An overview of the general appearance and varieties of skimmia, creating conditions for growth, advice on watering, feeding, recommendations for reproduction, problems with growing. Skimmia belongs to the Rutaceae family, which also contains dicotyledonous dicotyledonous plants. Basically, many members of this family are distinguished by a very pleasant aroma, which oily glands of lysigenic origin exude - it turns out that the smell comes from the destruction or dissolution of some cells. The family includes about 10 species, among which there are also frost-resistant specimens. The native land of the growth of skimmia is the Japanese and Southeast Asian territories. This evergreen bush bears its name from the Japanese name - "shikimi", which contains a religious meaning. In Japan, this type of plant has acquired the greatest distribution and bears the name of Japanese skimmia (Skimmia japonica) and there it is called miama shikimi.
Basically, skimmia is a semi-shrub, shrub or small tree, which in their natural environment can grow from 2 to 5 m in height. But the height of the type of Japanese skimia can reach up to 7 meters. The leaf plates are smooth, whole-edged, in appearance very reminiscent of the leaves of a laurel tree. Their shape is elongated-oval, the color of the leaves is rich emerald on the upper side, and from the bottom the color becomes pale greenish. Sometimes there is a reddish border around the edge of the sheet. Measurements in length vary from 5 to 20 cm with a width of 5 cm. The reverse side of the leaf is completely mottled with a glandular pattern, which is clearly visible through the light gap. It is these glands that give the foliage aroma, if you touch it.
From small flowers, paniculate inflorescences are collected, with a sweetish delicate aroma. The flower in full disclosure can reach 6-15 mm in diameter, the buds consist of 4-7 units of pointed petals. The strength of the smell varies depending on the type of skimmia. The color of the buds is mainly either white or with a pinkish tinge. Since the plant is considered to be dicotyledonous, there can be male and female bushes. Although the male representatives do not form berries, they are distinguished by the splendor of the inflorescences, which grow in sufficient quantities on the bush. The plant itself is distinguished by a higher size in relation to the female. One representative of a male bush pollinates up to 6 female skimmias. Also, flowers are an excellent honey plant, and a swarm of bees and various insects always swirls above its inflorescences, who are attracted by the nectar of fragrant flowers.
After the flowering process, skimmia forms a fruit in the form of a reddish drupe with one seed inside. Naturally, only female skimmia plants delight with beautiful fruit. Drupes appear in mid-late autumn and can last for a very long time.
The plant does not lose its decorative effect during all months of the year. With the arrival of the spring months, flowers form on the bush, and by autumn they are replaced by a bright red hue with berries that can stay on the branches all winter and it happens that berries from the last season are still visible next to the new flowers. Young skimmia at first grows at a very low rate, but as it grows up, its size can increase by several centimeters per year. You can grow this beauty in a greenhouse or in a garden, but choosing a place protected from the sun and drafts.
Attention! Any part of a plant is poisonous, due to the content of a poisonous substance in them - the alkaloid skimminin, this should be taken into account when caring for a shrub, as well as installing it in rooms where there are pets or small children.
Tips for caring for skimmia in an indoor environment
- Lighting. The bush loves soft diffused light, but does not tolerate directed direct sunlight at all. Skimmia can also tolerate a small partial shade, but in this case, its shoots will become ugly stretched out and lose deciduous mass. If you install a pot with a plant on the sill of a south-facing window and do not arrange any shading from the sun's rays at lunchtime, then burns can occur on the leaves - the leaves acquire a light yellow tint. Proceeding from this, it is necessary to pick up a place in the room where solar streams pour only in the morning or evening hours - these are the western or eastern windows. If the bush is on the window sill of the northern exposure window, then you will have to arrange additional lighting with special phytolamps. This will also apply to the autumn-winter period, when daylight hours will decrease - skimmia needs artificial lighting, otherwise it may lose all decorative beauty.
- Content temperature. Skimmia loves a constant flow of clean air, but the effect of drafts is harmful for it, therefore, with the arrival of summer heat, you can set your green beauty "vacation" by taking her out to an open place - in a garden, on a terrace or balcony, but protect from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. If such a probability does not appear, then in the summer it is important that the thermometer readings do not exceed the mark of 30 degrees, otherwise a massive discharge of buds and foliage will begin. With the arrival of autumn, the temperature can be lowered to zero. Many varieties are frost-resistant and can survive when temperatures drop to -15 degrees below zero. However, if the plant is young, then it will not tolerate such low temperatures. It is better when, during autumn and winter, the heat indicators will not exceed 10 degrees. Frequent airing of the room where the skimmia is located is required, but it is necessary to protect the bush from the action of a draft.
- Dormant period in skimmia, it begins from October days and lasts until the end of winter. At this time, the temperature of the content is necessarily reduced, you can reduce the level of illumination and humidity.
- Air humidity when caring for skimmia. The plant tolerates dry air of urban areas quite firmly and does not need to be sprayed.
- Pruning it is necessary to carry out as soon as the plant has stopped flowering, this will help to achieve more branching and form a neat compact bush.
- To water skimmia is required abundantly enough with a regularity of 3-6 days a week in the spring-summer period. Drying out of the earthy coma is by no means permissible. If during the winter "dormancy" the plant is kept at low temperatures, then watering is carried out only once a week, monitoring that there is no acidification of the soil. Water for humidification is used only soft, room temperature (about 20-23 degrees). If necessary, it is possible to pass tap water through a filter, it is also boiled a little and left to stand for at least two days - this will serve as a guarantee that there will be no harmful salts and impurities in the water. It is recommended by experienced growers to collect rainwater or prepare melted snow from the snow in winter.
- Fertilizers for skimmia, they choose with a complex of all minerals intended for flowering plants. Top dressing is carried out from April to early autumn with a regularity of 2-3 times per month. Skimmia responds well to the introduction of organic additives (for example, mullein solution). Any fertilizer must be dissolved in water for irrigation and first moisten the soil in the pot a little before feeding. The liquid with fertilizers should be a couple of degrees higher than regular irrigation water - this will help the nutrients to be absorbed faster and better by the plant.
- Recommendations for replanting and soil selection. Skimmia transplant is performed in the spring. The capacity is selected in accordance with the size of the bush. For young specimens, the pot and soil are changed annually, and old plants, the pots of which have reached the tub size, disturb only once every 2-3 years and mainly change only the top layer of soil in the flowerpot (about 10-15 cm deep). In the pot for transplanting, it is necessary to make holes for the drainage of unabsorbed moisture, and a good layer of drainage is also laid on the bottom - a detailed brick is the bottom layer, and sand is poured on top.
Skimmia loves acidic soils (with an acidity of pH 3, 5–5, 5 or pH 5, 0–6, 0), they must also have sufficient looseness, air and water permeability, and be rich in humus. The plant does not tolerate the slightest lime content in the substrate. You can use ready-made soil for hydrangeas, azaleas, rhododendrons or gardenias.
You can make up such a soil mixture yourself by choosing from the following options:
- peat soil, loam, coarse sand (in proportions 2: 1: 1);
- sod soil, perlite or river sand, peat soil or humus, leafy soil (in a ratio of 1: 1: 0, 5: 1).
Chopped charcoal or chopped sphagnum moss can be added to the substrate.
Self-breeding tips for skimmia
You can get a new skimmia bush using the cuttings method or planting seed.
When grafting, a branch is selected from which its top (apical cutting) is cut. The length of the shoot for rooting should not be less than 6–8 cm, and the branch itself should be semi-lignified. Slicing and rooting are performed from late summer to February. Before planting, it is necessary to process the cut with any growth stimulator and remove the lower leaf plates. Usually, a sand-peat mixture is used for rooting. Heat indicators are maintained at the level of 22-25 degrees. Bottom ground heating is required in cold months. After planting the cuttings, they are covered with a plastic bag or placed under a glass jar in order to create conditions for a mini-greenhouse with constant indicators of heat and humidity. When rooting, plants are not placed in bright light, it is better to find a place in partial shade. It is necessary to regularly air the cuttings and moisten the substrate. As soon as the cuttings show signs of growth, they begin to accustom the young plant to fresh air, the polyethylene is removed. After the skimmia is confidently moving into growth, you can transplant into pots with a large diameter and soil suitable for further development.
Before planting seeds, they must be stratified. For this, the seed is placed in containers in a sandy-peat substrate (you can use perlite or vermiculite), covered with polyethylene, and kept for several months at low temperatures. The container is placed in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. Some growers use zip bags instead of containers and contain seeds in them. After the specified time, the container is moved to warmth and a time is waited until the seeds show signs of growth. As soon as a couple of leaves appear on the seedlings, the seedlings dive into separate pots with a diameter of 7 cm into a moistened soil of sand (perlite) and peat. Plants in such containers should develop well, and then they make another change of pot and soil for constant growth.
Problems in the care of skimmia and insect control
Most often the plant is affected by a spider mite, aphid or a scabbard, the most dangerous is Panonychus citri (European red mite), which affects citrus plants. When a lesion occurs on the leaves and stems, depending on the pest, a thin cobweb appears, brown plaques on the back of the leaf plates and a sticky bloom, or small green bugs. To combat these pests in the early stages, it is customary to process the plant or remove pests by hand by moistening a cotton pad in oil, soap or alcohol solutions. And then, for consolidation and prevention, the skimmia is treated with insecticides.
Powdery mildew or grape powdery mildew is isolated from fungal diseases. In case of powdery mildew disease, a flour-like coating appears on the leaves and shoots, which causes the fungus Sphaerotheca pannosa. Ovidium of grapes is manifested by deformation of leaf plates and the appearance of a gray-white bloom on them. To combat these diseases, sulfur treatment and various other means are used. First, all affected leaves must be removed, and then weekly spraying with a 1% solution of colloidal sulfur, or potassium permanganate (at the rate of 2.5 grams of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water) is carried out. Apply soap and soda solutions - about 40 grams. laundry soap and 50 gr. soda is dissolved in a 10 liter bucket of water. You can use half percent copper oxychloride. Some flower growers use a mixture of antibiotics to combat the aforementioned diseases: 250 U / ml streptomycin, 100 U / ml penicillin, 100 U / ml terramycin (all parts of the components must be equal).
Problems arising from the cultivation of skimmy at home can be distinguished:
- yellowing and shedding of deciduous mass, stretching of shoots and poor laying of flower buds occurs when the illumination is too low for the plant;
- if venation appears on leaf plates (interveinal chlorosis), then it was caused by low acidity of the soil;
- leaf plates turn white and dry out due to sunburn;
- if the color of the leaves begins to lighten, then this means insufficient illumination or a lack of nutrients.
Types of skimmy
Japanese skimmia (Skimmia japonica) - the plant is dioecious (contains both female and male flowers). Some specimens reach a height of 7 m, but usually plants grow up to 1–1, 5 meters. This skimmy has small, star-shaped flowers that bloom at the very beginning of spring until April days. But many other varieties were bred on the basis of this species:
- Rubella - in this variety, leaf plates are painted in purple shades, flower buds are dark red, and only male plants have white flowers with yellowish anthers.
- Foremanii - female variety with unusually large fruits, collected in bunches.
- Magic merlot - leaf plates of a variegated color are completely covered with a yellow tone with strokes, buds of a bronze tint and flowers bloom in a cream color.
- Fructo Alba - skimmia stands out with white fruits.
- Fragrans - has a beautiful scent of lily of the valley flowers.
- Nymans - a variety of a female plant, narrow leaf plates with a weak aroma, the color of the buds is whitish, the flowering process extends to the winter months, the bush reaches a height of 1 m with a width of 2 m.
- Smits spider - buds of a green shade at the end of autumn acquire a mango color.
- Brocox rocket - inflorescences have the shape of a ball and are made up of green flowers.
- Confusa (Zionic Skimmia) - a large male hybrid, reaching up to 3 m in height with one and a half meter wide, the flowering process begins in the spring months, the buds of this variety are creamy, with a strong rich aroma.
- Skimmia luareola - differs in elongated leaf plates and black fruit-berries.
- Reveesiana - the only variety that has both male and female flowers, berry fruits, perfectly preserved all winter and spring months, the plant reaches a height of 90 cm, and forms a dome-shaped shape with its deciduous mass. The leaf plates are characterized by a narrowed shape and a weak aroma.
Learn more about skimmy in this video:
