The camellia flower, the care of which at home seems to many beginners to be something extremely complicated, is incredibly beautiful. Its magnificence is worth a little torment with the rooting of cuttings. If you want to go on an easier path - a grown room camellia, which is much easier to care for, is sold in almost every flower shop. Let's find out more about this beautiful and unusual plant.
Camellia: home care, prejudice
An ideal place for a flower would be a warmed balcony. With the help of camellias it is possible to turn it into a real greenhouse. It takes only a little experience, patience and good knowledge of the annual cycle of this plant. In no case should you water, transplant and feed him in the same way as the rest of your green pets. The current opinion about the "capriciousness" of this plant and its unsuitability for growing in a room is based precisely on the characteristics of the annual camellia cycle. What are the differences? Let's start in order, with the fact that you have acquired a flower. Camellia, care of which requires thoughtfulness, is not always sold in optimal form. In stores, not all sellers are able to give adequate advice on its cultivation. Often you can hear from them that camellia can not be rotated, in order to avoid shedding buds. And that flowering will occur exclusively in a cold room, so the plant supposedly does not need to be kept warm.
Both of these judgments are prejudices and can lead to disappointment. If camellia is blooming on your windowsill, care at home for it does not exclude the possibility of turning it, as well as raising the room temperature to twenty
degrees Celsius. An indispensable condition for proper cultivation is maintaining moisture. Camellia several times a week should be put in the shower or sprayed. For this, ordinary tap water is suitable, if it is not excessively chlorinated. It is necessary to water exclusively boiled, adding a few drops of citric acid to soften.
Camellia home care: transplant, dressing
The root system of this plant has a number of unique features. One of which is that most of the year the flower is in hibernation. In the period of active growth, transplantation is contraindicated.
But during flowering, you can do this. After all, then it does not grow, but only functions mechanically, delivering moisture from the roots to buds and leaves. But you can’t feed camellia during the formation of flowers in any case. This period covers the length of time from early summer to spring. To prepare the soil, you need to take the soil with an acidic environment, quite loose and nutritious, add humus. You can use the finished mixture or make it yourself. In the latter case, the earth from under the spruce will be required in combination with humus, turf and sifted brick chips. It is possible to transplant during the year up to three times. They are fed during the period of active growth. About once every six weeks. The first top dressing is a complex composition with a high nitrogen content. You can use a mixture for azaleas and rhododendrons.