cuttings. In a strong adult plant, a leaf is cut from the second row of the outlet along with the petiole. Then it must be cut with a thin (disinfected) blade at a distance of 2-3 cm from the base of the sheet. Place the prepared leaflet in warm soft (distilled) water so that the base of the handle does not rest against the bottom of the container. English breeders advise placing leaves on the edges of the plate: they lie freely, and in the case of several varieties, you can put the plates under the bottom of the plate. In transparent containers and plates you can see when the roots appear. It is not necessary to wait until they become large: for a good rooting, their length of one and a half to two centimeters is enough. The stem is carefully buried in moist, loose soil (or sphagnum moss), in three weeks green leaves will appear - this is the future outlet. When they grow to two centimeters, the mother leaf can be cut off (first half, then after a few days leftovers). If the room has a low temperature (below 20-22 degrees), rooting may not occur. For the same reason, you can’t put the pot with the handle on the windowsill: in the afternoon, direct sunlight overheats the soil mixture , and the night air cools.
Violets: how to care
In order for the bullfighting senpolia to bloom (this also applies to the Bullfight Gold variety) constantly, plants do not need to be transplanted into huge pots when purchased, although the diameter of the outlet can be larger than the size of the pot. Only the root system will actively grow in a huge pot, and violets will not want to bloom.
The soil for these hybrids when transplanting (or grafting) can be prepared from various components: peat, coniferous land, turf and leaf in a ratio of 1: 1: 2: 3. It’s easier to use a special soil mixture for violets from the store.
You do not need to put pots with collection senpolis of the Bullfight and Bullfight Gold varieties on the window sills: violets do not like direct sunlight. You can put them on the rack, installing it close to the window. In order for these varieties to bloom constantly, you need to provide them with daylight hours of 12-14 hours. In the autumn-winter period this is achieved by illumination with fluorescent lamps with a yellow glow.
Watering varietal violets must be approached quite strictly: only when an earthen lump dries up, you can water the flowers, and even then only along the edge of the pot. If moisture gets on the leaves of violets, Gold Bull Fighting can even change their color, which is completely undesirable with a variegated outlet. Cold water contributes to the decay of the root system, so its temperature during watering should be two to three degrees above room temperature.
Experienced growers are advised to feed the blooming senpolia Bullfight and Bullfight Gold at least once every two weeks, buying special feeding in the store.
For information: how to get new varieties
To get new colors from violets, new forms of flowers need to be patient and study the advice of breeders.
First you need to understand how the senpolia propagates by seeds, try to grow new plants, collecting these tiny dust particles from the mother's violet in time. And only after a small seedling blooms (this will not be earlier than after 9-10 months), one can be puzzled by hybridization.
To obtain a new variety, two plants are needed: one needs to remove pollen (this is paternal) and transfer to the other's pestle (this is maternal). Thus, the Bullfight variety was obtained. It would seem that everything is simple, but you need to do it jewelryly at the moment when the pollen of the father’s plant has ripened and when the mother’s is ready (a drop on the pestle indicates this). Yes, you also need to remove the stamens from the mother so that it does not pollinate itself. And if in time these processes do not coincide, then what? You need to learn how to save pollen, which is also not easy.
Then, after successful pollination, you need to wait until the seeds ripen (from five months if the process is started in the spring, and up to nine months if in the autumn). The flower stalk, on which pollination took place, first increases in size, then curls a little, then begins to dry out.
The box with seeds must be removed, dried, and only then opened. Wait two or three months, and only then plant the seeds, pouring them on a moist soil mixture, covering it with glass or a bag, that is, creating a greenhouse regime.
Tips for a beginner breeder of violets
The beauty of flowering hybrids of violets Bullfighting, their intense color, ease of propagation by cuttings often cause an inexperienced grower an acute desire to create a new variety himself. But he is not so much confronted with the difficulties of the process as the lack of systematization skills, that is, paper work. Therefore, it’s easier to engage in the propagation of proven varieties, you can even try to root flower stalks (another way of propagating the senpolia) - it's still better than getting a new hybrid, not knowing what qualities it should have. What if a random crossing occurred and the plant will not be able to convey the desired qualities? And if dominant signs and recessive ones were not taken into account? What then to do with the plant? Is it a new variety or not?
Only the ability to self-organize will help to become a real breeder, and not just an amateur flower grower.