Zamioculcas (Zamioculcas) - a perennial decorative and deciduous shrub from the Aroid family. In the natural environment lives in the mountain steppes and tropical forests of East Africa. Here, an evergreen plant is adjacent to succulents, like it, which stores moisture in fleshy leaves, petioles and roots. Stock is consumed during a drought.
If water is absent for a long time, zamioculcas will throw off the leaves and go into a dormant state. From sprouted leaves a tuber will form, which will spawn a new bush. The flower is easy to grow at home. It develops slowly, forming up to 3 leathery leaves per year. Zamioculcas can live in the room for 5-10 years and grow up to 1, 5 m. Only adult plants bloom, and very rarely. Small flowers are collected in a low creamy cob, covered with a pale green veil.
Average growth rate. | |
It blooms very rarely at home. Small flowers are collected in a low creamy cob, covered with a pale green veil. | |
The plant is grown with little difficulty. | |
Perennial plant, up to 10 years of life. |
Useful properties of zamioculcas
Zamioculcas - a flower that gave rise to omens. People believe that it attracts female happiness. If you place a bush in the house where the girl lives, she will marry and find family happiness. The plant is also called the dollar tree and is considered a symbol of material well-being.
Particular luck awaits those with Zamioculcas blooming: a rare event portends the imminent attainment of happiness and financial luck. Signs will work if the plant is presented as a happy married woman or a successful businessman. If the flower is poorly looked after, it will not bring luck.
Home care for Zamioculcus (briefly)
Zamioculcas at home is easy to grow, but a caring florist should provide the plant with optimal conditions so that it grows fully. These include:
Temperature | In winter, about + 16 ° C, in summer - up to + 28 ° C. |
Air humidity | Irrelevant. |
Lighting | Diffused bright light up to 6 - 8 hours a day; tolerates slight shading, but grows more slowly. |
Watering | Tetrastigma Vuagnier at home needs frequent watering in the summer - up to 2 times a week, and moderate hydration in the winter - every 15 days. |
Priming | Loose and well-drained; a mixture of peat, garden soil, perlite, taken in equal portions, with the addition of lime dust. |
Fertilizer and fertilizer | During the growing season - 1 time per week. |
Zamioculcas transplant | Young plants - annually, in mid-spring. |
Breeding | Leaf with a bud dividing a bush |
With the obvious simplicity of caring for the plant, there are features of growing zamioculcas. The flower must be kept warm, protected from temperature extremes and draft. Avoid overflow: this will lead to rotting of the tuber and death of the plant. With age, the shoots of the bush become long, decay in different directions under their own weight.
Shoots may break, and the flower may fall. To prevent this, the grown branches are carefully bandaged together with an elastic soft ribbon or combined with a ring of wood or thick wire. Zamioculcas leaves contain juice that causes an allergic reaction. Therefore, all work with the flower is performed with gloves.
Care for Zamioculcus at home. In detail
Zamioculcas flower at home will develop harmoniously if the owner takes care of the plant responsibly and creates comfortable conditions for him.
Flowering Zamioculcus
How Zamioculcas blooms. A photoFlowering Zamioculcas is a rare and unattractive phenomenon. Only an adult plant decides to bloom. The inflorescence is an erect creamy cob wrapped in a plain greenish veil. With a short pedicel, the cob timidly clings to the base of the leaf.
There are 3 types of small flowers on it: male (in the upper part of the cob), sterile (in the center) and female (at the very base). The plant will bloom only under favorable conditions.
Temperature mode
Zamioculcas - a plant unpretentious, it can withstand a temperature drop of up to + 12 ° C. But do not test his patience. To feel comfortable and blooming zamioculcas, home care dictates that it is imperative to maintain an optimal temperature regime.
It is useful in winter to keep the flower at + 16 ° C. At other times, the temperature rises smoothly. The plant tolerates well the increase to + 28 ° C. It is not recommended to sharply change the temperature.
Spraying
The plant does not care about air humidity. Therefore, for him, spraying is not among the mandatory procedures. Zamioculcas at home in winter can easily stand next to a hot battery.
But periodic spraying and a tepid shower will not hurt the bush, as will the gentle wiping of leaves with a damp sponge.
Lighting
Home zamioculcas can grow with little shading. At the same time, its leaves are deformed and growth is slightly slowed down. A large plant is difficult to place on a windowsill. Choosing a place in the room for him, one should give preference to where zamioculcas will be in the light from 6 to 8 hours a day.
This will give its large leaves a beautiful malachite hue. For a flower, bright diffused lighting is preferable. In summer, the plant feels great on the street, in a place protected from the prevailing wind. In winter, it must be put closer to the window, periodically turn on the phytolamp.
Watering
Zamioculcas can suffer a short drought, but will die from overflow and stagnation of water. Watering should be very moderate. In summer, a flower is plentifully watered enough once a week, and in winter it will be enough 2 times a month.
An obvious deficit of moisture in the soil can be determined by abundant leaf fall, which will not take long. In order for moisture to remain, the soil is mulched with a coconut substrate cut by sphagnum.
Zamioculcas pot
The pot for zamioculcas is selected taking into account the characteristics of its root system. The shape of the pot should coincide with the direction of root growth. A container is preferred whose diameter is slightly (1.5–3 cm) larger than the diameter of the tuber Zamioculcas. In such conditions, the roots will develop correctly until the next transplant.
For good flower growth, its roots should be in relative crowding.
Too large or very small pots are not suitable for the development of zamioculcas. At first it’s better to take a pot of plastic. During the transplant, it can be accurately cut without damaging the fragile roots of the plant.
Soil for zamiokulkas
Looseness and lightness are the main criteria for choosing a substrate for a flower. You can buy a soil mixture for cacti and succulents, add sand, crushed coal to it.
You can prepare the soil for Zamioculcas yourself from equal parts of garden soil, sand and peat, adding lime dust. To improve drainage, brick chips are placed in the ground, ¼ part of the pot is covered with expanded clay.
Fertilizer and fertilizer
Fertilizing and fertilizing are important for plant vegetation. Zamioculcas loves moderation in everything, and an overabundance of nutrients will affect it worse than a complete lack of nutrition. Typically, a flower that belongs to slowly growing is fed once a week, after watering. During the growing season, fertilizer is given for diluted cacti and succulents.
During the dormant period, do not fertilize.
Zamioculcas transplant
Immediately after the purchase, the flower is not transplanted: 10 days must pass before it gets used to the new conditions. Transplantation of zamioculcas is carried out as it grows. A young bush (up to 3 years) is transplanted annually in mid-spring. Then the flower growth slows down, mature Zamioculcas is transplanted on average after 3, 5 years.
You can water the plant 2 days after transplantation. Over time, the size of the shoots increases. When transplanted, they are carefully tied together or put support for them. Flower tubers do not need to be deepened. A part of them should be visible on the surface of the soil.
Pruning
Pruning is an affordable way of forming the crown of Zamioculcus, removing weak bare branches, yellowed leaves and improving light perception. The procedure is carried out during the active growth of the bush, in spring and summer. When the flower is resting, it is not pruned for fear of weakening.
Can Zamioculcas be left without care
If you go on vacation for a month, you can not worry about the flower. Zamioculcas will calmly spend this time in familiar conditions. Just before departure, the plant should be watered and mulched as usual with a coconut substrate or crushed sphagnum. You can put it in a pan with wet pebbles, making sure that the roots of the flower do not touch the water.
Reproduction of Zamioculcus
Reproduction of Zamioculcas at home is possible by dividing the bush, individual leaves.
Reproduction of zamioculcus leaflets
Single leaf propagation - An easy way to get a new bush. Zamioculcas is a rare flower that can form a tuber from a single leaf.
- The cut sheet is dried and placed in a wet mixture of sand and peat, deepening by 1/3.
- Cover with a cropped plastic bottle or film (holes are made on them).
- The seedling must be ventilated and occasionally watered.
- After a few months, roots form, then - after about 5 months - nodules, from which a new bush will grow.
- You can cut off a false leaf - "branch" with a kidney. It is dried and planted in a permanent pot with a peat-sand mixture, deepened to the very base of the leaf. Sometimes rooted in water by adding crushed coal.
Reproduction by dividing the bush
Reproduction by dividing the bush - The best option for a new plant. In order not to disturb the flower again, the division of the bush is combined with a transplant. Zamioculcas is removed from the pot, the roots are carefully divided. The root of the separated fragment is dried, after which a separate bush is planted in a pot, watered and mulched.
The plant multiplies easily, but you need to be patient and calmly wait until Zamioculcas takes root and begins to develop. It is impossible to force events and fertilize the plant at this time.
Diseases and Pests
Diseases and pests usually bypass Zamioculcas, but due to an irresponsible attitude to the flower and poor care, problems can arise:
- leaves fall zamiokulkas - if sharply - lack of moisture (pour); if slowly (especially the lower leaves) - a natural process;
- leaves rot - the plant is cold, excess moisture (stop watering, rearrange in a warm place);
- Zamioculcus leaves are soft and have dark spots. - the plant is cold, stands in a draft (rearrange in a warm place, protected from draft);
- Zamioculcus leaves discolor and curl. - damage to aphids (to clean a plant from aphids, rinse with a concentrated soap solution, treat with aphids);
- dark stripes and spots on the stem - a natural process;
- dark spots on the stem and leaves - affection with a scab (collect wet larvae with a sponge, treat with green soap, adding a decoction of tobacco or kerosene; treat with an insecticide)
- Zamioculcas leaves turn yellow, dark spots form on the stem - if at the same time new leaves appear - a natural process; if there are no new leaves - a sharp change in temperature, little moisture, drafts (water, rearrange in a place protected from draft);
- dry yellow spots on the leaves - sunburn (pritenit);
- stems are pulled - little light (rearrange in a bright place, turn on the backlight). From a lack of light, the plant will not die, but will grow more slowly;
- the tips of Zamioculcus leaves dry and break- low air humidity (spray, put in a pan with wet pebbles);
- grows poorly, does not form new shoots - there is little light, the pot is not selected to fit the size, the tuber is buried, there is no drainage (transplanted into a suitable pot, slightly exposing the tuber and strengthening the drainage; relocate to a bright place).
The plant is sometimes affected by aphids, spider mites, scabies.
Types of zamioculcas home with photos and names
Zamiokulkas, a monotypic genus from the Aroid family, consists of one species - Zamiokulkas, myeloid. This species and its variety, zamioculcas variegate, are successfully grown at home.
Zamioculcas zamielistny (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
The leaves, like that of Zamia, are plants in whose name he is named, glossy bright green with a pointed tip and a short petiole. Dark purple spots may appear at the base of the leaf plate of an adult plant. A brown tuber is like a potato.
Zamioculcas variegate
Rare view. Spectacular leaf color with a characteristic transition of light green to white and even colorless. Variegation is caused by cell mutation. Such cells are not adapted to the synthesis of chlorophyll, this led to their colorlessness. Houses can grow up to 1, 5 m. Juicy bright green leaves with pointed tips are strictly symmetrical.
Zamioculcas is a strong plant that does not require special attention, relying on internal forces in everything. For the first time, it became widely known only a few decades ago. During this time, Zamioculcas has become one of the most popular house plants and a harbinger of happy events.
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