With the first rays of the spring sun, even before the onset of the summer season, you want to admire the greenery. So it’s time to do indoor flowers. After a long winter, they need careful care. Our expert, an engineer of landscape gardening and landscape construction, Natalya Krasnikova, tells how to properly care for indoor plants.
March 11 2017
Houseplants can be “gluttonous” and patient, and depending on their type, feeding should be done every 7-14 days. Mineral fertilizers (for example, Agricola, Zdraven) and organic fertilizers (Gumi, Lignohumat, Ideal) are also suitable. Fertilizers are applied with well-shed soil. Top dressing is best done both root and foliar – on the leaves. Root gives intensive plant growth, foliar improves leaves and is suitable for flowering plants – begonias, roses, clivia. A good result is given by alternating both dressings. Do not forget about feeding with microelements (for example, “Uniflor Micro”, “Uniflor Bud”, wood ash, etc.). These dressings are suitable for most indoor flowers. But there are capricious plants for which there are special feeding, for example, cacti, orchids, rhododendrons, azaleas, phalaenopsis. For a flower to please the eye, it is important to know the country of origin. And then you can provide proper care by creating his favorite climate.
To prevent the plant from drying out, it is necessary to spray, especially tropical plants (orchid, codiaeum, philodendron, bromelia), plants with hard shiny leaves (ficuses: rubber, Benjamin, variegated, clerodendrum, shefflera, calathea, alocasia, zamioculcas, azalea, dieffenbachia, arrowroot), ferns (nephrolepis, maidenhair), indoor conifers (Elwoodi cypress). Moreover, they need to be sprayed on both sides – both from the top and from the bottom. But pubescent plants (violets, some types of begonias), with velvety (Saintpaulia, gloxinia), folded leaves (peperomia, streptocactus) should not be sprayed, as they are sensitive to various rot.
By the way, spraying and moisture do not like spider mites very much. For prophylaxis against pests of indoor plants, foliar feeding can be carried out together with the use of a pesticide (Fitoverm, Urea, etc.). The treatment is carried out once a week for 3-4 weeks, wearing rubber gloves, special clothing with sleeves, and a medical mask. After processing, you need to ventilate the room and thoroughly wash your hands and face. In order not to harm allergy sufferers and pets, it is better to take the plants after processing to the bathroom or to the loggia and leave there until the leaves dry.
If some plants have grown or extended (for example, zonal geranium, Chinese hibiscus rose), we form a crown by cutting off the branches with scissors. You can prepare cuttings for propagation if you want to increase the greenhouse. Rooted cuttings are suitable for creating compositions and hanging pots in the form of mixes for balconies, loggias and gardens from different types of flowering summer plants and decorative indoor plants. To get a rich greenhouse, we place several different plants in one container. Looks spectacular, for example, a combination of such common indoor plants as chlorophytum, tradescantia, coleus, irisine, ivy, nephrolepis, asparagus. Or flowering flowers: petunia, lobelia, ever-flowering begonia, zonal geranium, bronchikoma, bacopa, niagara, etc.
The main rule is that plants from the same climate, loving the same humidity, temperature and illumination, turn out to be neighbors. For example, a cactus growing in the desert will not get along with a moisture-loving tropical orchid. Imagine and experiment – creating your own flower arrangements can be a great pleasure.