Growing Hypoesthesia In A City Apartment

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

Hypoestes is a rare guest from Madagascar

An ornamental plant that will decorate your home with luxurious oval leaf colors.

Lovers of rare domestic plants may not yet be familiar with the amazing flower of a completely extraordinary color. Such flowers are appreciated for the exotic beauty of their leaves and belong to the group of decorative deciduous plants, although pale purple small flowers with a white throat are in harmony with the unheard-of bright color of hypoesthesia leaves.

Imagine a short, lush bush with opposite ovoid leaves, on which sparse gaps of a traditionally green color coexist with many bright pink, purple, white spots and splashes. Indeed, such a cheerful and at the same time delicate color of the leaves is rarely found.

The homeland of this picturesque masterpiece is the tropical regions of South Africa and the island of Madagascar. The genus has about 150 species, belongs to the Akantov family, in culture, two or three species are most often bred.

Leaf grate hypoestes is distinguished by soft, violet-red leaves. Its flowers are solitary, axillary, lavender. In the nature of the island of Madagascar, it is located in shady, humid places. Therefore, at home, we create conditions for tropical plants that are as close as possible to natural ones.

Blood-red hypoestes is a shrub up to 50 cm high with well-branched shoots. However, branching of shoots depends on our care of the plant: the more often we pinch or cut the tops of the shoots, the thicker and more elegant the plant will look. Its leaves are narrow-ovate, soft, 5-8 cm long and 3-4 cm wide. They are whole-edged, slightly wavy at the edges, which gives a special charm to these leaves in multi-colored splashes on a rare green field. Some varieties are even pink-leaved with purple veins. The flowers are small, half-umbels, light purple. They are not the main advantage of this species, but during flowering hypoestes looks even more elegant.

Reproduction of hypoesthesia

After the end of flowering, the peduncles are cut and shortened too elongated shoots. Cut cuttings 7-10 cm long are immediately placed in a container of water so that they swim there and are well saturated with water. If you just put the cuttings in a glass of water, like ivy or pelargonium, they instantly wilt. But "head-bathing" soon brings these tropical sissies to life. At the same time, adult plants are quite hardy in indoor conditions, they gratefully accept regular spraying, but they can do without it.

When the leaves of the cuttings become elastic again (their turgor is restored), put them in a glass, preferably opaque, and cover with a transparent bag or plastic glass. It is more convenient to put a glass with cuttings in a plastic transparent bag and easily tie its edges. As the roots appear, the bag is slightly untied, and then completely opened. Keep this mini-greenhouse in a warm, bright place, but not in direct sun. On the south and west windows, during the summer excess illumination, the cuttings are shaded with paper, gauze, and a tulle curtain right on the glass. In conditions of high humidity, cuttings root rather quickly, forming a dense mass of white thin roots at the nodes. Now they can be planted in small pots, several pieces at a time, without untangling root tangles, so as not to damage the roots and quickly get a thick, beautiful bush. When planting in a pot, you usually already need to pinch the tops of the shoots that have stretched out during rooting.

The earthen mixture is traditionally recommended to be made up of 1 part of sod land, 1 part of humus, 1 part of peat and 1 part of sand. If there is no garden land in stock, use ready-made peat soils of a slightly acidic reaction with the addition of perlite, sand for better water and air permeability. In addition, it is good to add a complex or complete long-acting fertilizer (AVA with nitrogen, 1 tsp per 1 liter of mixture) to the substrate and thoroughly mix the soil with the AVA powder. As usual, when planting on the bottom of the pot, put expanded clay or washed coarse sand, or broken shards from old washed pots for drainage. Excess moisture should not stagnate in the pot so that the roots do not suffocate without oxygen.

This rule is true for almost all indoor plants, with the exception of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants, for example, cyperus (papyrus) spends its "root life" in water and does not suffer from its presence even at a quarter of the pot height.

Another rule is also true: newly planted rooted cuttings are placed in the shade or in a shaded place for several days, sprayed with warm, settled water, and species that are especially sensitive to dry air (hypoesthesia among them) are covered with a film, placed in a transparent bag, pulling its edges in a word, they maintain an increased humidity of the air and substrate until rooting in the soil is completed and the leaves become steadily elastic. Now the shelter is gradually opened, and later removed completely.

Don't take these precautions too hard, but propagating tropical plants takes patience and attention. As soon as they grow up, the only concern will be timely watering and periodic spraying of the air around the plants.

Hypoesthetics in the home and office

Elegant, joyful hypoestesses can act as soloists of your collection, live at some distance from the window, but not in the dark. All variegated plants need good illumination, otherwise their bright unusual spots will fade, or they may disappear, the leaves will turn green.

Hypoesthetics are very good in the company with white-spotted fittonia, Saintpaulias with pink, white, lilac or purple flowers. Bells will also look more impressive against their unusual purple-red or pink background. To compose the composition, you can use a suitable container - low, but spacious for several copies of partner plants. You can adapt a tray for them, on the bottom of which you pour fine expanded clay and spray it to maintain sufficient air humidity. In spring and summer, for hypoesthesia, an air temperature of + 20 … + 23 ° С is sufficient, in winter - not lower than + 18 ° С.

These plants will feel very comfortable in aquariums that are no longer used for their intended purpose. It is easier to provide higher temperature and humidity in them in winter. But hypoesthetics are also planted in boxes, combining with flowering low-growing balsams, gelksina - a lush rug of thin shoots with tiny round leaves, ivy, ginura with purple pubescent leaves, begonias with colored reddish leaves or the usual ever-flowering begonia. Lush hypoesthesia bushes are placed as a colored rug on the ground surface of large tub plants, especially if the lower part of these large-sized plants is bare.

Hypoesthesia in the garden landscape

But perhaps the most amazing property of hypoesthesia is the ability to grow in the open field in summer as an elegant carpet plant. There are miniature varieties for this, but the usual medium-high hypoesthesia can be cut regularly, maintaining the set height of the "rug". It is important to keep it hydrated regularly. Ordinary carpet crops can serve as a partner of carpet hypoesthesia: irezine, alternantera, Coleus Bluma, Primorskaya cineraria, petiolate cineraria, as well as undersized sedums, bryozoans, thyme, obrieta, arabis, herbaceous cloves and other ground cover plants.