Small but mean. Thorns are modified leaves that serve to reduce evaporation and to protect against herbivores. Tip: Succulent plants for beginner growers: Opuntia, Cereus, Echinopsis, Rebutia, Schlumbergera. Already by their origin, it can be assumed that these plants require a high temperature during growth (about 20-35 ° C and higher). Cacti from desert regions also need a sharp difference between day and night temperatures. Most succulent species, with the exception of Rhipsalis, Rhipsalidopsis, and Schlumbergera, hibernate in the cool. Full sun is tolerated by many, except for Rhipsalis, Rhipsalidopsis and Schlumbergera. If the plant has not adapted in the winter months before strong sunlight, it can get burned. Therefore, in the spring, when the sun is bright, the plants should first be shaded.
During growth, after the cold weather in May (mid-May), cacti and other succulents can be taken out into the air or even planted in the ground, observing some rules. First of all, domesticated succulents should be gradually accustomed to full light and especially ensure that they do not get too much moisture (it is best to cover them with an umbrella in the rain). Those succulents that spend the summer at home need to be hardened at the end of summer with long airing so that they become more resistant to winter cold. Autumn is the time to prepare for winter. Watering should be gradually reduced. Be sure to keep an eye on night temperatures and - later - when the minimum winter temperature is reached, transfer the succulents to their wintering site.
"Blue" succulents show themselves in all their glory only in bright sunlight - the more sun, the denser and richer their bloom or "felt". In winter, you may need some finishing work to care for succulents. In the summer they water it abundantly, but with mandatory drying (an interval of about two weeks), in winter it is enough to moisten it once a month and a half with moderate coolness (about +15 degrees). It is better not to overuse feeding in the care of succulents, only at the beginning of the season you can feed a couple of times with complex fertilizer for succulents. The mixture for planting blue succulents is low-nutritive, with the addition of baking powder.
How to water?
Home Care and Watering Succulents: Cacti and other succulents need very little watering. They have very limited water evaporation due to the transformation of leaves into thorns. The fabric accumulates moisture and allows them to survive the absence of water. Therefore, the golden rule applies here: less is better. "
Crops and young plants should always be kept moist, even in winter. However, then they need a warm and bright place. Small-rooted species of succulents growing on humus also need to be moistened, preventing drying out. Those succulents that need a dormant period should stand in a cooler place during this time than during growth.
Watering domestic succulents depends on the wintering location. During warm wintering, they are watered only once every two weeks, during cold wintering, not more often than once a month, and some species are not watered at all. During winter dormancy, plants should not be sprayed. If many plants in pots were placed in a barrel filled with plant substrate, then only the substrate needs to be moistened to care for succulents. Depending on the type, cacti are watered little until about the end of March, even if the plant is very embarrassed. When the first flowers are formed, the growth period begins. Watering is increased, and succulents are again put in a warm place. In the summer, they are sometimes fed with fertilizer for cacti, for example, N. P. K = 4 8. 6.
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Popular types of aptenia
Aptenia, as an indoor flower, has such varieties as heart and variegated. The same varieties are used when creating landscape design.
Aptenia cordifolia (Aptenia cordifolia)
"Pike tail" flower - care and reproduction
Aptenia cordifolia grows up to 25 cm in height. The leaves are lanceolate, fleshy, bright green in color. Their size does not exceed 2.5 cm. Shoots are creeping, spreading, gray-green in color, they can reach up to 60 cm in length. Inflorescences are small, they consist of 2-3 flowers, not exceeding 1.5 cm in diameter. It blooms with purple or crimson flowers that form in the upper leaf axils on the lateral shoots of aptenia.
For your information! Flowers open only in bright light before or after lunch.
Aptenia cordifolia
Variegated Aptenia (Aptenia Variegata)
This type of aptenia is distinguished by its small leaves and flowers. Shoots are short. The main difference is the color of the leaves. Their color is light with specks and spots of all sizes and shapes. They are located symmetrically or chaotically. The leaves are spotty due to the fact that there are mutant cells in the vegetative organs of the flower. They do not take part in photosynthesis, and as a result, spotting appears.
Note! This species is considered a chimera, which makes it difficult to care for.
Aptenia variegated
Transfer
Home care for succulents is not complete without a transplant. However, succulent plants are transplanted only when the pot becomes small or when the substrate deteriorates (about once every 2 to 4 years). Spring (the end of the dormant period) is more suitable for transplanting domestic succulents. Let the earth dry out a little. Put on sturdy work gloves, turn the plant over and remove the pot. Now gently shake the waste soil, remove the dead roots and inspect them, there are no pests or diseases. The pot should be one or two sizes larger, depending on the plant. First pour a drainage layer into it, and then fill it with a moist plant substrate up to the root collar. After that, pause watering for several days. Plants that form flowers are transplanted only after flowering. Mineralized soil is used as a substrate, in which there is a lot of potassium, relatively little phosphorus and very little nitrogen. Stores sell ready-made soil for cacti, which is not suitable for all epiphytic succulents. They need an epiphytic substrate (soil for orchids).
Succulent roots are divided into two groups:
- Plants with arrow-shaped or deep roots come from dry regions. They form a long main root with shallower lateral roots to reach the water in the depths of the soil.
- Plants with flat roots come from more humid regions and form many of the same roots.
It is not difficult to make cacti bloom at home if they winter properly: in a cool place with lots of light and almost no watering
The nesting torch cactus (Trichocereus spachiamus) reaches two meters in height. The minimum temperature for it is 8 ° C
"Money tree": subtleties of content
The fat woman is in great demand in phytodesign of interiors. Florists call it the "money tree" because of the round shape of the leaves associated with the appearance of coins. The symbol of prosperity is actively used in the arrangement of home and office interiors, decorated according to the rules of "feng shui".
The color and shape of the leaves of different varieties of "money trees" are radically different from each other: the outlines change from rounded to needle-like. They can be bright green with red edging, a patchy marbled color, or a solid emerald color.
Color and shape of leaves of different varieties of the "money tree"
Among the variety of fatty woman species, there are flowering plants that catch the eye to lilac, pink, snow-white inflorescences. These include Crassula and Reed, pleasing with a rare phenomenon of bright buds. In order for fat women to bloom as often as possible, you need to know in detail how to care for succulents:
- The southeast side is ideal for ornamental plants.
- For planting, it is optimal to use pots with numerous holes at the bottom, which remove excess moisture during watering.
Place the money tree on the southeast side
- They need to be watered exclusively with filtered or settled tap water. The fat woman needs watering only if the soil is dry at a depth of 4 cm.
- Wipe dust off the sheets regularly.
- Cut the branches of the "money tree" in order to form an aesthetically pleasing crown of the correct geometric shape.
Prune branches to form the correct crown
A green mini-garden in any design looks original in the interior. Luscious greenery of succulents creates a spring mood in the house all year round.
Reproduction
For reproduction, cacti and other succulent plants produce very beautiful and varied flowers. In milkweed, the petals are reduced. Nectariums produce a lot of nectar by luring insects. The Senecio and Othonna species belong to the Asteraceae family, and they even have tubular and ligulate flowers.
After pollination, fruits and seeds are formed (sometimes even under indoor conditions). The seeds are spread in a variety of ways. Some seeds are equipped with flight devices so that they can fly with the wind. For seeds, the characteristic waterproof shell and lightweight fabric spread along with the streams of water, which allows them to float on the surface. Small hooks on the seeds allow them to cling to birds and animals. Some fruits (for example, in Cereus, Mammillaria and Opuntia) serve as animal food. Undigested seeds enter the soil with animal droppings. Euphorbia catapults its seeds when their fruits burst.
Some features
This type of plant propagates in two ways: cuttings from the stem and leaves. Cuttings should not be placed in an ode, as we used to do in relation to other indoor plants.
The cutting must be given time to dry, and then immediately transplanted into the ground. It is desirable that the earth and sand have a ratio of 5: 2. The most favorable time for breeding is considered to be from April to August.
It is enough to shove the dried petal into damp ground, where it will independently take root and germinate.
If you want to get seeds from a plant, then there is no need to wait, as the seeds are unlikely to be suitable for sowing. It is better to buy new ready-made seeds in the store.
Diseases
If home care with succulents is violated, then they become susceptible to diseases and pests.
The most common harmful insects are mealybugs and root aphids. Wax threads or grains in worms look like small cotton swabs. They sit between the veins and in other dry places. If insects attack, try knocking them off the plant with a jet of water. If it does not help, then you will have to resort to insecticides. Root aphids attack the roots and can kill the plant. Here you will have to renew the land and treat the roots with chemistry.
For prophylaxis, before the scale insects, scale insects revive in the spring, or red mites multiply quickly, you need to inspect the plants and immediately destroy the pests. As a prophylaxis against mold fungi, at home you need to create optimal conditions for plants to grow. To care for succulents, diseased plants are isolated, exposed to the sun and monitored for dryness and sufficient fresh air.Plants with viral or bacterial diseases should be removed as soon as possible so that they do not infect other flowers. The light yellow color of young shoots is often the result of too dark a place. Intense sun exposure results in a red coloration. Loss of roots in succulents indicates too much watering.
hint: more capricious plants for the captured grower: Gasteria armstrongii, Haworthia maughanii, Haworthia truncata and Haworthia setata.
Varieties of succulents: photos and names
This plant species unites more than 40 different families of flora representatives. The characteristic features of succulents are fleshy, full-bodied leaves of small size with a bristly, hairy or thorny cover. Their color reflects all sorts of gradations of green and blue: emerald, gray, light green, jade, lilac, cobalt, cornflower blue and other tones. A strong root system makes it adaptable to drought, upright and horizontal growth.
Succulents amaze with a variety of species
Among the variety of succulents, the most common are the following types:
- aloe;
- fat woman;
- stone rose;
- agave;
- dracaena;
- lithops;
- echeveria.
Each species has unique external features. Aloe vera is characterized by tightly gathered, long, light green leaves with a prickly edging. They have excellent moisturizing properties. Thanks to its healing properties, aloe can be found on the windowsills of almost every home.
Aloe has excellent moisturizing properties
Agave has a regular spherical shape, formed by triangular leaves growing in a circle with a snow-white frame. She is photophilous, extremely dislikes abundant frequent watering. Due to an excessive love of the sun, it is wise to plant it in hanging containers on the balcony.
Agave is light-requiring
Lithops visually resemble sea stones or coral reefs with reduced rounded leaves. During flowering, beautiful inflorescences of bright yellow color are formed, similar to chamomile. Thanks to the distinctive visual features, it is possible to create unique decorative compositions in both indoor and outdoor spaces.
Lithops visually resemble sea stones
Succulents grow well on dry soil under the stinging rays of the sun. This is an undoubted advantage of unpretentious plants, which are easy to care for even with a shortage of free time.
Plant families with succulents
Cactus (Cactaceae, about 2000 species) are mostly devoid of leaves, stems of succulent plants. Their characteristic spiny areoles (modified short growths).
Euphorbiaceae (Euphorbiaceae, about 8000 species) contain milky juice. Stem succulence is found in relatively few species of American cacti from arid regions.
Tolstyankovs (Crassulaceae, about 1400 species) are a purely succulent family, mainly of succulent letters and less often with a succulent trunk. Distributed mainly in South Africa, Mexico and the Mediterranean. A typical feature of most species is a clogged shoot.
Agave (Agavaceae, about 400 species) are recognized by the typical rosette arrangement of succulent leaves and inflorescences in the form of a panicle or brushes. Several years and even decades pass before flowering in agave. After that, the mother plant dies off.
Liliaceae (Ltiiaceae) genera (sometimes an independent family) with succulent leaves - aloe, Haworthia and Gasteria. They are originally from Africa.
Succulent orchids (Orchidaceae) with fleshy false bulbs and thick leaves living in epiphytic, low-water places.
An important feature of cacti and other succulents is their drought-tolerant leaves and stems.Stem succulent plants have a thickened shoot axis with a specialized tissue that accumulates water (cacti, milkweed). Their leaves are often reduced or completely absent. Sometimes they turn into thorns (for example, in cacti, not into thorns, as they are mistakenly called). These leafy thorns are actually sharp, reshaped leaves that serve to ward off moisture evaporation and herbivores.
Leafy succulent plants, on the other hand, strengthen their leaves as an organ that stores vital moisture. Their leaves are thick and succulent (eg in agave, aloe, live stones).
Eonium disc (Aeomum tabuliforme) needs sun and fresh air all year round. Plate-like rosettes are made up of 200 individual leaves. Propagated by seeds.
Aptenia - what is this flower
Aptenia is an evergreen succulent plant from the Aizovy family. The flower looks great both in hanging pots, and spreading like a solid carpet over the surface of the earth. Flowering occurs in April-August. The homeland of the flower is Africa and Australia.
Aptenia is a succulent rarely seen in stores
For your information! Under natural conditions, it prefers to grow in well-lit places, copes well with temporary drought.
Short description
Leaves are fleshy, dense, heart-shaped or lanceolate. The color is variegated. The size of the leaves does not exceed 3 cm in length. Scourges grow up to 60 cm. Shoots are thick and fleshy, creeping, can grow up to 1 m. The flowers are pink or red small (up to 1.5 cm in diameter). After flowering, a fruit is formed that looks like a capsule with chambers. Inside each chamber there is one large seed with a rough black-brown surface.
Note! Thanks to the creeping shoots, the flower can be grown in hanging pots as an ampelous plant. In warmer months, the flower can be planted outdoors and will grow as a groundcover.
This flower can be planted outdoors in summer.
Possible problems
In both leaf and cuttings propagation, it is important to keep track of some points that can lead to problems and even death of the succulent. Wrinkles on the planting material are considered the norm, but if the fragments change their color to brown or soften, then it is not recommended to use them further. The humidity level must be monitored. At the stage of root emergence and germination, excess liquid can lead to mold and further decay. You can prevent this situation with the help of good drainage and the initial purchase of a pot with a sufficient number of holes.
Let's summarize
Plants - succulents are very diverse. Each type of plant somehow attracts or repels, but there are no such indoor plants for which minimal care is needed, and those that take root in different climatic conditions.
