General description and types of flower, overview of conditions, recommendations for feeding, transplanting and soil selection, reproduction of Saintpaulia, difficulties in growing. Saintpaulia in Latin sounds like Saintpaulia, belongs to the genus of herbaceous plants with beautiful flowers of the Gesneriaceae family. The family is very extensive, consisting of 3200 species, which are contained in 150–160 genera. You can also find this flower called "uzambara violet". The mountainous regions of the eastern regions of the African continent are considered the homeland of growth - mainly Tanzania and Kenya. The mountains in which this plant feels at ease bear the name Usambarki (Uzambara or as they are marked on the maps "Mount Usambara"), hence the common name of the flower. Saintpaulia also loves to settle near waterfalls, near estuaries and river channels, to enjoy water dust and fogs.
The plant was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century by the aristocrat Walter Saint-Paul, who was the military commandant of that district and turned his attention to a beautiful flower that grew everywhere. He collected the seeds of Saintpaulia and sent them to his parent, Ulrich von Saint-Paul, who at that time was president of the German Dendrological Society. He later gave the botanist Wendland Hermann, who grew a beautiful bush, which was later named after the Saint-Paul family. In 1893, a flowering plant was obtained from the seeds, separated into a separate genus and named Saintpaulia violet-flowered - Saintpaulia ionanta
The flower grows as a perennial with a herbaceous growth and evergreen deciduous mass. The height of Saintpaulia varies from 2 to 20 cm with a bush diameter of 40 cm. The plant's growth rate is quite high. The stems are shortened and root rosettes are collected from the leaves. There are some varieties of Saintpaulia, in which the shape of the stem, creeping, and such a plant can be used as an ampelous culture. The leaf plates are leathery (rough), completely covered with hairs. Their shape is slightly rounded, and usually has an unevenly symmetrical base in the form of a heart. The top of the leaf is rounded or with a short taper. The color of the plate differs in emerald hues or there may be a slight mottling.
It is very difficult to describe all types of Saintpaulia flowers - there are a lot of them. Basically, they have 5 petals forming a racemose inflorescence and each bud has two stamens. The set of flower carpels (gimetseus) is paracarpous, there is one pistil with an upper ovary. The flower is also distinguished by the calyx, which includes five sepals. The petals of the bud can be either simple or corrugated with a double shape. The color is very diverse, but most of all, flower growers value the two-colored representatives of the Usambara violet: white-red, white-blue, pink-blue or violet-burgundy. The plant differs in that the flowering process can extend to any time of the year. The dormant period for a flower is not clearly expressed. If you adhere to the necessary conditions, then flowering does not stop, but nevertheless, flower growers recommend giving Saintpaulia a break for about one and a half to two months so that exhaustion does not occur.
The flowering process ends with a fruit in the form of a capsule, in which multiple small seeds and a straight embryo are collected.
After 3-4 years of growth, Saintpaulia must be rejuvenated by rerooting the top of the bush or by grafting.
Saintpaulia is often confused with the common violet, but these plants belong to different families and their growing conditions differ. Saintpaulia is a thermophilic flower, and it is grown only indoors, when the violet can easily grow in the garden in the flower bed.
Tips for growing Saintpaulia
- Lighting and arrangement of the flower. The plant does not tolerate direct streams of sunlight, soft and diffused lighting is most suitable for Saintpaulia. It is better to put a pot with a flower on the windows of the western or eastern exposure, where the sun's rays look only for a short time. The bush will grow well under artificial lighting. If the Uzambara violet stands on the windowsill of the southern window, then you will have to arrange shading so that the decorative properties of flowers and leaves do not deteriorate. To do this, it is recommended to curtain the glass with light fabrics or gauze, you can stick paper or tracing paper on the window - this will scatter the bright light.
- Saintpaulia content temperature. Indoor heat indicators are most suitable for growing a flower. In summer, the thermometer should show from 20 to 25 degrees, with the arrival of autumn, the heat indicators should be lowered to 15 degrees and not lower. If it gets too hot, then Saintpaulia stops blooming and slows down its growth. Care must be taken that the plant is not exposed to sudden temperature fluctuations and is not under the influence of drafts.
- Moisture for successful cultivation uzambara violets should be between 50% and not more than 70%. It is undesirable to spray the bush, since the leaf plates are pubescent, and if moisture gets in, they can begin to deteriorate and rot. It is better to solve the problem of dry air using air humidifiers or put a flower pot in containers filled with moistened expanded clay or pebbles. It is only necessary to control so that the bottom of the pot does not stand in the water, so that the roots do not rot. If the plant is located above the central heating radiators during the heating season, it is recommended to put a dampened towel on them so that the dry and hot air does not damage the Saintpaulia.
- Watering Saintpaulia. When wetting the plant, it is necessary to focus on the state of the soil in the pot. When its top layer dries up, you can water the flower - this usually happens every 2-4 days. The soil should be constantly moist, but the water is always drained in the pot holder. It is impossible to transfuse the plant, this can provoke rotting of the root system, especially at low temperatures. It is important that when watering, water does not fall into the leaf outlet, as the stems and leaves will begin to rot. It is necessary to moisten along the edge of the pot. Also, if there is no watering experience, then you can carry out "bottom" watering, when the pot with the plant is placed in a bowl of water for 15 minutes, and when the Saintpaulia gets the moisture it needs, it is removed. For irrigation, only soft water with a moderate temperature (about 20-23 degrees) is taken. It is recommended to use rain or melt water, it is slightly warmed up. But if this is impossible to arrange, then tap water will have to be filtered, boiled, and then defended for several days.
- Top dressing held for Saintpaulia from the beginning of spring days to the end of autumn. Liquid complex fertilizers are chosen in a concentration that is halved. The regularity of this operation every 14 days.
- Saintpaulia transplant and soil selection. In order to change the pot to a new one, you must choose a wide container of low height. The size of the pot should correspond to the volume of the bush. If the plant has only a few leaves, then planting is carried out in a container with a diameter of 5-7 cm. After six months, you can change the container by 9 cm in diameter. If the variety is miniature, then it is worth choosing bowls with a diameter of 3-4 cm - usually these are pots for small cacti. The height of the container should ideally coincide with the width, since the plant does not grow with its roots inward. To accurately determine the size, there is a rule: the leaves of a Saintpaulia bush planted in a pot should extend beyond the container by half the length or a little more. If the pot is chosen incorrectly, and it is too large, then there is a high probability of flooding and waterlogging of the substrate. The soil will not dry out for a very long time and this will entail that pests will start to start: puffs, polytails or mushroom mosquitoes. The pot should be filled with drainage, approximately 1/5 of the total volume of the container and holes for the drain of excess moisture.
To select the soil for transplanting, you can use ready-made substrates for violets, which are sold in flower shops. The reaction of the soil is slightly acidic with a pH of 5, 5-6, 5. The soil should be light, moisture-absorbing, with sufficient air permeability, nutritious and with inclusions of phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen. You can make up the soil mixture yourself based on the following options:
- leafy soil, sod soil, coniferous substrate, coarse sand, vermiculite (in proportions 2: 1: 1: 1: 1);
- leafy soil, coconut flakes (briquette substrate), rotted humus flour, well-crumbled pine bark (in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 0, 5);
- turf, coniferous soil, vermiculite (or agroperlite), river coarse sand (in proportions 1: 1: 1: 0, 5);
- purchased soil "Violet" (you can take universal for indoor plants), perlite or vermiculite, chopped sphagnum moss or well-detailed pine bark (ratio 5: 1: 1: 1).
Self-breeding tips for Saintpaulia
You can get a new beautiful bush of the uzambara violet using a stalk, part of a leaf plate or a daughter rosette.
Leaf cuttings are the most common method. Choose a healthy and well-formed leaf. If the mother plant blooms, then this does not matter. The length of the petiole should be at least 3-4 cm. The leaf is placed in a vessel with boiled water and kept there until root processes are formed. After that, it is planted in a small pot (3-4 cm in diameter) filled with a moistened peat-sand mixture. In the future, it must be wrapped in a plastic bag or placed under a glass jar to create conditions for a mini-greenhouse with constant humidity and heat. The rooting temperature is maintained within the range of 20-21 degrees. The development of roots and babies will begin after 1–2 months. If the natural lighting is not enough, then the plants must be supplemented with phytolamps or fluorescent lamps.
You can immediately plant a leaf cutting in the substrate, without waiting for the roots in the water; for this, the leaf must be deepened into the loose soil to a depth of at least 1.5–2 cm, but no more. And perform the same actions as described earlier. As soon as new plants appear, they can be divided and planted in separate pots. For rejuvenation, plants take a bush, which with age has become like a bunch of small leaves on a short stem. The flowering of such a Saintpaulia becomes very weak. It is necessary to cut off the top of the plant, treat the cut with any root stimulator (for example, "Kornevin"). After that, it is planted in a pot with fresh soil, and they continue to look after planted cuttings. Stump is not recommended to be thrown away, since young daughter outlets almost always grow on it.
Some varieties of Saintpaulias cannot be propagated by cuttings, as their parental properties will be lost; for this, flowering stems are used. They choose strong peduncles, cut off the flowers and its lower part. Only a "fork" will remain from the peduncle, which should be planted in a prepared and moistened substrate and covered with a plastic bag. After some time, small leaves will appear in the axils of the stipules. These cuttings moisturize less than leafy ones.
Some varieties differ in that daughter rosettes grow themselves in large quantities and must be removed, and some varieties differ in that stepchildren do not grow at all. To get a new plant, it is necessary to carefully remove the growth point with a small leaf rosette. After some time, lateral shoots will appear in the leaf sinuses. When their size becomes equal to 3 cm, they should be carefully separated and planted in the ground, like the cuttings of the leaves. Caring for them is the same.
Possible problems and pests of Saintpaulia
It can be affected by mealybugs and cyclomene mites. The first manifests itself in cotton-like formations on leaf plates and stems, and the second contributes to the deformation of Saintpaulia buds and the discharge of unopened flowers, shoots and leaf plates are also deformed for no apparent reason. Here, on the affected young leaves, you can see the long large hairs that characterize the cyclomene mite. To combat the mealybug, insecticidal agents are used - confidor, karbofos or aktara. If treatment is required for a cyclomenous tick, then actofit, fitoverm, agrovertin or acarin is used. The treatment procedure is carried out with a 3-day interval, and then with a 5-day interval, about 4-5 times.
Saintpaulias can also be affected by fungal diseases: gray rot or powdery mildew. The first is provoked by the Fusarium fungus, leads to the appearance of a gray bloom on the flowers and leaves, the affected areas begin to die off intensively. Here it is required to equalize the modes of irrigation, humidity and temperature. Remove all diseased parts, and treat the flower with a solution of disubstituted sodium phosphate (1 g of the substance is taken per 1 liter of water) or another fungicide. If a powdery mildew attack occurs, then a whitish bloom appears on the peduncles, flowers and leaves on the uzambar violet. To combat it, fungicides are used and monitor the decrease in nitrogen in the soil.
The following problems are also highlighted:
- When the stem or roots decay, they become soft and dull, provoked by a strong flood of a flower, dense soil, a large pot, excess fertilizer, low temperature of maintenance, deep planting of a bush - an urgent transplant into a new land is needed.
- Yellowing of the leaf plates, contributed to excessive illumination.
- The mottling on the leaves is white, yellowish or brown due to sunburn, watering with cold water or moisture on the leaves.
- Translucent spotting indicates waterlogging of the soil.
- The flowers do not fully open and dry out - the temperature of the content is too high.
Saintpaulia species
- Dark Saintpaulia (Saintpaulia confusa). The plant reaches a height of 10 cm, has a slender stem. The color of flowers is violet-blue, anthers of yellow tint, collected in a racemose inflorescence of 4 pieces.
- Violet Saintpaulia (Saintpaulia ionanta). May be found under the name of Violet Synpolia. In its natural environment, it blooms with blue-purple flowers, and in the varieties bred by breeders, the coloring of the buds can be white, pinkish, red, pure purple. The leaf plates on the upper side are green, on the back - red tones are mixed.
- Saintpaulia magungensis. The stems of this variety are distinguished by branching, reaching a height of 15 cm. The leaf plate measures 6 cm in diameter with a wavy edge. The inflorescences are collected from 2 or 4 purple buds.
- Saintpaulia teitensis (Saintpaulia teitensis). The homeland of growth is the mountainous areas of the southeastern regions of Kenya. To be protected as an endangered species.
- Saintpaulia - "wasps" (Saintpaulia wasp). A newly developed variety of violets with flowers, in which the two upper petals with a short length are slightly bent back at the edges, and the lower petals, among 3 units, are distinguished by an elongated-elongated shape.
You will learn more information about Saintpaulia (Usambara violet) from this video:
[media =
