Calceolaria garden flower. Calceolaria care at home. Possible difficulties of growing Calceolaria

Plants with whimsical and luxurious flowers are always eye-catching. And many flower growers are trying to grow amazing pets on their own. And for this often you need not so much - stock up planting material and find out about the features of caring for a particular plant. An herbaceous culture with the bizarre name calceolaria, also known as “shoes” or “purses”, is distinguished by its amazing flowering, let’s clarify what kind of planting and care this flower needs, and also consider its cultivation from seeds at home.

Calceolaria is actually a perennial, but in indoor culture it is usually grown only as an annual plant. Such a pet usually grows up to twenty to thirty centimeters. It pleases the owners with flowers in the spring - around April-May, and flowering lasts from three to five weeks.

Growing calceolaria from seeds at home

Regardless of where you want to start growing flowers - at home or in your garden, you need to sow it at home to get seedlings. It is best to start this activity in March. For sowing flower seeds, it is worth using peat soil mixed with sand in a ratio of 7: 1. But at the same time, it must be taken into account that such a plant cannot grow on sour peat, so ground chalk must be mixed into the soil mixture. Usually, about twenty grams of chalk is used per kilogram of peat.
The resulting soil must be thoroughly calcined before use.

Calceolaria seeds are very small - they are simply scattered over the surface of the soil mixture and are not sprinkled with anything. It is worth placing a wet piece of paper on top and moistening it regularly with a spray bottle. Crops should be in a fairly warm room, where the thermometer does not fall below eighteen degrees.

The first seedlings appear after two weeks. They must be watered with care, pouring water in a thin stream. After the appearance of a pair of true leaves on the seedlings, it dives. At home, flowers, while they are young, can simply be transferred to a larger container, placing them at intervals of three to four centimeters. The optimum temperature for growing remains the same - about eighteen - twenty degrees. In order for the plants to take root normally in a new place, it will not be superfluous to cover them with polyethylene or glass. Every day, the seedlings need to be ventilated, and the condensate in the shelter must be systematically eliminated. The soil should remain moist at all times, but not excessively damp.

When growing seedlings, you need to provide her with sufficient lighting, it is best to keep her on a sunny windowsill, but shade from direct sunlight.

Planting calceolaria in open ground

Readers of "Popular about Health" need to find the right place to plant calceolaria flowers. Such a plant is not demanding on the soil and can grow on any garden soil. But at the same time, calceolaria is extremely important good drainage, as stagnation of water can destroy it. It is better that the earth is nutritious and breathable. It is advisable to plant such a crop in sunny places with slight shading.

It should be borne in mind that calceolaria does not like wind very much, so it is better to grow it in areas not subject to strong winds.

Landing in open ground is carried out after a stable warm temperature is established. But in general, calceolaria grown at home is able to tolerate short-term frosts.

Further care for Calceolaria

Calceolaria is not very demanding. Young plants need systematic watering, and flowering crops may well grow with some moisture deficiency. In no case should the plant be flooded, as its root system can easily and quickly rot.

It will not be superfluous to periodically feed such a pet. To do this, you can use complex fertilizers, about twice a month. Additional income nutrients make the plant bloom more luxuriantly.

Since calceolaria is inherently a perennial, you can try saving it for a second year. To do this, you need to dig up the plants and place them in fairly cool and dark rooms. Bushes of the second year of life begin to bloom a little earlier than those obtained from seeds. But at the same time, as many flower growers note, their decorative effect is somewhat reduced.

Flower care should take into account that calceolaria can suffer from the attack of pests, for example, whiteflies, aphids, spider mite etc. You can cope with such a problem with the help of insecticides, taking into account the development cycle of pests.

Calceolaria is usually grown as a border plant or adorned with it. alpine slide. You can also plant such a flower near a pond or in the foreground of a flower garden. Calceolaria also looks great in window boxes, they should be located in partial shade and be fairly well protected from the winds.

Additional Information

Calceolaria can be grown as a houseplant. It is also grown from seedlings and placed in separate pots on the northern, western or eastern windowsill. In order for the plant to bloom, it needs a certain temperature of maintenance - from fourteen to sixteen degrees. Sufficient air humidity also plays an important role, but spraying such a flower can only harm.

Calceolaria is a very beautiful flower, which, when correct placement can become a real highlight of the garden.

She has a beautiful name, and most importantly, rare - calceolaria. But seriously, the flower is really unusual. Everyone. Miniature size, exotic, screamingly bright beauty, the shape of a flower, similar to either a slipper or sea ​​shell. Due to the fact that it is so unlike anyone else, it is rarely grown in the garden, they prefer to admire it from a close distance, planting it in a room or on a balcony. But if you want to decorate flower beds with it, first of all, deal with agricultural technology, and we will tell you what to look for.

The first impression of a flower is a tropical butterfly among our whites and urticaria

Calceolaria in nature

Most of the plant species (and there are more than 200 of them) come from South America. When gardeners hear this, for some reason they immediately imagine a tropical climate, heat. And they are wrong. Our heroine lives on the mountain slopes of the Southern Andes (Chile, Argentina), where the average temperature of the summer months rarely exceeds 20⁰ C, but in winter it does not drop below 7–8⁰ C. Nothing in common with Russian climatic differences from heat in summer to bitter cold in winter. It is problematic for us even in a room to create such a microclimate.

In nature, the calceolaria flower is a herbaceous perennial or biennial plant with long period vegetation. It germinates for a long time, slowly gaining vegetative mass - from sowing to budding, it usually takes 6-8 months. It blooms for about a month, sometimes a little more, after which the old outlet dies off. These are our primroses on the contrary - "late flowers".

What does it look like?

Most calceolaria, both species and hybrids, are miniature plants 20–30 cm high with a rosette of medium-sized, succulent, slightly corrugated leaves. In some varieties, they are velvety, somewhat reminiscent of a violet. There are generally crumbs, barely reaching 8-10 cm, but there are also larger specimens that grow up to half a meter.

From the center of the rosette, the plant expels thin flower stalks, ending in small drop flowers. With what they are just not compared - with a shoe, a purse, a bag, a shell. In modern hybrids, up to 50 such drops can bloom at the same time. That's very beautiful!

The "chip" of the flower is a spectacular color. It is always bright - yellow, orange, carmine, terracotta, lilac. Rarely - monophonic, more often - speckled, with brown dots, contrasting edging. Calceolaria, the photo of which we provide as confirmation of what has been said, is one of the most modest, but it also looks like splashes of the sun with perky freckles on the petals.

What does he love?

To learn how to grow a plant you like, you need to understand what it loves. Weaknesses of our beauty:

• bright but diffused light (no direct rays!);
• abundant watering;
• high humidity;
• cool room;
• light nutrient soil.

Under these conditions, the plant will feel great, and delight with longer flowering.

Indoor or garden - dot the "i"

Several types of exotic plants have been introduced into the culture.

• K. mexican at home is grown as a biennial. More often it has a yellow-variegated color, small flowers against a background of bright greenery look like lanterns.
• K. tripartite is a heat-loving perennial with pure yellow drops on long pedicels. It does not occur naturally north of Mexico.
• K. wrinkled - a perennial that is grown in Europe as annual flower. With appropriate agricultural technology in urban landscaping, it is used as a border plant. If seedlings are grown by April, they will bloom in June.
• K. purple is distinguished by a rich purple-red color, cultivated in room conditions.

But the most numerous group is hybrid calceolaria - a flower that we grow as an indoor flower. Breeders managed to bring out dozens of varieties with a wide variety of colors - plain, two-tone, speckled, brindle, shaded. Hybrid forms are characterized by delicate pubescent foliage, compact size. You can grow them yourself from seeds or purchase ready-made plants.

But calceolaria is not quite a houseplant, rather a closed ground or temporary maintenance in room conditions. Firstly, for the summer it can be used as a container plant to decorate a balcony, terrace, patio. Secondly, no matter how you cherish the flower, it will live with you for a year after flowering, and then it will grow and lose its appearance.

Conclusion - a beautiful plant, but short-lived, and there is a lot of trouble with it.

If you buy a plant in a store, choose specimens at the budding stage, healthy, strong, without yellowing leaves. So you get a flower with full flowering periods, especially since in many varieties they are not so long - 1-2 months.

The subtleties of growing indoor flower

If this is your first introduction to calceolaria, start by growing a room variety of the flower. You will see this beauty with your own eyes, fill your hand with transplanting, observe how the plant develops, how long it takes to bloom. Experience and observations will come in handy if you later decide to move the fragile beauty into the garden.

Let's return to the climatic preferences of the South American guest and try to adapt the conditions of an ordinary Russian apartment to these needs.

Creating the Right Conditions

Relations with the sun in calceolaria are approximately the same as in orchids - there is no way without it, and it is bad with it. The main thing is not to limit the solar flux, but to scatter it so that there is a lot of light, but direct rays do not fall on delicate flowers and leaves. How to do it?

• If the plant is on a windowsill, balcony facing southeast, close the windows translucent curtains in the first half of the day, to the southwest - after three in the afternoon.
• The second option is to place flower pots opposite a sunny window, including the south one, but at some distance from it. A light curtain is a must.
• Northern windows for a light-loving plant, like a strong shadow, are not suitable.

It is laid down by nature that calceolaria blooms at a temperature of 14–16⁰ C, does not like it when the thermometer rises above 20–25⁰ C. In our country, these are the autumn months, flowering just ripens for them if the plant is sown in early spring. At higher temperatures, the duration of flowering is noticeably reduced, aphids and whiteflies attack the bushes.

So experiment with different terms sowing should be done carefully, focusing on the weather. And also on whether you can ensure that the temperature in the room drops to acceptable levels.

The plant is sensitive to air humidity, but does not tolerate spraying on leaves and flowers. His petals are delicate, easily damaged, lose their decorative effect. Humidifiers are used to create the right microclimate. You can put the pots on a pallet with expanded clay, which is regularly moistened.

Sowing seeds: timing, features

You can get a hybrid calceolaria yourself by growing from seeds. True, sowing them is akin to aerobatics, they are so small. It's not even a petunia. Dust. But you should not be afraid, it is better to stock up on sand. Seeds are mixed with it for a more even distribution over the soil surface.

For sowing, they acquire or mix their own light substrate, consisting of peat and sand. Instead of the latter, you can use vermiculite. Seeds with sand are sprayed with light shaking movements on the wet surface of the planting container, covered with glass (film) and sent to a bright, cool window sill. Do not try to sprinkle the seeds with sand or soil, they will not overcome this barrier.

When the hooks appear, and this will happen in about a month, do not immediately remove the film - let the greenhouse microclimate remain. Air the crops regularly. When removing the shelter, make sure that drops from the glass do not fall on the seedlings.

20-30 days after germination, the first pick of the plant is carried out. They are transplanted into small plastic cups (200 ml). You can add 1 part of sod land to the original substrate. A month later, a second pick is carried out in liter containers.

Note! To get a calceolaria that blooms in autumn, the seeds are sown in February-March. If you want flowers in May-June, you need to sow in the summer - in July-August.

Organization of care

By creating suitable conditions for calceolaria, caring for it at home is greatly simplified.

Watering

The plant is sensitive to the moisture of an earthen coma, does not tolerate drying out of the substrate, but it cannot be flooded either. Roots can rot. Abundant watering is needed at the stage of growth and during flowering. After flowering, the vegetative mass gradually dies off or is cut off for aesthetic reasons. Watering, respectively, is reduced to a minimum and resumed when young shoots begin to appear.

top dressing

Calceolaria loves to eat. While it is actively vegetating, every 10-12 days, feed the plant with a solution of complete mineral fertilizers enriched with microelements. It is best to purchase targeted fertilizer for indoor flowers and take half the rate indicated by the manufacturer in the instructions.

During the dormant period, feeding is stopped. But as soon as young shoots appear, and this is approximately February-March, the plant needs to be supported. The first top dressing is organic - with a weakly concentrated solution of mullein or bird droppings, the second - mineral (2 g / l of water).

plant formation

To get a lush bush with a lot of flowers, it is recommended to pinch the calceolaria when it has 6-8 leaves. This stimulates the growth of shoots from the axils of the leaves. If large flowers are needed, on the contrary, pinching is carried out - the removal of arbitrarily grown side shoots.

When the plant is in bloom, pick off wilted flowers regularly, unless you plan on collecting seeds. But even in this case, 1-2 seed pods are enough.

cuttings

Cut the faded bush over 3-4 pairs of leaves, transplant into fresh soil. After some time, you will see that it has taken root and gives side shoots from the sinuses. They are used for cuttings. For rooting, you need a light mixture of peat and sand and a mini-greenhouse - as the easiest option, a transparent cap made of plastic bottle or glass. The optimum temperature for rooting is 16–18⁰ C. After 20–25 days, the cutting forms its own root system.

Cutting a flower has its advantages. Firstly, this method of reproduction allows you to save varietal characteristics, which is not always possible with seeds. Secondly, calceolaria grown from cuttings bloom faster.

Calceolaria in the flowerbed

Hybrid forms of the plant are more suitable for growing indoors. But there are varieties of calceolaria that can be planted in open ground - planting and care in this case is somewhat different.

Better than others, wrinkled calceolaria and varieties derived from it are suitable for the garden.

• Gold Bouquet - a plant up to 30 cm high with large flowers.
• Sunset is a hardy dwarf hybrid in yellow, orange and red. color scheme. Flowers resemble bells.
• The Triumph of Versailles is a small-flowered, fast-growing variety.

In February-March, seeds are sown for seedlings, so that in May they can be planted in a flower bed or in flowerpots. Garden forms tolerate bright light better, but it is better not to offer them the sun.

Due to their miniature size and bright color, calceolaria is classified as a foreground flower that needs an advantageous frame. Can you imagine orchids next to petunias and marigolds? So here. If we choose partners for her, then the appropriate ones are tuberous begonia, semperflorence begonia, ageratum, pansies.

Preferred Growing Method garden varieties- in flowerpots or flowerpots. Why?

• In containers, it is easier to maintain the optimal composition of the soil, to carry out top dressing.
• Flowerpots can be placed anywhere, removed from the bright sun, put on the lawn.
• In bad weather, the plants are removed under a canopy, on the veranda. If a flower is planted in a flower bed, a downpour with a hurricane for delicate petals can have not only deplorable, but even irreversible consequences.

Summarize. Calceolaria is a difficult plant, you will have to tinker with it. But having grown it once, you feel something akin to an itch - it seems to be troublesome, but it is impossible to resist such beauty.

Growing Calceolaria:

indoor flower calceolaria (Calceolaria), as seen in the photo, is amazingly beautiful. In early spring he, one of the first, blooms and pleases those around him with his bright colorful outfit. At home, calceolaria is grown as an annual, less often a biennial, herbaceous plant. Abundant flowering can be observed only once - in the first year. In the second year, the decorative effect of the flower is greatly lost, it blooms more modestly, not as luxuriantly as a young plant. Therefore, it is important to learn how to propagate a flower so that every year you have a young specimen that can fascinate with its beauty and attractiveness.

Many scientists attribute the flower to the genus norichnikovyh. English scholars are of the opinion dissenting opinion. They believe that calceolaria belongs to the calceolaria family, since there are quite a lot of them - about 300 names. This plant came to us from America - South and Central. The name of the flower Calceolaria is translated as "little shoe". Calceolaria flowers really have the shape of a shoe. The flower, as it were, consists of two lips. The upper one is very small, convex, and the lower one is voluminous, spherical, as if pumped with air - several times larger than the upper one. At a glance, the flower looks like a wooden slipper like a clog. Calceolaria is a fashionista, she has all kinds of shoes in white, yellow, orange and red, with dark dots and specks on her petals and without them. This flower in the wild is found as a herbaceous plant in the form of a shrub or shrub. They also differ as perennial, biennial and annual plants.

Indoor calceolaria grows up to 25 - 35 cm in height, a maximum of 50 cm. It is not high. The leaves are quite large, grow up to 10 cm in length. They are lanceolate, corrugated, bright green. There is a barely noticeable fluff on the bottom of the leaf plate. Fancy flowers, similar to colorful shoes, appear on the plant in early spring. Inflorescences rise on thin stems, which are surrounded by graceful pubescent leaves. Flowering occurs in March - June, all specimens are different. It happens for several days, and it happens that the calceolaria pleases the owner with lush flowering for more than a month. On one plant, from 20 to 60 colored shoes can immediately bloom. The size of the flowers, depending on the variety, varies. Medium ones have a diameter of 2-3 cm, large ones - up to 7 cm.

Introduction to varieties

For growing calceolaria at home, it is better to purchase hybrid varieties of this plant, because they are most adapted to life on the windowsill. We recommend that you get acquainted with some types of calceolaria plants.

Calceolaria hybrid

On the basis of hybrid calceolaria, many other varieties of these miniature indoor plants. In appearance, these are low bushes with rounded wide leaves, soft and slightly fluffy to the touch. Flowers open up to 5 cm in diameter. They come in all shades of yellow, orange and bright red, on which various stains, specks and blots of a different color are visible. This species has the longest flowering - up to two months.

The following varieties of this hybrid won the greatest popularity among flower growers:

Aida Dervish Dainty

Aida- a low compact bush is literally dotted with dark red velvety shoes

Golden Rain- a variety of shrubby small-colored calceolaria. It is completely covered with bright flowers.

Dervish- its flowers, yellow-brown in color, are distinguished by contrasting variegation.

Dainty- a miniature compact plant, 15 cm high. It has large, soft, pubescent leaves. It blooms with charming red shoes.

Calceolaria Wrinkled (Whole-leaved)

This flower is distinguished by numerous small, up to 2 cm in diameter, wrinkled flowers. bright yellow with brown spots. During flowering, the bush looks like a yellow cloud. it perennial. In warm regions of the country, it is grown in flowerbeds in parks and cottages. There it grows up to one meter in height. Flowers are usually collected in large rosettes. The leaves are narrow, oblong, beautiful light green. Based on this species, breeders have developed frost-resistant varieties that can tolerate frosts down to minus 5 ° C.

At home, the calceolaria of this species is grown as a biennial crop in flower pots, which, with the advent of heat, are taken out into the street, and with the advent of cold weather they are brought back into the house. In room conditions, it grows up to half a meter.

The following varieties are most popular in this type of calceolaria:

Sunset- his flowers are not only yellow, but also orange and red

golden bouquet- has larger flowers of bright yellow color.

Calceolaria Gentle

This miniature perennial plant can also be successfully grown at home if you take the flower pot out to the garden for the summer. Its leaves are not large, bright green, but the flowers are golden yellow with dark spots, very beautiful.

Calceolaria Mexicana

Depending on the conditions of detention, it grows from 30 to 50 cm in different directions. Its soft yellow flowers are medium in size, up to 5 cm in diameter, the bush is strewn with almost two months.

Calceolaria Purple

This low, up to half a meter, plant is a perennial. Spatulate leaves have jagged edges. The flowers are oblong-shaped beautiful purple color with a lilac tint and reddish blotches. In room conditions, grown as an annual.

Calceolaria is a rather capricious plant. High and low temperatures, dryness and waterlogging, strong and low illumination are contraindicated for him. At home, growing such a flower is problematic, but possible. You need to follow some rules for its content.

Temperature

In the winter-spring period, the rooms are very hot from heating. Do you have a heated veranda or glazed balcony. Perhaps your house has a temperature controller, and you can maintain the optimum temperature for it. Then it makes sense to mess with the cultivation of room calceolaria because of the irresistible desire to see it bloom.

But this is a fact - calceolaria does not tolerate high temperatures and dry air! This flower prefers a cool, but bright room, where the ambient temperature does not exceed 17 ° C. At higher temperatures, the plant sheds flowers and buds, loses its decorative effect, and can get sick. It even runs the risk of pests.

Lighting

Calceolaria prefers bright but diffused light. In direct sunlight, it can get a burn of the leaves, which will wither and fall off. Therefore, find a place for her on the windowsills of the north side of the apartment, or at least the east or northwest. At midday, protect it from the sun's rays with blinds or curtains. In the summer, take pots of flowers to the loggia or balcony on the north side of the apartment. The place should be protected from wind, drafts and direct sunlight.

With a lack of lighting, the calceolaria becomes unhealthy in appearance, develops poorly and does not bloom. In early spring, when there is not enough light, we recommend using phytolamps or fluorescent lamps for additional lighting.

Watering

Calceolaria loves abundant watering with settled water room temperature. Ideally - good soft rainwater. The soil in the pot should not dry out. But the excess liquid from the pan after watering must be removed on time to prevent stagnation of moisture in the root system. We recommend watering carefully so that water does not fall on the delicate pubescent leaves of plants. After the end of flowering, calceolaria are watered less frequently, gradually reducing watering to a minimum.

Air humidity

Calceolaria loves high humidity indoors. In addition to regular watering, it is advisable to place the flower pot in a container, at the bottom of which lies a layer of wet expanded clay or large river pebbles. If the humidity in the room is not sufficient, we recommend spraying the air around the pot with water, without getting on the plant. If the flowers of calceolaria still tolerate careful spraying in the warm season, then this wetting is contraindicated for the leaves.

top dressing

It is advisable to feed calceolaria before and during flowering with liquid mineral additives. Moreover, after planting a young plant in a pot, in the spring, you should not immediately feed it if you have chosen a nutritious soil suitable for flowering houseplants. Only after a couple of weeks, you can start feeding with complex fertilizers, until the end of flowering, but not often, once every 2 weeks. After flowering, in the autumn and winter months, calceolaria does not need to be fertilized.

Soil and transplanting into a new pot

Loose nutrient is suitable for growing room calceolaria. soil mix from leaf, sod land, peat and a small part of coarse river sand. Purchased soil for flowering houseplants, for example, for geraniums, with pH = 5.5, is also suitable.

If you bought a flower in a store, see if the roots of the purchased plant stick out of the drainage holes. If the pot is clearly too small, or you want to transplant the calceolaria into your own, more beautiful pot, transplant as follows. Take a prepared pot, slightly larger than the purchased one. Lay a good layer of expanded clay or other drainage at the bottom drainage material. Pour in some of the new soil. If the soil is homemade - do not forget to disinfect it! Gently remove the bush with calceolaria from the purchased pot along with the earthy clod and transfer it to a new pot using the transfer method. Try not to injure the root system. Gently shake the pot to fill all the voids inside it. Add new soil on the sides, cover the roots on top of the plant with it. Pour the flower with settled water at room temperature plentifully to soak the earth ball properly. After some time, drain the excess water from the pan.

Rules for the care of calceolaria after flowering

When growing calceolaria as an annual, immediately after flowering, the bush is dug out of the pot and thrown away. The maximum life of this indoor flower is two years, or two flowering.

If you are growing Calceolaria as a biennial plant, you will need to keep your plant healthy after flowering until the next bloom. To do this, immediately after the flower has faded, its shoots must be cut off, and the pot with the root system must be removed in a cool dark place for one and a half to two months. The temperature should not be higher than 10-12°C. Water occasionally so that the earth ball does not dry out too much. Absolute drying of the root system must not be allowed - otherwise the calceolaria will not rest, but will die. Look at the flower. After a month or two, you will see how new shoots will appear from the soil. This means that the hibernation period of calceolaria is ending, it is preparing for a new life stage. The pot must be put back on a bright, cool window sill. Start watering the plant moderately, feed. If your bush successfully endures the dormant period, it will begin to develop again, even gain buds. At this time, we recommend removing weak shoots, and shortening healthy and strong shoots by 2/3 of their length. This will help the active growth of the bush later. It will bloom much earlier - in February or March. But you do not expect the former riot of colors and abundant flowering! An elongated, pale-looking bush with a few flowers is not at all like how young and beautiful it was last year.

Reproduction of calceolaria

Indoor calceolaria flower propagates in two ways: cuttings and seeds.

Reproduction by cuttings

From saved to winter period flower, in the spring, you can cut off healthy green shoots for rooting. First, we recommend treating the ends of the cuttings with preparations for better rooting (for example, Kornevin). Place the cuttings in a damp substrate under the film. The temperature in the room should be cool, not higher than 20 ° C. The place of rooting should be well lit, planting should be ventilated. A glazed balcony is suitable for this, only additional protection is needed from the direct sun. Shoots will take root for about two months. The probability that all cuttings will be accepted is 50%. When the cuttings take root, they are planted in separate small pots with drainage and begin to care for them, as for adult plants.

To make the calceolaria bushes more fluffy, we recommend planting two or three cuttings in one pot.

Growing from seeds

Growing calceolaria from seeds is much easier and therefore more commonly practiced. A plant grown from seeds with normal care has the best decorative look and profuse flowering. The seeds of calceolaria are very small. There are up to 30 thousand of them in one gram. The process from seed germination to seedling flowering takes more than six months. Therefore, the timing of sowing seeds may be different and depends on when you want to see your calceolaria bloom. For spring flowering, seeds are sown in early June, and in autumn, calceolaria bushes sown in March will bloom with seeds.

In a container with a moist substrate, sow calceolaria seeds on the surface, do not fall asleep with anything on top. You can use the purchased land, suitable for flowering indoor flowers, or prepare it yourself from a mixture of sod, leaf, peat, with the addition of sand. Cover the planting with a lid or plastic wrap. Place the box in a bright, cool place. The temperature should not exceed 20°C. Keep the humidity high. AT greenhouse conditions seeds will sprout faster and grow better. You will see the first shoots in two weeks. After another two to three weeks, the sprouts need to be speared, planting them in rows every 5 cm. Water gently every other day. Ventilate the greenhouse daily. Remove condensate. When the seedlings grow up, after two months, they must be transplanted again. This time in small pots 7 - 9 cm in diameter.

After transplantation, pinch the young bushes, leaving only two or three pairs of leaves. Young shoots will soon begin to appear. Plants will grow noticeably, get stronger. The strengthened calceolaria bushes must be transplanted again into flower pots with more nutritious and heavy soil. You will need a slightly acidic humus substrate with a pH of no more than 5.5. You can prepare the substrate yourself. Take two parts: peat, humus and sod, as well as one part of sand. You can add mineral fertilizer for flowering in the amount of 2-3 grams. per kg of substrate. Now it can be transplanted into permanent, more spacious pots. We have already written about soil and drainage. Now the temperature needs to be somewhat reduced, to 18 ° C - calceolaria does not tolerate heat and dry air. Now you just have to wait for the next flowering.

Try to fulfill all the conditions for growing this interesting plant, and it will delight you with lush flowering in 8 - 9 months from the moment of sowing the seeds.

If you master the methods of breeding your pet well, you will not worry about saving a faded flower- you just throw it away.

Pests

From possible diseases room calceolaria can be called gray rot. It appears with prolonged waterlogging of heavy soil, at too low a temperature and overfeeding with nitrogen fertilizers. Severely affected parts of the plant are cut and destroyed. The bush is transplanted into a new soil and sprayed with preparations containing copper: Bordeaux mixture, oxychome, topaz and others.

Conclusion

Despite some difficulties of growing at home, calceolaria, for its decorative effect, originality and lush bloom extraordinarily beautiful flowers, is on a par with many flower growers' favorite indoor flowers. She is a welcome guest in many homes and on household plots. Try and you grow it with your own hands. Colorful flowering will be your best reward for your efforts and love for indoor flowers.

Calceolaria - herbaceous abundant flowering plant, which is grown in room culture as an annual or biennial. She conquers with her peculiar in shape, bright two-lipped flowers, and the lower lip is large, swollen, spherical, and the upper one is extremely small, barely noticeable. According to their external resemblance, they were nicknamed "shoes" or "purses" by the people.

Calceolaria. © Mark Kent Content:

Description of calceolaria

To the genus Calceolaria ( Calceolaria) belongs to about 400 species of the family Norichnikovye. In English taxonomy, they are classified in the Calceolariaceae family ( Calceolariaceae). Plants are native to South and Central America. Translated from Latin, the word "calceolaria" means "little shoe."

Representatives of the genus are herbs, shrubs and shrubs with opposite or whorled leaves. Flowers with a four-membered calyx and a bright two-lipped, swollen corolla (the lower lip is usually larger). Stamens 2 or 3. The fruit is a box.

Many types are decorative. When creating numerous garden varieties of calceolaria, hybrids of the species C. corymbosa, C. arachnoidea, C. crenatiflora, etc. were used. Hybrid calceolaria with yellow, orange, red, purple flowers, as well as with a spotted or shaded corolla, are grown in cool greenhouses, propagated by seeds and cuttings.

Calceolaria is one of the favorite spring flowering plants, although it is quite difficult to grow and breed it indoors (the plant prefers cool rooms). Calceolaria flowers are very peculiar in shape - bubbly and two-lipped (the lower lip is large, swollen, spherical, and the upper lip is extremely small, barely noticeable). Flowers are often covered with a variety of spots, dots. The flowering period lasts from March to June for one month. There are 18 to 55 flowers per plant.

Features of growing calceolaria

Temperature: Calceolaria loves a cool room, 12-16 ° C. In too warm rooms sheds buds or flowers.

Lighting: Bright diffused light preferred, cannot tolerate direct sunlight. It is good to place on the windowsill of the east, north or northwest window.

Watering: Abundant, earthy clod should not dry out.

Air humidity: Calceolaria requires very high humidity, for this plant pots are placed on a wide tray with pebbles or expanded clay. The pubescent leaves of calceolaria do not like water to get on them, so they spray this plant, trying to ensure that moisture gets only on the flowers.

Transfer: Soil - 2 parts sod, 2 parts leaf, 1 part peat and 1/2 part sand. After flowering, the plant is discarded.

reproduction: Seeds, sown in May-July, without sprinkling soil on top and with a double pick. Calceolaria seeds germinate at a temperature of about 18 ° C. However, growing calceolaria at home is a rather troublesome task; it is easier to purchase an already flowering plant.

Calceolaria Care

Calceolaria prefers diffused light; the plant is shaded from direct sunlight. Suitable for growing near western and eastern windows. At the southern windows, the calceolaria should be shaded from the direct sun, using a translucent fabric or paper (gauze, tulle, tracing paper) for this. Grows well at the north window. During the flowering period, the plant needs a little shading. In autumn and winter, you can use additional lighting with fluorescent lamps.

The temperature of keeping calceolaria in all seasons is preferably moderate, in the region of 12-16 ° C.

During flowering, the plant is watered regularly with soft settled water, as the top layer of the substrate dries up, preventing water from stagnation in the pan. After flowering, watering should be reduced, occasionally moistening the soil and preventing the substrate from completely drying out. When new shoots begin to grow, watering is gradually resumed.

Calceolaria needs high humidity air. Spraying the plant is not recommended.

To ensure sufficient moisture, the plant pot is placed on a pallet filled with water and pebbles or wet peat, expanded clay. It is advisable to grow calceolaria in pots inserted into a planter. The space between the two vessels is filled with peat, which must be constantly moistened.

Start top dressing two weeks after planting in pots and continue until flowering. Feed every 2 weeks with mineral fertilizers.

After flowering, calceolaria can be cut off and placed for 1.5-2 months in a cool, shady place, occasionally moistening the soil (it is impossible to allow the earthen clod to dry completely). When the shoots begin to grow, the plants are exposed to a lighted place where they bloom. Flowering begins 2 months earlier than in plants grown from seeds, but they are somewhat elongated and lose their decorative effect, characteristic of young calceolaria. Therefore, it is better to grow it annually from seeds.

Since the plant quickly loses its decorative effect with age, it should not be transplanted, but should be replaced with a new one.

Calceolaria Fothergill, cultivar ‘Walter Shrimpton’. © Teddington Gardener

Reproduction of calceolaria

Calceolaria is propagated by seeds.

For autumn flowering, they are sown in March, for spring - in June.

Small seeds (about 30 thousand pieces per 1 g) are sown on the surface of the substrate, they are not covered with soil. Crops are covered with paper, which is periodically moistened. When the seedlings have two true leaves, they dive. At the same time, for the preparation of an earthen mixture, 2 parts of humus, hardwood and peat soil and 1 part of sand are taken.

Calceolaria seeds germinate well on peat. In order for the plants to bloom in mid-March, the seeds are sown on July 5-15 in bedding peat, previously disinfected from rot by heating to 90-100 ° C. To reduce acidity, ground chalk is added to peat (15-20 g per 1 kg of peat). For 7 parts of peat take 1 part of sand. The substrate is well mixed. Seeds are sown randomly, without sprinkling with peat. Crops are covered with plastic wrap or glass.

If condensation forms on the inside of the glass or film, the shelter must be turned over, preventing moisture from getting on the plants. In the future, it is necessary to ensure that the peat is always wet.

After the formation of the outlet, the plants dive a second time, transplanted into 7-centimeter pots and placed on bright windows. In September, they are transplanted again into 9-11 cm pots. Before the second transplant, the plants are pinched, leaving 2-3 pairs of leaves, from the axils of which lateral shoots appear.

Calceolaria bushes are also formed by pinching, i.e., removing lateral shoots growing from the axils of the leaves.

In January-February, they are transplanted into large pots with a heavier and more nutritious earth mixture. For grown plants, a humus, slightly acidic (pH about 5.5) substrate is suitable. To compile the substrate, you can take 2 parts of sod, humus and peat soil and 1 part of sand with the addition of complete mineral fertilizer at the rate of 2-3 g per 1 kg of the mixture. Calceolaria blooms 8-10 months after sowing seeds.

Possible difficulties in growing calceolaria

Every year, plants are replaced - propagated by seeds or already flowering specimens are acquired, not leaving them for the next year.

At high temperatures and lack of moisture, the leaves wither and the plant ages quickly.

Types of calceolaria

Mexican calceolaria - Calceolaria mexicana

All types of calceolaria due to their too bright colors difficult to combine with other plants. Mexican calceolaria is no exception. Its small, having a diameter of only about 5 mm, light yellow flowers look spectacular only in a border with ornamental plants or in a composition located on the bank of a stream. In these cases, their whisks look like small Chinese lanterns.

Depending on the conditions, calceolaria bushes can reach a height of 20-50 cm. Naturally, in a moist, shaded place with fertile soil, they will be taller. In nature, this species grows on the wooded slopes of the mountains of Mexico, so it prefers warmth. However, bright sunlight is well tolerated only with abundant watering. Plants usually bear fruit profusely, producing many seeds.

Calceolaria wrinkled - Calceolaria rugosa

The original elegant plant, similar to a cloud of yellow drops, was brought to Europe from Chile.

A perennial herbaceous plant grown as an annual, it is distinguished by an upright strongly branched stem 25-50 cm high. Medium-sized leaves form a rosette. The flowers are small, 1.5-2 cm in diameter, pure yellow, in some hybrid forms with brown dots. With normal sowing, flowering lasts from June until frost. For early flowering in April, seedlings are grown in containers.

Calceolaria varieties

Goldbucket- large-flowered strong plants 25-30 cm high.
‘Triomphe de Versailles’ - small-flowered fast-growing plants 35-50 cm high.

sunset(Calceolaria x hybridus) - a bright elegant plant for home and garden! Each rosette of leathery dark green leaves forms up to 10 short peduncles with yellow, orange or red bell flowers. Height 15-20 cm. Withstands frosts down to -5 °C.

Reading min. Views 674 Published on 07/21/2016

plant care guide

Only after purchase by transshipment method Spring and summer 14-17, winter 8-12 During the flowering period, watering 2-3 times a week, after flowering 1 time in 7-10 days Not recommended Dim ambient lighting poisonous leaves

Lighting

Calceolaria needs dim diffused lighting. Best Option there will be windows facing east or west. You can place the calceolaria on the northwest or northeast windowsill.

On the south side, be sure to shade the plant with paper or a translucent curtain. Especially shading is necessary during flowering: in the bright sun, the flowers will quickly wither.

In autumn and winter, when the daylight hours are short, it is necessary to use: fluorescent or phytolamps. In the warm season, the flower can be taken out on open air in a shaded and sheltered place from the wind.

Temperature

"Flower-slipper" prefers cool conditions. In the spring-summer period, the optimum temperature will be 14-17 degrees, in winter it should be lowered to 8-12 degrees. An increase in temperature above 20 degrees is fraught with rapid aging of calceolaria, pests and diseases.

In addition, long and abundant flowering possible only when kept in a cool room. Due to the heat and dry air, calceolaria can drop buds, flowers, and even leaves.

It is important to know that for normal growth and flowering it is important to ensure the complete absence of drafts.

Watering

Calceolaria needs regular moderate watering. The soil should be moistened abundantly - 2-3 times a week, as soon as it begins to dry out. upper layer soil.

After flowering, watering is reduced to 1 time in 7-10 days. After 20-30 minutes after watering, the water from the pan should be poured out. Waterlogging, as well as drying out of an earthen coma, leads to the death of the plant.