Hydrangea (or indoor hydrangia) is a beautiful flower that fits wonderfully into any landscape design. But hydrangea can also grow on your windowsill in a pot at home. Sphere-like flowers will certainly have a beneficial effect on your mood and atmosphere in the house. Room hydrangea is a perennial shrub with many years, the leaves of which are egg-shaped up to 15 cm. The flowers are large, round, in diameter up to 35 cm. At home, they can grow up to a meter. The color of the hydrangea is white, pink, blue, but there are also different hybrid color changes - green, even purple.
The homeland of this beautiful plant is the Azores, so it will take a lot of heat and moisture when growing hydrangia. Room hydrangea is slightly different in size from the street, but with competent and high-quality care, you can get beautiful large areas of color.
Is it possible to grow a hydrangea at home?
There is an opinion that it is very difficult to care and grow hydrangea at home, but it is not. You just need to follow certain rules for the care of this flower. If only the forces could not be spent, then the way a flower in a pot is worth the effort and skill involved.
Did you know?The color of a hydrangea depends not only on its type, but also on the acidity of the soil.
What does hydrangea, light and temperature like?
Room hydrangea is practically no different from its ally, garden hydrangea. Do not be afraid to grow such a beautiful plant, it is not difficult. Caring for hydrangea, which grows in a pot, is almost no different from caring for a garden view of this plant.
Hortensia is a big fan of light, but on hot summer days it is better not to overdo it with sunbathing, but to move the flower to a more shaded place. Illuminated penumbra is perfect for her. But at the end of winter, when the buds start to tie, place the hydrangea in the most sunny place. Hydrangia prefers comfort. The optimum temperature for its growth and development is + 20 ° C.
A hydrangea has a dormant period when its leaves fall, and it begins to recuperate to the next flowering. During this period, you need to put the flowerpot in a cool place (+ 7-10 ° C) before the first buds.Then you need to return it to its usual place. Also, hydrangea categorically does not accept drafts and temperature changes.
Important!If you do not comply with the conditions for the care of hydrangea during her sleep, then it will bloom only after a year.
How to plant and when to perform a flower transplant
Cuttings are most often used for planting hydrangeas, since seed propagation is not very popular (long, difficult), this kind of planting can be used if the plant variety is very rare and unique. Cuttings are selected from the basal shoots of an adult plant. They should be with leaves, but not blooming.
Ground selection, seedling preparation
When choosing a soil for planting hydrangea, you should consider its color. If the plant is with blue flowers, then it prefers acidic soil, if with pink or white - then you need a soil with low acidity.
You can prepare the soil yourself or select it in a specialty store. The easiest and most convenient way in the modern world is to buy ready-made soil at a flower shop. For example, suitable soils: "Azalea", "Begonia", you can ask advice from the seller. To make the soil yourself, you will need turfy ground and leaf - 3 parts, sand - 2 hours and peat - 1 part. This will make a wonderful blend for your hydrangea.
Planting rules, how to choose a pot for a flower
In order to plant a plant, you will need a cutting that you can cut from a more mature bush. It should be planted in a pot about 10 cm in diameter. You can not plant a plant in a large pot at once, since the active growth of roots and lush foliage will begin, but the flowers will rarely appear.
Interesting fact! Unlike garden hydrangea, home blooms only in the second year after planting.
When you need a plant transplant, and how to perform it
As a houseplant, hydrangea needs to be transplanted infrequently. As a rule, hydrangea is transplanted every year, as the land is depleted and does not allow the plant to develop and feed normally. With a new transplant for a plant you need to increase the diameter of the pot by 2-3 cm.
Important! When transplanting do not need to forget about the drainage.
For transplanting hydrangea, you will need a polyethylene or newspaper. On them you put a pot with a flower and gently, taking the base, tilt the pot and remove the hydrangea from the ground. In a new, prepared pot, we fill the drainage by 3-4 cm, fill it with soil to half, drop the hydrangea and sprinkle it with soil on the roots.
Important! You can not fall asleep transplanted hydrangea above the usual level (as in the past pot).
After transplantation, we spray the hydrangea with water, and full watering can be done the next day. The optimal period for transplanting is early spring.
When the plant reaches such a size that you can no longer find a pot for it, then carry out the procedure of separation and rejuvenation.
Watering and feeding hydrangia
Nuances of watering
You already know perfectly well that hydrangea is a flower of water. In a week she needs to drink up to a liter of pure water. In this case, the water should be soft, since lime in water can lead to chlorosis of the leaves.
The ideal option would be rainwater, but in the city it is difficult to collect the necessary quantities. Therefore, for watering water, it is desirable to filter or add lemon juice or vinegar.
If you are still afraid of chlorosis in the leaves of the plant, then add iron salts to the soil, this kind of mixture can be found in any flower shop.
Interesting fact! During growthand floweringplants need abundant watering, but in the winter it almost stops.
How to properly feed plants
The plant during the period of growth and, especially when the first buds and flowers appear, needs not only regular watering, but also fertilizer. Every 2 weeks you need to water the hydrangea complex fertilizer to maintain the strength of the growing flower. Dissolve the dry fertilizer in well-settled water (2 g per liter of liquid) and pour it under the root with this solution, trying not to fall on the leaves and flowers.
In winter, it is also recommended to periodically water this asleep plant with this solution in order to enhance the effect of awakening and the beauty of future flowers.
Caring for hydrangea at home, how to perform pruning
Caring for hydrangea is not limited to watering and fertilizing. How to care for homemade hydrangea that grows in a pot, you already know, but There is another big nuance - pruning plants. For a flower, it is important to grow and rejuvenate. Trimming is the most effective and efficient way of such rejuvenation. It should be a constant part of care, not only for hydrangea, but also for other plant species. Pruning hydrangea is carried out in early spring.
Spring pruning can be considered preventive, as it allows you to remove weak sprouts and give way to a stronger and more durable. You can also shorten the shoots that are too long for the rest period and now interfere with the overall growth of the plant. Flowers, which gives the hydrangea, like cuttings, and leaves, require pruning, they also need to take care.
The second pruning of hydrangea is done in autumn, after the last flowering. It is considered the most ambitious, as almost all shoots are cut except the strongest and leading ones. You also need to cut the top of the plant in order to further grow additional shoots and form a bush.
Growing a plant, we must think about pests, diseases and other harmful effects. House plants, unlike garden plants, are not so strongly susceptible to various pathogenic bacteria and organisms, but they can also be affected.
Hydrangia is no exception. Various factors may affect her health:
- yellow leaves - check the acidity of the soil, most likely it has decreased;
- began to dry the tips of the leaves - dry in the room and not enough moisture for hydrangea (brown spots may also appear);
- if there are light spots on the leaves - overabundance of sunlight, you need to rearrange the shadow;
- if you notice that hydrangea stopped growingthen it needs to be fed with mineral and organic fertilizers;
Reproduction of hydrangea
Optimal and convenient breeding options for hydrangea is cutting and dividing its bush.
Cuttings
Cutting is the fastest and relatively easy way to get a beautiful flowering plant in the future.
This is easy to do: take a very sharp knife, cut the stalk (up to 10 cm). You need to treat this cutting with a pre-purchased root formation stimulator. We take the pot, which will be home for the future plant, we pour into it 2/3 of the special soil mixture and plant a cutting in it so that it will hold tight.
We put this pot with a handle in a place where direct sunlight will not fall on it (except for the winter months). Future flower should be sprayed with a light solution of potassium permanganate. The most favorable months for planting cuttings are January-February. In this variant of development, by the fall you will have a bush of 4-5 shoots. If you decide to plant the cuttings in the spring, by the fall the shoots will grow significantly less, and they will be weaker.
Dividing bush
A fairly simple process, and its result depends on the accuracy of the gardener and the size of the bush. Hydrangia tolerates this kind of intervention.
We begin the procedure in early spring or late autumn, but before the period of sleep. First of all, you need to carefully remove the plant from the pot. Then lay it out on a newspaper or oilcloth. And we begin to carefully divide the root so that they remain in each of the growth buds, which will give new young shoots. It is also necessary to cut the cuttings, leaving 3-5 buds on them.
We arrange these parts in separate pots, and by the autumn they will root perfectly. If you are sharing a plant in the fall, then wait for flowers by spring.
Everything you need to know about room hydrangea and are not afraid to grow it, you have learned. Hortensia is a beautiful flower in all respects. It is suitable for both professionals and lovers of beauty. If you follow all the rules for the care of this flower, do not forget about watering, then there will always be bright flowers in your house. All the best!
