Indoor plants serve as decoration of our houses and apartments. Not only women, but also many men with trepidation and care relate to the flowers on the windowsills. With the help of plants, you can give certain notes to the whole interior. Flowers are often planted in bizarre pots. It is known that plants maintain humidity in the room and purify the air.
Gardenia flower
Gardenia is one of the most beautiful plants that has been enjoyed by many indoor flower lovers. It belongs to the class of tropical madder flowers and has about two hundred and fifty varieties. Only one type of gardenia has adapted to home conditions - jasmine, it is also called Cape jasmine or August. This flower is very moody in content and requires special care. But forever green, saturated green petals and very beautiful flowering of this plant are worth the effort and care when growing it. The aroma emanating from the flowers invariably gives a feeling of freshness and spring harmony.
Description
Gardenia moved into apartments from the forests of Japan, India or China. This flower is unusually beautiful. It belongs to climbing shrubs, in nature reaches two meters in height. The bark of this plant has scales. Its petals are solid, green with a glossy sheen and a lancet shape. Gardenia flowers are quite large - 8-10 cm, usually white, somewhat reminiscent of a tea rose. The color of the buds may be pale yellow, pink or cream. This plant has bright yellow fruits that are even suitable for human consumption. A jasmine gardenia flower usually does not reach a size of more than 50 cm, but in rare cases its height can be one meter or more. This houseplant, unlike most of its counterparts, has a thin, persistent aroma and blooms for a fairly long period of time, about four months. Gardenia blooms in mid-summer and lasts until mid-autumn. Although an already adapted flower can bloom at other times of the year, in winter it can also please with its lush buds, which are located on the stem tip one by one or in pairs, which creates an unusually beautiful appearance of the plant. Large white flowers are in lush greenery.
The main types of indoor gardenia
There are several types of gardenia flowers (photo attached to the article):
- jasmine (G. Jasminoides ellis);
- gold, yellow (Gardenia carinata, kuta);
- citriodora (G. Citiodora).
The varieties of this plant include the following varieties: Flore Pleno, First Love, Variegate, Veitchii, Fortuneana, Kleim's Hardy, Radicans. These species have proven themselves as indoor plants.
Types of Garden Gardening
Among garden gardenia flowers, there are also quite a few varieties:
- Radicans - white flowers, double, lanceolate and glossy.
- Kleim's Hardy - white flowers are small in size, blooming in summer and spring.
- Four Seasons - flowering year-round with proper care.
- Fortuniana - large camelliform terry flowers.
- Variety Veitchii - has delicate double terry flowers, dark foliage.
- First Love - cream-colored terry flowers can appear 2 times a year.
- Variegata - leaves with light yellow specks, white and double flowers.
- White Gem - small dark-colored oval leaves and star-shaped five-petalled flowers.
- Mystery - blooms in large flowers for quite a long time.
Gardenia Flower: Home Care
As already mentioned, this flower is quite moody and requires increased attention to itself. Observing the following rules in the care of gardenia, you can permanently save this plant as a decoration at home. To do this, you must follow some care rules:
- monitor the temperature so that there are no sudden changes in it, only in this way will the plant successfully grow and delight with its magnificent flowering;
- the soil should be moist, but not too wet;
- acidic soil is an ideal environment for ensuring plant health and its rapid growth;
- lighting should be adequate, but exposure to sunlight should be avoided;
- suitable for rooms with high humidity, subject to access to daylight;
- in no case can you change the location of the flower during the formation of buds or flowering, because this can lead to shedding of the formed buds;
- gardenia is a heat-loving flower, the ideal temperature for its growth will be 20 degrees Celsius;
- Watering should only be done with settled water or rain and always warm.
The trick in growing gardenia flowers is plentiful summer watering and moderate in winter.
Lighting, temperature and humidity
Lighting in the room in which the gardenia flower is located should be sufficient. Moreover, in order to achieve year-round flowering, it must be present around the clock. An ideal location for a gardenia pot is a window that faces west or east. It should also be remembered that the flower is very susceptible to drafts. In winter, it is strictly forbidden to change the location of the plant in the house. It is better to transfer the flower to spring.
The temperature needed by the plant in the warm season should be about twenty-two degrees. In winter, gardenia is overgrown with buds for wintering, and the temperature in this process should not exceed twenty-one degrees Celsius.
The temperature of the soil and the room should be at the same level. No sudden leaps. If you lower or, conversely, raise the temperature of the soil too much, you can interrupt the process of bud formation and not see the plant bloom.
Plant watering conditions
The above temperature and lighting conditions are not the most important for the formation of healthy flower growth. Moody gardenia is called precisely because of the features of its watering.
When the plant is growing, it should be watered abundantly, but only if the upper layers of the soil in the pot are completely dry. In transitional periods (spring and autumn), watering is reduced to 3 times a week. But in winter, watering should be minimal. Water for irrigation is taken warm and necessarily settled. You can maintain soil acid by adding citric acid or lemon juice to the water. But with acidizing the soil, the main thing is not to overdo it, because it will instantly affect the size of the leaves and their color. They will turn yellow and reduce their size. A few grains of acid or drops of juice per 1 liter of water will suffice.
During budding and flowering, the humidity in the room should be increased. These problems can be solved by constantly spraying the plant while the buds remain closed. After opening the flowers, the spraying should be stopped. But the humidity should be maintained further, therefore, next to the gardenia pot, you need to put a container with water.
During the period of active flower growth, it is necessary to actively fertilize the soil with liquid fertilizer additives. Suitable universal fertilizers for flowering indoor plants. But when using them, you need to halve the recommended amount for irrigation.
During the formation of buds, soil acidity is best reduced. This can be achieved by watering and top dressing with a high content of iron level. Two times watering during the budding period is quite enough.
The gardenia root system grows throughout the pot and quickly absorbs moisture if it lacks minerals. It is during this period that you can apply fertilizing, both mineral and organic, alternating it alternately.
Transplanting this plant requires extreme caution, and it is better to produce it only if absolutely necessary. When transplanting, you need to handle the horses very carefully, they are thin and very fragile. Trimming them is a minimum. In the new soil, they will soon grow again.
Transfer
The gardenia flower, the care of which we consider in this article, has certain transplantation rules:
- a third of the flower pot is filled with drainage;
- they fill it with a substrate for indoor and flowering plants or with special soil for gardenias or azaleas;
- calcareous soil is prohibited, only a substrate with an acidity of at least pH 4.0.
- with independent preparation of the soil, sand, soddy soil, coniferous, leaf and peat should be present in equal parts in it.
Pruning and reproduction
Gardenia flower must be trimmed, while removing weak shoots and dried flowers. If the plant is too richly covered with leaves, then it can be thinned. You can form foliage overgrowth both sideways and upward, cutting off unnecessary branches. They can be used to propagate the plant by simply rooting it in the soil.
The gardenia flower (see photo in the review) is propagated by seeds. But at home this is a rarity. Cutting young shoots 10 cm in size is the best way to grow a new flower. It is recommended to cuttings in the winter months or early spring, while the twig needs to be put in water or in the soil mixture. Over time, the fouling of the stem begins with roots. A growth promoter should be added to the mixture or water. So the plant will take root much faster. For fast growth, you can also cover the stalk and soil mixture with a film or glass, ensuring the same temperature of the substrate and plants.
It is necessary to transplant the gardenia flower that has grown at home when its height reaches 10-12 cm. A magnificent crown should be formed initially, cutting off the upper shoots. If everything is done correctly and in the future, all the nuances in caring for the plant are observed, the shoot will bloom in a year.
Diseases and Pests
There are a number of symptoms of gardenia flower diseases. Below is a list and the reasons for their occurrence:
The reason may be the drying out of the soil, improper watering, insufficient lighting, low temperature in the room, rearrangement of the pot, use of cold water when watering.
The main reasons for falling leaves and changing its color to yellow may be: lower temperatures, cold water during irrigation.
- The color of the foliage fades.
Inadequate lighting, lack of top dressing, or too high humidity are the main causes of leaf loss in color.
The non-acidic environment of the soil and the lack of light can serve as reasons for the non-opening of the formed buds.
- Yellow stains on the leaves.
An increase in soil acidity or chlorosis is required.
A plant ceases to grow if pests appear on it (scale insect, tick or aphid).
To control pests, special drugs are used, approximately once every seven days. Symptoms of pests are sticky leaves, a cobweb on the foliage and its twisting, gray stripes or brown spots on the surface of the stem and leaves.
Healing properties
Gardenia flower (we examined the care at home in the article) is not only a beautiful ornamental plant, but also a medicinal one. Its effectiveness in the treatment of stomatitis, dysentery and mastitis is known. Also, decoctions from its petals successfully help to fight diseases of the lungs, kidneys, intestines.
Compliance with the recommendations of specialists when growing this beautiful plant will allow you to admire its magnificent appearance and flowering. Thanks to its amazing beauty, gardenia can be a great decoration for absolutely any home.