The oriental beauty of camellia has a long and interesting history, it aroused admiration long before the onset of our era. In different historical periods in the homeland in Asia, the camellia symbolized that longevity, then unshakableness, or luxury. In Europe, the plant was brought in by the monk Georg Camellus, in honor of which he received the well-known name today. What is special about camellia, is it difficult to care and grow, how to provide it with the necessary conditions - we will consider further in the article.
Camellia Description
The evergreen camellia plant belongs to the tea family, it is more often a bush, but there are trees up to several meters in height. The leaves of the camellia are glossy, smooth, dark green, often pointed (they are rounded). Single flowers have unique decorative features, they are fluffy with a lot of stamens, the color of the petals can have a different color - from white to saturated red. The camellia grows both in the house and in the garden, while care is different.
Camellia planting
To plant a camellia, you need to choose acidic and well drained soil, the usual garden soil can be for the refined beauty too dense, poorly transmitting air and moisture. Successful soil can be called a combination of coniferous and peat land, sand and crust. You can not greatly deepen the camellia into the soil, the root neck, located between the stem and roots, should remain on the surface. For a plant that will grow in the garden it is also important to choose the right place. Planting and care will be successful if the garden camellia grows in a well-lit place, but it will not be touched by the direct rays of the sun.
Camellia Reproduction
You can multiply spectacular camellias in various ways: seeds, cuttings, layers, in each case there are certain pros and cons. Cultivation of camellia from seeds is good because such plants adapt more easily to the conditions offered to them, including unfavorable ones. In a mixture of peat and sand, only freshly harvested seeds are sown, because with prolonged storage, they lose their germination capacity. Seedlings should be germinated at a temperature of about 22 ° C, and when they rise by 5 cm, transplant into solitary pots. Flowering of different varieties of camellia begins at different times, one is enough 1 year after sowing seeds, others need more than 5 years. Since growing a camellia from seeds is not very difficult, this method can be called the most popular.
If you plan to grow a camellia flower from cuttings, they must be cut in July-August, and this should not be a young green shoots, but those that are already in the process of lignification. Rooted with a few leaves in a mixture of peat land and sand, which is important to warm up to 25 ° C. If it is necessary to get a flowering plant the next year, it is even better to practice breeding with layers.
Caring for the camellia
Camellia can not be attributed to unpretentious plants, it has many requirements on which the decorative properties and health of the flower depend:
- Temperature regime. In spring and summer, the suitable air temperature for camellia is 20-24 ° C, and in winter during flowering it is impossible that the temperature exceeds 12 ° C, since it is fraught with dropping buds or deteriorating their quality.
- Watering . In summer camellias need abundant watering, but not
to allow extremes - overmoistening or drying up of the soil. In winter, during watering, watering is reduced. - Transplantation . Strange as it may seem, it is necessary to transplant a camellia in winter during flowering, because for her it is a period of rest.
- Feeding . In spring and summer it is desirable to fertilize the soil every two weeks, in autumn and winter, not more often than once a month.
- Pruning . There is no special need for pruning camellia, but if you need to influence the density of the plant, you can cut branches after flowering.
Grow camellia and at home.