Koleria at home: care and propagation of flowers, the nuances of growing and forming a crown in the fluffy variety, photo of plants

Koleria is a luxurious shrub plant native to South America. It enjoys incredible success among gardeners and florists throughout the world due to its unpretentiousness and ability to easily survive at home. With competent and high-quality care, the collierium will delight you with luxurious and abundant flowering almost all year round. The main thing is not to make mistakes typical for beginner gardeners. Further on the features of care for color at home.

How to care for flowers?

Koleria is an abundantly flowering herbaceous thermophilic plant of the Gesneriev family. Differs in unpretentiousness and perfectly takes root at home. Coloring grows in a lush compact bush with bright flowers of various shades. With proper and timely care, the plant can bloom all year round.. So, koleriya needs the following care measures:

Substrate

Koleria is very fond of nutritious and light soil. It must necessarily be moisture permeable and slightly acidic. An ideal soil mixture for gesnerium plants is ideal for the plant.

In the absence of such you can make a suitable substrate with your own hands. Mix in equal proportions:

peat;
turf and leaf land;
fine sand (river);
and add some charcoal there.

Lighting and location

Koleria loves sunlight, therefore it is necessary to place it in a well-lit place, but in no case under direct sunlight, since the flowers and leaves of the plant are very sensitive to the effects of the sun. A place with diffused sunlight is ideal for the color scheme (it is worth placing it on the western / eastern windowsill).

Temperature mode

Koleria does not like excessive heat, as, indeed, cold. Optimal temperatures for the plant:

in the summer - 18-24 degrees;
in winter - 15-18 degrees.

If the room is too hot during the summer, the plant may die.

In the cold period of time, you should carefully monitor the temperature indicators in the room - if the air temperature drops below those indicated, it may begin to fade.

Humidity

Maintaining an optimal level of humidity is extremely important for the collieria, since it is a tropical plant. Moreover, the ratio of temperature and humidity should be optimal. For example, at a temperature of about 22-25 degrees, the humidity level should be at least 30%. Only in this case, the color will grow well. In no case should you place the plant near heating appliances.

Watering

Water the plant should be moderate, so that the soil does not dry out, but was not constantly wet. By external signs, it is easy to determine the need to add water to the soil: if the top layer of the soil is already dried up and the substrate is still wet, you can safely water the plant.

To moisten the soil in which the colony grows, it is advisable to use water that has been left for 3 days or purified (since white-yellow bloom remains on the stems of the plant, which harms it).

Important. Although the colium is a water-loving plant, in no case should its green part be sprayed (even during the hot season), since in this case the leaf plates will simply begin to rot and the plant will lose its decorative attractiveness or even worse, it will die.

Top dressing

To maintain plant viability it fed with mineral and organic complexes for plants from the family of gesneriaceae or violets. The former saturate the color with nitrogen, necessary for the growth of green mass, the latter stimulate active and lush flowering. Fertilizing is necessary with the advent of spring and up to the end of flowering plants with a frequency of 1 time in 2 weeks.

You should not experiment with top dressing: if you use a certain type of fertilizer for top dressing, it is undesirable to change them sharply, because the plant is very sensitive to such changes. Coleria will gladly absorb the same type of fertilizer over the years.

Flowering period

During the flowering period, the coloria needs high-quality and regular top dressing. Every two weeks, fertilizers with a predominance of potassium and phosphorus, which stimulate lush and beautiful flowering, should be applied to the soil.
Watering during this period of time should be constant but not too frequent. The main thing is to prevent moisture from entering the flowers.
It is also important to protect the plant from direct sunlight.

Wintering

Most varieties of koleriy prefer to retire in the winter or hibernate.

It is better to place the plant in a dark place.
Watering should be minimized during this period.
The plant also does not need top dressing.
In some cases, the green part dies off in the colliery in winter, in no case do not discard the plant. Leave the pot with rhizome until spring, and you will definitely wait for new shoots.

Pruning

If the plant begins to dump foliage in the cold season, it is necessary to help it, pruning it down to the roots. If the plant does not drop foliage, pruning is optional.

If desired the formation of crown colors can be done according to your wishes. This must be done before the onset of the growing season.

If you want to get a lush plant, you should cut only the top.
To obtain an ampelous plant, it is necessary to leave the shoots alone and over time they themselves will fall down as needed.

Transfer

Plant transplantation is carried out in the spring.. The capacity for transplantation should be wide enough, since the root system of the plant grows more in breadth than in depth. If you use a deep pot for transplanting, the root system of the colony will not receive oxygen, and the soil will be constantly wet. As a result, the roots will begin to rot.

Reference. Koleria is a plant that is quite gentle in relation to changes in life, so you should choose a place for the plant very carefully. It is important to understand that with any changes in the environment, the coloria reacts very sharply. So, if you rearrange it on another window sill or just turn it, she may experience a real shock.

Photo

Look at the photo of the color scheme, which, with proper care, gives beautiful flowers at home.

What are the ways to reproduce?

Coleria usually reproduces in several ways.

Cuttings

Rooting in the ground:

For propagation by cuttings, an shoot of about 8 cm long is taken.
It is necessary to root it in a mixture of humus and sand. At the bottom of the pot should be high-quality heating.
From above, the container must be covered with a transparent film until the first sprouts appear.

You can use a different method of growing a koleriya cuttings. For rooting in water you need:

Place the cuttings in purified water.
When the first small roots appear (usually this occurs after 6-7 days), the stalk should be transplanted into a separate container with nutrient soil.

Rhizome

The process of reproduction by the rhizome can be carried out at any time of the year, but most likely to grow a new plant in spring. For this:

Rhizome must be cut into several equal parts with the kidneys.
Plant each of them in soil to a depth of about 2 cm.
Then gently pour water.

From each scale with proper care, a new plant should appear.

Seeds

Reproduction by seeds is carried out at the end of the winter period. The best soil for sowing seeds is considered a mixture of sand and sheet soil.

Seeds can not be immersed deep in the soil: just slightly push them into the soil, slightly moisten it with water from a spray bottle, and cover with polyethylene.
When the first shoots appear, remove the film.
And when the first pair of leaves appears, it is necessary to dive the young plants in separate pots.

Pests and diseases

The plant is very rarely affected by pests, but in some cases a spider mite or aphid may appear (the leaves and shoots of the plant begin to deform).
You can get rid of them by treating the plants with insecticides and changing the soil.
Sometimes koleriya is sick with powdery mildew or root rot. When gray plaque appears on the leaves of the plant, you should immediately sound the alarm and reduce the amount of water introduced into the soil, since it is often the excess of moisture that provokes the development of these diseases.
In addition, it is necessary to treat the plant with fungicides and check its roots. If necessary, update the soil.
Important. If a plant twists its leaves, this most often indicates that the moisture level is insufficient, as well as the amount of water introduced into the soil.
In addition, often with the plant there are certain problems that are identified in external changes:
1. Lack of flowering. Flowers may be absent from the color scheme for several reasons. In most cases, this is due to one of several reasons: insufficient fertilizer, insufficient humidity, too high air temperature, etc.
2. Withering leaves. In winter, when the plant does not have enough light, its leaves begin to gradually fade.
3. Change the color of the leaves. When the leaves of the coloration turn pale, this indicates that the plant does not receive the necessary amount of nutrients or the flower stands under direct sunlight, which actually burns the green part of the plant.
4. Brown spots on the leaves. A similar problem is typical for coleries that receive moisture from cold water. It is enough to slightly warm the water and the problem will disappear very quickly.

Features of courtship for different varieties: Linden, fluffy and others

Before deciding on the type of collieries that you would like to grow at home, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of each of the varieties you like in more detail.

Most often, the differences relate to the amount and period of top dressing, and the need for pruning (or lack thereof). Top dressing should be applied according to the flowering period.. For example,

Linden's colony blooms usually with the onset of autumn and throughout its entire period;
Bogotskaya pleases with colorful blooms usually from mid-summer to early autumn.

Regarding pruning, this process should be approached very carefully. Some types of colors do not need it, but, for example, a fluffy-flowering variety must be cut periodically, since the plant is tall and in the absence of flowering can reach a height of 1.2 m.

Important. Remember that (regardless of the variety), koleriya is a very delicate plant: it is very sensitive even to mechanical stress, so you should handle it with extreme care.

That's all the subtleties that you should know about growing at home such a beautiful flowering plant as koleriya. Carefully monitor the slightest changes in the appearance of the flower and take care of it correctly. In this case, koleriya will definitely answer you with magnificent long flowering. Good luck