This plant belongs to the family of madder. Beautiful evergreen shrub, which, with proper care in the greenhouse grows up to a half meters in height.
As a rule, gardenia at home rarely grows more than half a meter. For the window sill, jasmine gardenia, which by its beauty can safely bypass the rose.
Care for gardenia at home
Provide the flower with good scattered light, then it will please you with abundant and long flowering. But never allow direct sunlight. Gardenia at home will feel great on any windowsill, except the southern (especially in summer).
From October to the end of winter, the flower comes to rest. In this interval, it is necessary to create optimal conditions of detention. The gardenia plant needs a temperature of about 18 ° C. Watering and air humidity should be moderate. In the period of active growth, it is possible to feed the flower with complex fertilizers a little.
In the heat period, the top layer of the pot should be covered with mulch material. This will help to avoid excessive evaporation of moisture, prevent overheating of the root system.
Spray the leaves with clean and warm water constantly. Especially carefully follow this should be during the budding period. In order to ensure a constant moisture, put moistened peat in the pan. When the plant will please you with its flowering, it is not worth stopping sprinkling. But it will have to be done very carefully, so as not to hurt the flowers. Try to spray only the air around the flower. During flowering, pruning is usually done. All weak or too thick stems are removed. But you can use good cuttings to grow gardenia.
Gardenia: reproduction
Propagation of the flower by propagation. There is one difficulty in this matter: the flower refers to hard-to-root. During the winter pruning, semi-aged cuttings are harvested from last year's shoots. Their size should be about 12 cm.
Prepare the substrate for the cuttings, it must be loose, light and airy. Ideal is a mixture of turf, sand and vermiculite. Do not add coconut fiber or perlite.
The bottom cut must be smooth and even. To deepen the cutting should be one centimeter, so that the leaves do not touch the soil. Rooting will be very slow, at least three weeks. In addition, for the successful process of rooting, special conditions are necessary: lower heating. This can be done with a thermal insulating glass. It poured hot water and lowered the glass with a handle. Periodically cooled water should be changed.
Gardenia: transplant
Proper care for gardenia at home involves a transplant. Do this enough once a year. The soil mixture must have the following composition: peat, sand, coniferous and leafy earth. Mix everything in equal proportions. In shops
Transplant the plant should only after flowering. If the flower is in budding or flowering, it can not be disturbed. Often, after transplant, the flower growers face problems with flower diseases. If the gardenia blackens, most likely, you incorrectly picked up for her the lighting, watering regime. To save a plant it is possible by a method of correct selection of conditions of the maintenance, spraying by preparations "Zircon", "Epin".
The leaves of gardenia turn yellow when the water for irrigation is too hard. This can lead to the death of the flower. Water better with boiled and warm water.