Coleus: description.
Description of the plant koleus should start with the fact that it is evergreen shrubs and herbaceous annual plants. The leaves of the wheels are opposite, with petioles, they have a variety of colors and patterns. The flowers of the plant are in the apical inflorescences in the form of an ear. Some species (mainly varieties and forms of the hybrid species of C. blumei) are popular as deciduous ornamental plants.
Coleuses differ from other tropical plants by their unpretentiousness. They like bright rooms. In the summer, the pot with the cola is best placed on an open veranda or terrace, on the balcony. Coleuses grow quite fast, so they quickly grow.
Coleus: species.
Some varieties of wheels are very tall. So, they can reach a height of 50-80 centimeters. Other varieties, on the contrary, are small - only 10-15 cm. The leaves of the plant are especially beautiful: opposite, with pronounced long (rarely short) petioles. Thin, often covered with down, leaf blades are diverse in size. In addition, they have an ovate, oblong or broad-hearted shape and rugged edges: from small-grained, wavy edges to fringed or deeply incised. Leaves are rarely the same color, usually they are mottled, with red, brown, white, dark purple, yellow, purple dots, veins, spots or whole patches. There are varieties whose leaves have a multicolored border along the edge.
There are about 200 hybrid forms of the plant.
Care of the plant.
Koleus plants love bright light. The intensity of light required by a plant depends on the color of the leaves. So, wheels with bright leaves (white or red) are easier to tolerate direct sunlight than, for example, plants with green leaves. It is best to grow plants on southern, eastern or western windows. In the summer and spring, the leaves of the wheels can burn out or lose the turgor - this is due to the fact that they got an extra amount of light. To avoid burnout or turgor, the wheels need to be shaded at noon. It is also necessary to gradually accustom the plants to direct sunlight in order to avoid sunburn.
Coleuses are rather unpretentious with respect to air temperature. In summer, the plants calmly withstand fluctuations in the range of 16-25 ° C. In winter, the oleores are best kept at a temperature of 16-22 ° C. If the air temperature is below 12 ° C, the leaves of the plant may fall and it will die. To the loss of turgor can lead to intense heat.
In the period from autumn to spring, the koleus is watered with a slightly warm, resting soft water abundantly, when the top layer of the soil dries slightly. Rigid tap water is desirable to replace the rainwater. In winter, watered moderately to prevent the drying of the earthy coma. The absence of moisture is fatal to the wheel - this is fraught with the appearance of flabby leaves. However, if the plant is kept at a low temperature (at 14-16 ° C and below), it should be watered very rarely.
Coleus are plants that love air with high humidity. The leaves of the plant need regular water spray at room temperature, constant and soft. In winter, the wheels have a rest period, and they stop actively growing. At this time, it is preferable to place them in the kitchen or in any other room where high humidity and heat.
Wheels are growing in spring and summer. In the period of growth, they must be fed with mineral or organic fertilizers with a high content of potassium (per liter of water 0.3-0.5 g) weekly. In winter, you can fertilize once in 3-4 weeks with less concentrated solution.
Blossoms are not decorative because the flowers with bilabial coronals are rather unimpressive: the upper lip is blue-violet in color, and the lower whitish, they are collected in complex ears. Buds of plants are best to remove, as the plant spends a lot of effort on flowering, because of what the leaves of the wheels are smaller.
If you pinch the apical shoots of the plant, it will be more bushy. Every February, it is desirable to cut off the wheels on the stump, for a new growth it is enough to leave 5-8 eyes.
Coleus-annuals do not need a transplant. In other cases, the plant is transplanted every two to three years. Koleusy like a weakly acidic or neutral soil (pH = 6-7). It is best to take a mixture of deciduous leaves (4 h), humus (2 h), turf ground (4 h), peat (1 h) and sand (1 h). At the bottom of the tank you need to put good drainage.
Shifts reproduce most often by cuttings, and sometimes by seeds, in order to prevent splitting and not to reduce the ornamentality of the leaves.
Seeds of wheels are very small (3,500 pieces have a mass of 1 g). The sowing begins from February to April, sown in small bowls, sprinkled with sand. The scraps are transferred to the room, the air temperature in which is 20-22 ° C. Already on the 14th -18th day there will be shoots, after which the seedlings must be transferred to the tanks and planted at a distance of 2 to 2 centimeters. The mixture takes the following: in equal parts leaf, peat, turf and sand. When the first 1-2 leaves appear, the wheels are transplanted into seven-centimeter pots filled with the same earth mixture, one at a time. After a month the plants are transferred to pots with a diameter of 9-11 cm. Then the plant is provided with the necessary lighting, the correct watering. For branching, young specimens are plucked. After 5-6 months, the coachers acquire decorativeness.
Circle cuttings from February to May, cuttings are planted in a container with sand. They take root already after 8-12 days, after which the cuttings will need to be planted in nine-centimeter pots with the same composition of the land as when sowing seeds. The tips of the shoots are better to pinch. Further, the plant is provided with the necessary care: correct watering, temperature (16-18 ° C), ventilation, lighting. Coleuses grow quite fast. When multiplying with the help of cuttings, after three months you can get a branched specimen with large leaves. After three months, the coleuses are transferred to pots with a diameter of 11 centimeters.
Possible difficulties.
The stems may be exposed from below. This is natural for adult wheelers. If the plant is still young, then exposure can be caused by lack of light or untimely prischipkoy.
- The leaves lose color in excess of sunlight.
- Leaves can fall off both inadequate and with excessive watering.
- The plant can stretch out when there is a lack of light.
- Dangerous for koleusov following pests: aphids, spider mite and whitefly.