Those who seek to decorate their home with a fast-growing ornamental flowering plant, you can start with indoor maple. Attracts simple care for abutilone. Indoor flowers and plants are mysterious, divine, beloved creatures. But admiration alone is not enough. After all, as Saint-Exupery said, we are responsible for everyone we have tamed, and especially for those who depend on us. If you create comfortable conditions for flowers, they will delight our souls with their beauty. For lush flowering, almost year-round, indoor maple - abutilon is suitable. Care at home for him is simple - the plant is unpretentious. But he has his own peculiarities.
Abutilone: where does it come from
In the Malvaceae family, which includes the well-known cotton plant, the less famous hibiscus, okra, stockrose, there is a genus called Rope (in Latin Abutilon). There are more than 200 representatives in the genus among evergreen annuals and perennial herbs,ornamental deciduous and ornamental flowering shrubs, and even small trees.
The habitat of species of this genus is the tropics and subtropics of South America, the Hawaiian Islands, India, Australia, China, and Africa. Why "rope"? Some species are cultivated for the production of vegetable fiber for the manufacture of burlap twine ropes and ropes. To this end, in China, Theophrastus Rope is cultivated as an agricultural crop. In the southern European regions of Russia, the same abutilon is a malicious weed of tilled crops. For agricultural crops, he "did not grow up" here.
In India, abutilone is considered a medicinal and aphrodisiac plant for men and women.
Variety of houseplant
For the decorativeness of cute flowers and luxurious wedge-shaped leaves, flower growers of Russia fell in love with abutilon - indoor maple. Care, reproduction of a houseplant are available even for beginners.
The most common varieties of abutilone:
- vine-leaved with lilac-bluish flowers;
- hybrid - a variety of varieties of different colors;
- Darwin - bright orange and red with darker streaks;
- Thompson - upright trunk, salmon-pink terry inflorescences, white specks on the leaves;
- megapotamian - reaches one and a half meters, with yellow petals in a red cup and purple stamens - an excellent ampelous plant of year-round flowering;
- striped or spotted - short shoots, paintedleaves and flowers on long stalks, propagated only by cuttings;
- suntense view is the best for a winter garden: it reaches 4 meters in height, lilac flowers up to 10 cm in diameter.
Caring for abutilone at home is the same regardless of variety.
Selection is in your hands
These fast-growing indoor flowers - abutilon - which are well cared for at home, are an excellent material for breeding - creating new varieties. Open access to the stamens and pistils of simultaneously flowering plants contributes to the successful crossing of different varieties. Seeds of future hybrids ripen in a month and a half. And after a maximum of six months, you can see the flowering of new varieties created by yourself. Enthusiastic breeders for the period from February to November receive 2 generations of new hybrids - that's what an early maturing abutilon. Home care will not take long if growing this flower becomes a hobby.
Requirements
Optimal humidity: abundant summer watering, moderate in winter. It is necessary to maintain high humidity in the air - after all, it is a tropican, periodic spraying is desirable. If the air is too dry, the plant will shed its leaves.
Temperature regime: in winter you need a lower temperature - up to 10-15 degrees. The rest of the year - room temperature in the range of 20-25 degrees.
Luminousmode: lover of southern windows, takes out a short-term (2-3 hours a day) direct sunlight, but diffused light is desirable.
Requirements for soil and top dressing: sandy, highly humus mixtures are preferred (equal parts of sand, turf, humus and hardwood). The best fertilizer is mullein. Feed every ten days, in winter once a month is enough.
Reproduction: cuttings (spring and September) and seeds, preferably fresh. Cut the cuttings when pruning the plant with a sterile tool. The formation of the root system, first in water, then planting in loose nutrient-sandy soil. Survival is usually good.
Enemies you need to know
Abutilon is often affected by aphids, whiteflies, scale insects. With these parasites, plants are treated by spraying with soapy water, infusion of tobacco powder. You can put the flower on an open veranda (avoid drafts!), Reduce watering. If there is no effect from the soap solution, use chemicals according to the instructions. The shield is removed with cotton swabs. Spider mites love the plant, which can be recognized by the specks on the leaves and the cobwebs that entangle abutilon. At the same time, home care comes down to spraying the plant with insecticidal preparations, regulating humidity - it needs to be increased.
Secrets of lush flowering
Features: rapid growth - up to 0.5 m per year, mandatory spring transplant. Take a new pot a little morethe previous one. In order for the plant to bloom, it needs to be entangled in an earthen ball with roots. The bushy crown should be cleared by pruning.
Hybrids need to remove long shoots - flowering will last. Pinch the tops of the elongated abutilons. The plant is suitable for balconies. He is afraid of drafts, does not tolerate neighborhood with heating batteries, loves space, gets along with "small" neighbors, letting them "into the apartment" - below under his crown.
You can achieve year-round flowering of several plants, if you are an observant and caring owner who cherishes abutilon. Care at home allows you to make love mutual. The handsome flower attracts the eyes of everyone entering the room and passing by the windows. Abutilon looks so attractive.
Home Care: Growing From Seeds
Seeds can be bought or waited for from a flower. The main thing for their successful germination is a short shelf life, a maximum of a year. But even with such a period, not every seed will germinate, but only one of the two. Home seeds need to be kept in the dark for a month. Before sowing in early spring, but you can do it in January, you need to hold them for a short time (3-4 hours) in a damp cloth. Prepare a humus-sand mixture. The soil should be moist and warm - at least 20 degrees. Adequate lighting is required. Embedment depth - no more than 1 cm. You can cover the pot with glass to preserve moisture and heat. Do not allow the soil to dry out - spray periodically.
Seedlings in the form of two leaves will appear at the end of the second week or the beginning of the third. They grow quickly and need to be transplanted 2-3 times before flowering in the 4th-5th month. To get your seeds, wait for flowering and on the third day, armed with a soft watercolor brush, remove the pollen from one flower and transfer to another. The seed pod will appear soon. When it turns black (about a month later) - open it and see the seeds.
