Home care for unusual brugmansia
If the florist's collection has appeared brugmansia, caring for it at home will not be the easiest, but the plant will respond to care with a magnificent, unlikely flowering.
In nature, brugmansii are large perennial shrubs or trees that grow up to 11 meters high. It would seem that there is simply not enough space in the room for such a giant, but nothing is impossible for flower growers. An evergreen crop with tubular, magical bell-shaped flowers ranging in length from 20 to 50 cm is now available to indoor plant lovers.
Since the plant is very large, before sowing or planting it, you need to sensibly assess the possibilities and available conditions. Although pruning is required for brugmansia, correcting the size, before flowering, the tree should begin to branch. And up to this moment, it takes from 1 to 4 years.
Conditions for the growth of a houseplant brugmansia
Brugmansia, as an indigenous inhabitant of the South American tropics, is very thermophilic and reacts sharply to temperature changes, shedding foliage and stopping the formation of buds. A temperature in the range of 23-28 ° C is considered comfortable, and the first signs of discomfort are noticeable even when the temperature drops to 8-10 ° C. Closer to zero, brugmansia first stops vegetation, and then the aerial part of the tree dies off.
To maintain the attractiveness of the plant throughout the year, when caring for brugmansia at home:
- try to maintain a constant temperature;
- protect the plant from drafts;
- provide bright and long-lasting lighting;
- carry out regular watering and feeding, the schedule of which depends on the growing activity of the indoor flower;
- trimming the crown and replanting the plant when it "outgrows" the old pot.
In the summer, when there is no danger of frost, cold wind or rain, it is useful to take a pot of brugmansia out into the fresh air.
Brugmansia loves the sun and feels great not only on the east or west, but also on the south side. Only on the sunniest days, at noon, the plant can wilt slightly, which can be easily corrected by watering and moving the pot a meter deep into the room.
If the brugmansia houseplant is indoors all year round, from autumn to spring, as well as when located away from the window, the flower needs additional lighting. When kept in a cold winter, for example, in a basement with a temperature of about 10 ° C, no light is required at all.
Soil for brugmansia, transplanting and choosing a pot
In a pot, brugmansia grows quickly, and for a full-fledged vegetation it needs a nutritious light substrate.
Such a mixture can be made on the basis of:
- 2 parts of lowland peat;
- 1 part of humus;
- 1 piece of garden land.
If necessary, pre-washed sand, perlite and vermiculite are added to the soil for brugmansy; as a prophylaxis against fungal infections and putrefactive bacteria, it is useful to introduce a little crushed charcoal.
A pot for brugmansia is chosen based on its serious size. Because of the rapid growth, it is better to take a container "with a margin", otherwise the bush will have to be replanted several times a year.
The transplant is carried out in early spring, before the start of the awakening of the main growth points. Small specimens are transferred to a larger container, and in adult Brugmans, the topsoil is changed.
Before planting, a layer of expanded clay, pebbles mixed with charcoal or other material is poured onto the bottom of the pot. Then, a rooted cutting or a specimen requiring transplantation with an old earthen lump is transferred to a small layer of soil.
When it comes to transplanting, the roots of the brugmansia are cut a little along the contour of the pot, simultaneously removing dead or rotted rhizomes.
At the end, all the voids in the new pot are filled with a nutritious, pre-sterilized mixture, which is carefully compacted and watered.
Watering and feeding a houseplant brugmansia
Brugmansia has a well-developed crown, which:
- protects the soil under the flower from overheating and evaporation;
- participates in photosynthesis and helps the plant get the necessary nutrition;
- to maintain tone, especially in hot sunny times, it requires a lot of moisture and nutrients.
Therefore, brugmansia in a pot is regularly and abundantly watered, reducing watering only during cloudy weather and wintering. Watering the flower is carried out with warm soft water, soaking the entire earthen Komi and be sure to drain off the excess accumulating in the pan within 30–40 minutes.
For tropical plants, especially young specimens, moisture is important not only in the substrate, but also in the air. However, moisture on flowers and leaves can cause burns. To prevent this from happening, they use to humidify the air:
- irrigation when the plant is in partial shade or in the evening;
- placing a container with water next to it;
- placing the pot on a pallet with wet expanded clay;
- household humidifiers.
Top dressing is carried out throughout the growing season. First, immediately after the spring pruning, nitrogen fertilizers are applied, which activate the growth of greenery, then they switch to complex mixtures that stimulate the formation of buds and lush flowering.
In warm weather, brugmansia is fed at home care at intervals of 7 to 14 days.
Growing brugmansia from seeds at home
Today, flower growers have the opportunity to grow brugmansia in different ways, including seed. If the seed was obtained independently, there is no certainty about what the young plants will be like. As a hybrid houseplant, brugmansia does not retain parental characteristics. Another thing is seeds from a trusted manufacturer.
In this case, it will not be difficult to obtain varietal brugmansia from seeds at home. Sowing is carried out from January to early spring. In this case, seedlings appear with an increasing daylight hours and grow rapidly. You can take a base soil as a substrate, but a mixture of equal parts of peat, sand or perlite works just as well. Seeds are spread over the surface on moistened soil and sprinkled with a layer of soil from 5 to 12 mm.
In a greenhouse with an air temperature of 22-25 ° C and high humidity, seeds will take 1 to 10 weeks to hatch and show the shoots, depending on the freshness of the seed.
All this time the container is exposed to light and is moistened as necessary. Brugmansia picking when grown from seeds is carried out at the stage of 4–5 true leaves. In the future, caring for plants does not differ much from caring for adult specimens.
One has only to remember that up to a year, non-lignified shoots are less resistant to heat and dry air, they are more afraid of pests and fungal infections.
Propagation of room brugmansia by cuttings
Cutting allows you to get a flowering plant faster and easier than when planting brugmansia with seeds and caring for tiny seedlings. Specimens grown from pieces of half or completely lignified shoots bloom in the second year after planting. For seedlings, this takes 2 to 4 years.
You can get hardy cuttings ready for the formation of roots from spring to early autumn, the main thing is that there are growth points on such pieces of the stem. Branched cuttings bloom earlier than ordinary, rectilinear ones.
It is even better to use root cuttings for propagation of brugmansia, which now and then appear at the base of an adult plant. They are separated during transplantation, like stem cuttings, treated with a root stimulant and added dropwise to a light substrate with a high nutrient content or immersed in water with the addition of a few pieces of charcoal or activated carbon.
The average length of a brugmansia cut is 15–20 cm, which is enough to awaken 1–3 growth points. Under indoor greenhouse conditions, the roots form in 4-7 weeks, after which the seedlings can be transferred from their own pots.