With the advent of winter frosts, I more and more want to see the living greens of foliage, a colorful rainbow of flowers, feel their stunning aroma … And outside the window there is white snow with sticking naked branches of bushes. It seems winter is a time of icy calm. But no, indoor plants bloom and turn green outside the houses.
There is good. And it seems that spring is already nearby ..
A person has long adorned his dwellings with green plants. And even now, in the “Age of Great Speeds”, when there is practically no time for anything, people still continue to grow decorative indoor plants.
Regarding the use of living plants in interior design, I have a subjective (so as not to offend anyone) the impression of the different mentality of our compatriots and residents of Western Europe.
The designers of the Western school are on the main emphasis on inanimate materials: pots, pots, stands, various wicker products, tower bundles, dried leaves and petals, candles, pebbles. All this variety of colors and forms is seasoned with various aromas. Green color is increasingly set by artificial plants or plant -like products: vases, floor lamps, viscouses. And living indoor plants are intended only for filling pots, pots, flowerpots. Therefore, the attitude towards living plants is very trivial: something was watered, they were fertilized, if it died, they threw a new purchased flower in an empty pot.
The industry production of decorative indoor plants abroad is huge and very costly. However, in the retail network, such plants are sold at quite acceptable prices, even taking into account trade “cheating”.
It follows that in order to maintain low prices, manufacturers should provide a huge gross flow of plant material, which should be sold by at least 60-70% (a fairly large number of plants does not withstand transportation and change of conditions). So it turns out that in decorative floriculture to ensure a high degree of profitability, you need to force the final user, that is, us, more often to purchase indoor plants. And this can be achieved when living indoor plants will die if not immediately, then at least after 3-6 months.
A sharp change in the usual environmental parameters, which will certainly happen when planting plants from greenhouses to store shelves, and from there to the windowsill of apartments and offices, leads to the inhibition of growth processes and, ultimately, to the death of plants.
And if some plants, for example, cacti and other succulents showed excessive endurance, then their tissues were preserved by glycerin, potassium soap or fatty acids – the plants died, but retained the appearance of the living. I immediately note that fortunately, not all plants sold in stores are subjected to such processing.
In contrast to the inhabitants of the “Enlightened West”, our compatriots with great trepidation belong to indoor plants, lovingly calling them “pets”. Great joy for a city dweller to grow from a seed-seam, a tiny little cutter or a leaf big plant. For us, in general, it doesn’t matter how colorful a pot or flowerpot will be, it would be a great and well-growing plant.
Now let’s ask the question: why green the interior and why use exactly living plants? Everyone will easily answer the first part of the question: the green color soothes, relaxes, reduces the likelihood of stress. But why do you need living plants when there are perfectly made artificial ones on sale – even the smell can be added to them. Really a tribute to tradition? It turns out no.
The fact that living plants are oxygen factories, everyone knows. But not everyone knows that they are biological
filters, ionizers and humidifiers. There are plants that are actively ozoning air (palm trees, cacti, small decorative conifers), deodorizing it (dwarf roses, cyclamenes, citrus fruits), attracting and utilizing the smallest particles of dust, which easily pass through the filters of vacuum cleaners (monsters, philodendrons).
There are two types of content of indoor decorative plants, most of which are tropics immigrants: greenhouse and winter garden. The greenhouse content provides for the creation of a closed limited space outside the living area – in this case, a person visits plants. In the greenhouse, it is easy to create the necessary parameters of temperature, humidity and lighting.
Winter Garden is the content of plants in the residential area of a person. Excessively high air humidity or temperature here can have a negative effect on its health. Therefore, indoor plants should “put up” with the requirements for their master. But in practice, it looks like different plants can feel good in different places of the apartment: something on the windowsill, something – in the depths of the room, something – in a “hazardous” kitchen, and something – in bedroom or at the TV.
Basic requirements for plants: light, heat, water, nutrition.
The bright time of the day (day) has a duration, and the light actually is the intensity and spectrum. We most often talk about the visible spectrum – these are seven colors of rainbow. But there is an invisible part of the spectrum, which is important for living organisms: infrared and ultraviolet rays. Ultraviolet rays contribute to the synthesis of calciferols that are involved in the exchange of calcium and magnesium. However, ordinary quartz glass retains ultraviolet rays, but passes infrared, that is, thermal rays. It is not surprising that many indoor plants feel good, being carried out in the summer for fresh air under the sun.
The synthesis of organic substances in the green tissues of plants depends on the intensity of light. There are photophilous plants (dwarf acacias, aloy, aminalis, buggenivillia, cacti, kalan-hoe, kislitsa, kilus, decorative nightshade and cereals, fat men and purities, targeted, small decorative cypresses, carnations and hammer, hibiscus and geraniums, bells and bells, bells and heralds, bells and geese Portulaki, kaly), and there are – and extremely shade -loving (cariot palm trees, many ferns, Fittonia). However, the requirements for lighting in most indoor plants lie in the range from the “scattered sun” to partial.
In the tropics, the length of the day and night is more or less equal, so botanists call tropical plants short -day. In the temperate climatic zone in the summer, the day is much longer than the night, and in the winter – on the contrary. Some tropical plants when maintaining in our apartments may need shading – in the summer and backlight – in winter.
The insufficient lights are evidenced by elongated pale thin shoots, and about the excessive -the reduction of the green parts of the plant, the growth of growth.
Heat and water are always considered jointly, since at a high environmental temperature increases the evaporation of water from the surface of the leaves and from the soil, and high humidity in the culture is permissible only at high temperature, otherwise plants can be affected by putrefactive mushrooms.
The tap water has an important criterion – stiffness. It is divided into temporary and constant, but regarding plants, temporary stiffness is important, namely, the content of calcium ions (magnesium ions are usually not taken into account).
At home, the level of calcium content is easy to determine by the intensity of the formation of scale in the kettle when boiling water. Pulling of dirty claps of calcium salts on the edges of the pot also indicates excessive stiffness of water. Too hard water – undesirable for most indoor plants, and for some it is even destructive.
Often advised to defend water supply for watering plants. It is wrong to carry out this procedure with cold water – when it is defended, only gaseous chlorine or fluorine are removed. Temporary stiffness is reduced by defending hot water when located in
suspended condition of insoluble calcium salts fall into precipitate. Moreover, water for watering is taken from the upper 2/3 of the tank, and the lower third is drained. But it is better to defend in advance boiled water.
Usually indoor plants are watered when the earth in pots dries for 1-2 cm. Excessive watering and closing is harmful to most plants. In winter, with a functioning central heating, air humidity decreases sharply, so the plants should be watered more often than in the summer. And the flowers located on the “strong sun” must also be watered more often, better – in the morning or evening. Most tropical plants are very good at spraying and washing leaves with warm water.
Anturiums, Dieffenbachia, Caladium, Kalathea, ferns, spathifloles, cyperuses growing in very moist conditions, do not like drying out the substrate. They are watered abundantly, leaving water in the pallet. Azalia and heather, indoor dahlias and carnations, jasmine also require abundant watering.
Food is a very important factor. Bushed plants “sit” either in pure peat or in a peat substrate. The decomposed peat in general is a valuable organic fertilizer, but in the pots of the sold greenhouse plants its nutritional value, as a rule, is approaching zero. Therefore, in most cases, in industrial greenhouses, the plants are contained in the form of substrate hydroponics, that is, they are “feeded” by nutrient solutions supplied to a neutral substrate, usually soaked peat. During transportation and staying in the store, plants manage to choose almost all nutrients from a peat substrate. Therefore, purchased plants must be transplanted.
The soil can be bought or made by yourself on the basis of garden land with the addition of peat and sand – 10-15% of each. It will not be superfluous to add a small amount of broken red brick or necessarily a collapsed (chopped) expanded clay. For some plants you will need clay adding.
The purchased plant is taken out of the pot and put in a basin with warm water. In 2-3 hours, the old substrate will swell and easily fall off from the roots. The roots should be examined. Rotten and dry should be cut, and slices should be sprinkled with chopped coal, ash or aluminum powder, or coated with a solution of diamond greens (green). With severe lesions of the roots, the sections are treated with fungicidal preparations (“Maxim”, “Topaz”, “Fundazole”).
A drainage layer of broken red brick, collapsed expanded clay, clay skulls, small crushed stone or large sand is poured onto the bottom of the pot. Pour a slide on top of the drainage. Install the plant, straightening the roots. Fill up the soil, slightly compacting it with your fingers. The level of soil is not brought to the edge of the pot by 1 -2 cm, depending on the size of the pot. For the stability of the plant, a wand or grille is inserted into the pot, or the plant is propped with pebbles.
Only drought-resistant plants: cacti and other succulents are watered after 3-4 days. The rest of the plants need to be watered immediately after the transplant. Under the pot should definitely be installed.
Some plants, for example, Uzumbara violets, cyclamen, gloxinia prefer lower watering from the pallet.
If a purchased substrate based on peat was used during transplantation, the plants should be fertilized after 5-6 months. As organic top dressing, a mixture of humic acids or their salts with trace elements (“Humat+7”) well proved itself well. But the fertilizers with the inscription “Biogumus” should be treated carefully. Actually biohumus – the product of the life of ringworms – has the appearance of grayish granules resembling a poppy seed. This is a magnificent organic fertilizer. However, what is sold in dissolved form or in a mixture with a peat substrate, in fact, often does not have the qualities of a real biohumus.
It is advisable to use complex granular or liquid concentrated forms from mineral fertilizers. Complex fertilizers in sticks can be stuck into pots once a month. During the period of active growth, the plants of plants should be carried out by microelements.
An important point – transplantation. Plants transplant into new pots, 20-40% higher than the volume of the old, based on the size of the root coma, and not the crowns. It should be remembered that a free substrate, not filled with young growing roots, after 2-3 months, acidifies and may cause the death of the plant. Therefore, it is better to transplant them more often, partially updating the soil.
A solid assortment of indoor decorative plants is currently going on sale. Do not strive to buy everything at once. First you should find out from the books what requirements impose. Several groups can be distinguished, for example: plants – for solar window sills, plants – for partial shade, ampelous plants, plants – for landscaping recreation areas and bedrooms, and for owners of cottages with pools – moisture -loving plants for landscaping near -water space.
For each group, you can choose 10-12 different botanical species or artificially bred decorative varieties. The acquired specimens are planted in separate pots, or make up compositions of several plants jointly planted in a large pot or flowerpot.
Indoor plants do not tolerate the emasculation of soil and drafts, so when located on the windowsills, they feel better, being installed on the stand, at least 2-3 cm high. Large specimens, for example: palm trees, ficuses, monsters are conveniently placed on the floor.
Ampelous plants (jasmine, group of epiphytic cacti, Medinylla, Nenentence, Passiflora, Poyshchi, Senezio, Stefanotis, Tradescantia, dwarf ficus, chlorophyllum, hoya, escchantus) are very popular, as they allow decorating large spaces of walls. In the vast majority, ampelous plants are well taken out, they love moisture and need a fertile substrate. To place plants on a vertical surface, use small light pots, or they build special shelves and racks. In any case, you should both, in a hurry, free access for watering these plants and prevent water overflow from small pots. It is advisable to install separate pots in suspended pots, and when arranging a green panel – in deep pallets.
It will not be superfluous to note that green panels are a system of small suspended racks with the possibility of central irrigation, drainage and removal of excess water. They can successfully plant not only decorative plants, but also green crops: onions, parsley, dill, as well as strawberries.
Interesting notes:
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