Eucharis flower and proper care for it
Among indoor plants, Eucharis is rightfully one of the most elegant and attractive.
Everything about this plant is beautiful - large beautiful leaves, delicate flowers and a unique, refined aroma.
Looking at the perfect beauty of a flower, the question naturally arises: how to grow such a miracle with your own hands?
You need to understand the characteristics of the eucharis plant and its care in order to understand what difficulties you may encounter when growing a flower indoors.
Content:
- Amazon lily or eucharis, origin and description of the flower
- Basic requirements for caring for eucharis
- Transplantation and propagation of Amazonian lilies, forcing
Amazon lily or eucharis, origin and description of the flower
Eucharis came into indoor floriculture at the beginning of the 19th century from the humid forests of South and Central America.
Under natural conditions, the flower is widespread on the banks of the Amazon, on the eastern side of the Andes mountain system.
Therefore, in Europe the plant was given the second name Amazonian lily. This is explained by the growing area and the shape of the flowers. In addition, like the lily, Eucharis is a bulbous plant.
Most often, eucharis can be found in the lowest layer of humid forest. Under natural conditions, it blooms, as a rule, in August or September.
The shape of the flower is similar to both a lily and a daffodil. What gives it a special resemblance to the latter is the crown, which is formed by fused stamen filaments. The color of the crown is most often green or any shade of yellow.
The flowers are collected in an inflorescence at the top of a fairly high peduncle; in some species it exceeds 80 cm. One inflorescence usually contains from 3 to 10 flowers. After flowering, a fruit is formed - a capsule.
Eucharis leaves are large, elongated, located on thick straight petioles. They can exceed half a meter in length and 20 cm in width.
There are approximately 10 species in the wild and many of them spontaneous hybrids.
Indoor varieties began with Eucharis grandiflora, from which several dozen indoor varieties have been obtained.
In open ground, the flower can grow only in southern Europe. When growing eucharis in a pot, you need to adhere to certain rules in caring for it.
Basic requirements for caring for eucharis
When deciding to have eucharis at home, you need to remember the conditions in which the wild relatives of this indoor flower grow.
Lighting
Considering that the Amazon lily grows in the shade of trees, you should not choose brightly lit southern windows for this plant at home.
The best option is windows that face east or west. In summer, it is recommended to replant the flower in the garden, in open ground.
In this case, you also need to avoid direct sunlight and create, if necessary, artificial shade for several hours a day.
Temperature
When caring for indoor eucharis, it is important to remember that ambient temperatures below plus ten degrees are extremely low for this flower.
If you keep the plant at these levels for several days, it will not only begin to lose leaves, but its bulb may also begin to rot. Eucharis is most comfortable at +22+25.
Watering
When growing Amazon lilies in pots, they react equally poorly to both a lack of moisture and an excess of it.
Insufficient watering can be considered when the soil dries out by more than 1/3. In this case, the leaves lose their elastic and healthy appearance, and the plant may not bloom.
In case of waterlogging of the soil in pots and too frequent and abundant glaze, the bulb and roots of the flower begin to rot.
To properly water a flower, it is best to place it for a while in a tray with water at room temperature.
As soon as the lump of earth is evenly saturated with moisture, remove the pot and place it on the windowsill; if there is excess moisture on it, then it must be wiped off so that the flower stands on a dry surface.
With overhead watering, the plant is watered once every four days with a sufficiently large amount of water.
During the active growing season, the flower needs copious spraying with warm, settled water. From the moment the buds open, instead of spraying, it is better to wipe the leaves with a damp cloth.
Rest period
The duration of the rest period is approximately 60 days. During this period, the main task is to slow down the appearance of young leaves and prevent the plant from shedding old ones.
At this time, reduce watering to a minimum and stop feeding altogether. If you properly organize care during this period, you can achieve two blooms in a year.
Top dressing
As soon as the dormant period ends, the flower needs one feeding every two weeks.
It is best to use complex mixtures for indoor flowers, and after the flower stalk appears, switch to potash fertilizers. Immediately after the eucharis fades, it is better to stop feeding.
The appearance of flowers is the main confirmation of the correct organization of care for eucharis.
At the same time, the flower grows, daughter bulbs are formed and sooner or later the question will arise about transplantation it into another pot.
Transplantation and propagation of Amazonian lilies, forcing
Transplantation and propagation
In order for eucharis to safely endure the transplant and bloom after it, you should not carry out this procedure too often.
In order not to harm the plant, it must be replanted approximately once every three years. This must be done during the dormant period by simply transferring it along with a lump of earth into a larger pot.
The new pot will need to add the required amount of soil. To do this, you can mix one part of river sand and peat and two parts of compost soil.
In addition, you need to add a layer of any drainage material to the bottom of the pot, this will help protect the roots from rotting.
Simultaneously with transplantation, you can separate part of the daughter bulbs for flower propagation.
It is important to remember that you should not separate all the children from the mother bulb and you do not need to break them off and place them one by one.
If these rules are not followed, eucharis may stop for several seasons. bloom.
Problems during cultivation
Beginning flower growers very often encounter the problem of leaves drying out. If one or two leaves of an Amazon lily have dried up, then there is no reason to worry.
If the leaves dry out en masse, then most likely a serious mistake was made in caring for the eucharis.
Typically this is:
- too spacious pot
- no rest period
- temperature violation
- overwatering
- insufficient watering
It is necessary to bring the conditions of keeping the flower in line so that after some time you can see beautiful flowers on it.
Forcing
You can get blooming eucharis for any holiday. For this purpose, the forcing method is used.
You need to completely stop watering the plant for thirty days and place it in a room where there is little light and the temperature does not rise above 15 degrees.
After that, extract onion from the ground, wrap it in plastic. Pour very warm water about 60-65 degrees into a thermos with a suitable neck and place the onion in it for a whole day.
Then plant the bulb in a not too spacious pot and keep it in a fairly warm room and regular watering until the flower stalk appears.
As soon as the bulb throws out a peduncle, the plant is placed in normal conditions. Thus, with gaining experience in caring for the Amazon lily, it is not a problem to get three blooms a year.
Video on how to make a flower bloom:
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