Ahimenes - Growing Conditions, Reproduction - 1

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Ahimenes is a plant that delights the grower with long and beautiful flowering

It is Achimenes who is called the "magic flower" for its beauty. It belongs to the genus Achimenes Pers - the Gesneriaceae family. According to various sources, it contains from 35 to 50 species of perennial tuberous and rhizome herbaceous plants growing epiphytically in the tropical forests of both hemispheres - in Central and South America (Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Argentina, Fr. Jamaica).

The name of the genus comes from the Greek words "a" - "not" and "heimaino" - "to endure the cold", i.e. "Does not hibernate", "unbearable (afraid) of the cold", as if informing us that the plant dies off for the winter. Among the people there is another name for achimenes - "kruchenoparnik", which speaks for itself. The first mention of Achimenes dates back to the middle of the 18th century, when Achimenes erect (A.erecta) was described in 1756 by Patrick Brown while studying the nature of Fr. Jamaica.

Plant features

Achimenes has soft pubescent, slightly reddish spreading or creeping stems and wrinkled, broadly lanceolate, oppositely located, whole, and along the edge serrated leaves, often pubescent, on elongated stems. In young plants, these stems are vertical, and the bushes are not too tall. In more mature Achimenes, the stems are drooping, and the plant height reaches 60-65 cm (for example, in Achimenes large-flowered). The top of the leaves is light green and the bottom is purplish red. Its mainly superficial root system is interesting: the underground part of the plant consists of small scaly pinkish rhizomes - peculiar nodules resembling in their structure cones, mulberry fruits or birch catkins.

With successful care, the plant blooms for a long period - from spring (April-May) to autumn (September-October). Its long-tubular “bells” flowers are located in the leaf axils (one or several) on pedicels of different lengths. Usually they are large in size (up to 5-6 cm in diameter), have a funnel-shaped shape, end with five bent petals (the central, largest, petal stands out from the rest. It is in this shape of a flower with a graceful and large bent fifth petal that achimenes differs from room gloxinia, which sometimes called its relative. The round five-lobed corolla of achimenes can be of different colors - white, blue, yellow, pink, red, purple and purple. Each flower individually does not live long, but new ones immediately replace it,therefore, the entire flowering period of the plant is so long.

Growing conditions

For the location of the plant, a sufficiently illuminated place is chosen (preferably south, east or west), in summer - even sunny (however, direct midday rays are not allowed). But in the spring it is generally better not to place it in the sunlight, during this period you should even shade new shoots when growing from last year's tubers. Keep in mind that young annuals on a sunny windowsill may also require light shading. On windows of northern orientation, achimenes will also bloom, but not so abundantly, while the duration of flowering will be significantly reduced, the shoots will be formed frail, elongated, prone to lodging. But you need to know that in the shade, the brightness of the color of flowers fades, and the shoots of ampelous forms are unnecessarily stretched.

During the active growing season, the plant is cultivated in a fairly wide temperature range from 18 to 30 ° C (optimum 20 … 22 ° C). Although, according to some growers, achimenes painlessly tolerate drafts and sudden changes in day and night temperatures, you should not tempt fate. For the summer period, the plant can be taken out into the garden or placed on the balcony, shading it from the scorching sunlight. If the temperature is too high, the buds turn brown.

For successful growth and flowering, the plant needs a nutritious loose soil substrate. For adult plants, experts offer several options for the mixture: leaf and sod land, sand (2: 1: 0.5); deciduous, soddy, humus soil, sand (2: 3: 1: 1); leaf and peat, sand (6: 3: 2). According to experienced flower growers, it is not advisable to add a lot of sand to the soil substrate, as this leads to rapid drying of the soil in sunny weather, as a result of which the plant will experience an acute moisture deficit. Instead of sand, you can use perlite or vermiculite. Sometimes a mixture of peat soil, coconut substrate, sand (3: 1: 1) is used, adding to it a little powdered eggshell and superphosphate. You can also use a mixture of deciduous, turf, coniferous and peat soil, sand (1: 2: 2: 3: 3). Finely chopped white sphagnum moss is recommended as a baking powder. Some growers use a store-bought mixture for decorative flowering plants.

Since Achimenes maintains its root system in the topsoil, it is wise to choose a shallow pot for it. When using a high capacity, it is possible for the undeveloped soil to sour at the bottom of the pot, which will cause rotting of the root system itself. Drainage at the bottom of the pot (up to 1/3 of the crockery volume) is required. Hanging pots or tall flowerpots are ideal for ampel forms, for undersized ones - wide bowls. Depending on the diameter of the selected container, you can place up to 5-10 nodules.

During the period of active growth and flowering, achimenes loves regular and abundant watering with settled soft water at room temperature. The soil in the pot should be constantly moist, but extremes should be avoided: they do not allow both the soil clod to dry out strongly, as well as its excess moisture. After watering, the excess water is drained from the pan. Sometimes they just practice watering the plants from the pallet. A constantly waterlogged soil substrate can lead to rotting of small plant roots, which can lead to the death of the entire plant. When the soil dries up, the plant abruptly stops flowering, its upper part dries out, and the nodules go into premature hibernation. Although achimienes is able to thrive in high humidity conditions (he even loves it), he does not specifically need to artificially increase humidity by spraying. The best way to increase humidity is to place the pot on a pallet of damp moss or wet pebbles. You can put dishes with water or wet moss next to this plant. Ahimenez, like all Gesneriaceae, should not be sprayed, as spots appear on delicate leaves and flowers, which reduces the decorative effect of the plant, and if you spray it on a sunny day, this agricultural practice can lead to burns, and in cool weather - to the development of mushroom diseases (for example, gray mold). If the grower nevertheless decides to spray other neighboring plants, then he must spray water from a fine spray bottle, creating only a light mist.since spots appear on delicate leaves and flowers, which reduces the decorative effect of the plant, and if you spray it on a sunny day, this agricultural technique can lead to burns, and in cool weather - to the development of fungal diseases (for example, gray rot). If the grower nevertheless decides to spray other neighboring plants, then he must spray water from a fine spray bottle, creating only a light mist.since spots appear on delicate leaves and flowers, which reduces the decorativeness of the plant, and if you spray it on a sunny day, this agricultural technique can lead to burns, and in cool weather - to the development of fungal diseases (for example, gray rot). If the grower nevertheless decides to spray other neighboring plants, then he must spray water from a fine spray bottle, creating only a light mist.

Reproduction

Ahimenes is propagated by seeds, nodules and nodule division, as well as green cuttings. Most often and easily Achimenes is propagated by dividing the rhizome. It is least painful during transplantation of a plant that has come out of dormancy. Pieces of rhizome are slightly buried into the soil by 0.5-1 cm. In order not to damage the nodules, sometimes they are simply laid out on the soil surface, sprinkled with earth with a layer of 2 cm on top, and watered regularly. Germination begins in 8-12 days (depending on temperature).

Although green cuttings in the first half of summer are rarely used for breeding Achimenes, experienced florists sometimes resort to this technique. For cuttings, it is necessary to take the middle and lower parts of the stem (the upper part takes root worse). Experts recommend that when grafting, pay attention to the fact that there are at least two internodes on the remaining shoot. Then he will bush well and will delight you with an abundance of flowers. The cuttings themselves are rooted in sand or a mixture of sand and leaf earth (1: 1), moistened and covered with a glass cap or plastic wrap. With an excess of substrate moisture, cuttings can rot. To increase the return during grafting and accelerate the rooting process, treatment with root formation stimulants (root, heteroauxin) and lower heating are used. Rooting (at a temperature of 20 … 22 ° C) takes about two weeks,and after 5-6 days the formation of nodules already begins. Rooted cuttings are planted 2-3 in small pots with a substrate selected for adult plants.

Young annual plants bloom in about 1.5-2 months after waking up, but if there is insufficient light, this period can be extended indefinitely. When Achimenes is propagated by nodules, flowering begins faster than when propagated by cuttings - after 3-4 months, and plants obtained from seeds bloom by the end of the second year.