What you need to know if you decide to grow camellias at home?
Those flower growers who risked having a camellia at home need to be prepared for a number of difficulties, because the decision to grow such a bush at home and, moreover, achieve its flowering sometimes becomes an insurmountable task. But all difficulties are forgotten when the first inflorescences of this beautiful and delicate plant open. Whether white, pink, red, padded or semi-double, solid or variegated, these adorable flowers are well worth the effort.
Preferred breeding method
It is best, and even faster, to grow camellias using cuttings. The seed method is a rather troublesome business, requires a lot of time and patience, and is not always happy with a successful result. With the help of a cutting, you can get a new bush in the near future, if you know all the subtleties of the process, because the camellia is also very reluctant to take root.
The shorter the cutting, the faster it will take root. It is enough if it has three internodes.
A cut stalk needs preliminary preparation, namely:
- dip the cut into charcoal or activated carbon;
- trim the leaflets, leaving only half, to reduce the loss of moisture by the cutting;
- process in a growth stimulator to improve and accelerate root formation.
Rooting cuttings camellias necessary in a peat-sand mixture: then the roots are formed after 3-4 months. If you plant a stalk in perlite, you will have to wait at least a year.
Flowering features
Camellia needs winter coolness and only in such conditions the plant will bloom. The bush lays flower buds early, but if it does not feel cool, the buds simply do not bloom and can remain in such a frozen state for a long time.
Camellia blooms very profusely in February-March, with an average flowering period of 3 months. At the end of spring, the bush lays new flower buds, which are in a "dormant" state until the next winter.
Why do flowers fall?
Often, after waiting for the buds to appear, the camellia does not have time to open them, or the inflorescences, after blooming, quickly crumble from the bush. The reason for this phenomenon is, first of all, too dry and hot air. Camellia blooms very early in nature, and at this time in houses it is just in the midst of the heating season, so the flowers fall off.
It is best to take the camellia for the winter to a warmed loggia or balcony, where there is no heating, but also freezing temperatures.