If you want white, yellow or red flowers, similar to stars, to blossom in your house for Christmas, be sure to place on your windowsill Euphorbia the most beautiful. However, it is worth remembering that every plant needs to be taken care of properly, surrounded by care, transplanted and fed in time.
How to choose a Christmas flower
There are few indoor plants that bloom during the winter cold, so the Christmas star flower is considered unique. The unusual name of Poinsettia( Euphorbia, the most beautiful) was received during the period of active flowering, which falls on New Year's holidays. Thanks to this, you can buy a Christmas gift as a gift to friends or relatives, because it has small flowers with beautiful large bracts, which make the inflorescence of Molochia similar to bright stars.
The family of Euphorbias, to which Poinsettia belongs includes more than 1000 species. However, some of them belong to deciduous plants, and others to succulent plants. Some Molochya varieties are listed as endangered in the Red Book. In the room conditions many species are cultivated, but the Christmas star is one of the most beautiful and unpretentious.
If you decide to purchase this wonderful plant for yourself or your loved ones, then pay attention to some points in the store:
- the crown of leaves and bracts should be fresh and lush;
- stems short with green foliage;
- is not too dry soil.
You can not buy a flower in a street where the temperature is below 5 degrees. Even if the bush stays quite a bit in the cold, it can get sick or die. When you buy Egg in the store, be sure to cover it with paper and cloth, after which you can take out on the street. The frostbite of Poinsettia is threatened by the fact that she will completely discard the leaves, so you can not give her for Christmas to your friends, and all the holidays will go to the treatment of the bush.
How to care for Poinsettia at home
The coming of the New Year or Christmas is the best time to buy for yourself or for those close to Poinsettia, because when the flowering is over and the bracts completely fall, it will not be so attractive. The Christmas tree is very moody and can start to rot in the first days after the purchase, if not provide him with proper care. It is necessary to take into account the tropical origin of Molochya, to observe the periodicity of rest and growth, to cut and feed on time. If everything is right, then every year Poinsettia will delight you with beautiful flowers for 3-4 months in a row!
First of all, after buying a Christmas star flower you need to take care of where you put the pot with it. It is recommended to give preference to the west side of the window. It is very important that the leaves of the Euphorbia of the most beautiful do not touch the glass of the window, because they are very tender and may begin to fall off from the interaction with the cold surface. Any drafts are fatal for Poinsettia.
Proper color care Christmas star should include a whole range of activities:
- temperature control;
- providing the desired level of lighting;
- regular watering;
- fertilizing with fertilizers.
Temperature and lighting
The Bethlehem star is a thermophilic flower that can not bear the cold. The optimum air temperature for him is 18-20 degrees. The lower limit should not fall below 16. It is worth taking care that in the room where your Christmas flower lives, there were no sharp temperature changes. Pay attention to where you buy the Euphorbia. If this is a market, then the flower has little chance of surviving, because there he was almost on the street, and already managed to get frostbite. Lighting is also important for the flower, so if possible, highlight the bush.
Air humidity and watering
Warm and very dry air can harm your flower Christmas star. If your apartment has this problem, you should buy an artificial moisturizer or have to constantly spray the plant. You need to do this with a clean, specially tempered water temperature of 18-20 degrees. Such manipulations will additionally protect the flower from the appearance of a spider mite( a pest that is very dangerous for a Christmas star).
When Poincettia begins to bloom( in winter from December to March), it should be provided with regular copious watering. In addition, water needs a flower in the period of active growth( as a rule, it falls on the summer months).You can not allow the ground in the pot to dry out, but the stagnation of moisture should be avoided. If you notice that the soil has begun to dry out, immediately pour the flower, and after 40-60 minutes, drain the remaining liquid from the pallet. Water for irrigation is specially defended, it should be room temperature.
Fertilizer and top dressing
To make the Christmas star lush and beautiful, it needs nutrients. This is especially important in the summer and in the spring, when the flower is growing and gaining strength. Feeding is carried out at least twice a month by mineral fertilizers. In winter, when Poinsettia has a flowering period, it is better to fertilize potassium fertilizers. You can buy ready-made compositions for cactus or flowering plants for the Christmas star.
Soil selection and flower transplant
This unusual flower with red flowers requires annual transplants. The best time for this is April or May. The algorithm is simple:
- Remove the flower from the pot, gently shake the old soil from the roots.
- In a new pot of a larger size, lay the drainage layer, fill it with fresh soil. The optimal option for the Christmas star is a soil with a high content of humus. You can mix turf ground with peat and sand.
- Plant the flower in a previously prepared pot.
- Place the Christmas star on the sunny side of the window, abundantly watered.
- When there are fresh sprouts about 15 cm long, leave the 5 strongest ones, the others cut off.
- Crop cuttings are suitable for growing new plants.
Propagation of the
plant After the Christmas star has successfully grown in your house two consecutive seasons, you can try to multiply it. To do this, cuttings of the bush are used. Crop Poinsettia in early summer or in the middle, but not later than the end of August. The air temperature for the contents of the cropped bush should be within 23-30 degrees. If the indicators are lower, then you need to create a greenhouse effect or move the bush to the greenhouse.
The stalk for the reproduction of the Christmas star should be 8-10 cm long. In addition, it should have 3 healthy green leaflets. The process is planted in moist soil with a good drainage layer. A few weeks before the emergence of new shoots on the bush should maintain a uniform soil moisture. Be sure to check that the soil is clean. Every day several times spraying a bush. This will prevent the appearance of whitefly and mushroom mosquitoes. The sun's rays necessarily alternate with the shadow to avoid sunburn.
Flowering and pruning
Calling this plant a Christmas star began for the wonderful inflorescences that resemble a luxurious Christmas decoration. However, to get flowers for the holiday you need to take care of the plant properly. In autumn, in October or November, the flower is covered with a black film( you can use a cardboard box for this).This is necessary to reduce the daylight hours to ten hours. At the beginning of winter, put a bush in a warm room with an air temperature of about 18 degrees. The lighting in the room should be bright. In addition, the flower requires abundant watering.
If you do it right, by the end of December your Christmas star will blossom with beautiful flowers that will please you until the very spring. The flower may begin to fall off leaves, this is due to excess moisture in the soil, drafts or temperature changes in the house. To prevent such problems, you need to protect the plant from such factors.
When to trim a Christmas star? Annually the flower requires several procedures:
- The branches are cut off immediately after flowering exactly half, leaving shoots about 15 cm long.
- The weak shoots are cut off after transplanting the plant into a new pot.
- During the growing season, Christmas tree branches are cut off, which are knocked out of the total number( too long, uneven) to maintain the shape of the bush.