Description of the plant, cultivation of bilbergia in rooms, advice on transplanting and reproduction, difficulties in cultivating a flower, interesting facts, types. Bilbergia is a genus of plants belonging to the Bromeliaceae family. These representatives of the flora have a herbaceous form of growth and an evergreen non-falling deciduous mass. Due to the fact that bilbergia mainly settles on trees, it is an epiphyte. Some of the specimens of the family are actively used in home floriculture as flowering plants. Basically, almost all varieties grow in Brazil, but there are varieties that are settled in the lands of South and Central America, which include Argentina, Bolivia and the Mexican regions. That is, the climate for its growth should mainly be dry with sharp fluctuations in daily temperatures.
The plant bears its name in honor of the Swedish scientist - botanist, zoologist, naturalist, lawyer in the Court of Justice and Knight of the Order of the Pole Star Gustav Johan Bilberg, who lived in the 18th – 19th centuries. This is how Karl Peter Thunberg (1743–1728) decided to perpetuate the memory of his scientific colleague, and in 1821 he assigned the name Bilbergia to a whole genus of similar plants.
So, representatives of this genus are plants with a long life cycle, growing on trees. Bilbergia leaf plates are collected in a long rosette in the form of a tube, in which rainwater accumulates. The shape of its leaves is belt-shaped or triangular-elongated, narrow and long, there is a pointed tip at the top. The thorns are clearly visible along the edge of the sheet plate. The surface of the leaf is hard, leathery, as if covered with wrinkles due to the fine scaly that wraps the leaf on both sides. The color can be either one-color or pleasing to the eye with variegation (a pattern of different-sized spots that are formed due to a grayish chalk coating). If the illumination is increased, then in some varieties the leaves begin to turn pinkish or red.
When flowering begins (and this occurs in the summer months), then from the very center of the leaf rosette, a straight-growing flowering stem originates from the bilbergia. But the inflorescence that crowns it has drooping spike-shaped forms. Like all representatives of the bromeliad family, the bracts, which attract the eye with reddish or pink colors, give special beauty. Flowers with petals are arranged in a spiral order or rolled up into a tube. When the flowering is over, the fruit ripens in the form of a berry.
Due to the fact that the plant has a constant formation of side shoots, the bush grows strongly over time, containing multiple individual leaf rosettes. The height of such a formation of bilbergia can reach 40-60 cm. The first flowering begins only 3 years after the young plant is planted. But as soon as the flowering process is over, the mother rosette gradually dies off and, thanks to the creeping stem or the rhizome of the bush itself, the growth of a new young bush begins. This young leafy rosette will bloom the next season. When bilbergia is old enough, it has multiple rosettes with narrow funnel-shaped outlines, which can delight with their simultaneous flowering. When all the flowers have faded, then after a month or two it is necessary to remove the old rosettes. If you take care of the bush with due attention, then you can achieve another flowering in the month of April.
Most often, due to the size of bilbergia, it is decorated with spacious rooms, large halls or winter gardens. If you cultivate it in a room, then it is better to select miniature varieties. When conditions permit, then with the help of this beautifully flowering plant, you can even green external rooms - balconies, terraces, and the like.
In care, the plant is very unpretentious and even a novice florist can cope with it if he adheres to the following rules.
Agricultural technology in the cultivation of bilbergia, care
- Lighting. It is better to put the flower pot on the southeast or southwest window, where there is enough light, but there is no direct sunlight. If the plant stands on the window of a southern location, then shading will be required at noon in the summer. Bilbergia is not afraid of drafts and loves frequent airing. In summer, you can take it out to the garden or balcony.
- Temperature cultivation should be in the range of 18-20 degrees in autumn-winter (not lower than 13), and with the arrival of spring until late autumn in the range of 20-25 degrees.
- Air humidity when keeping a flower, it will need to be increased by spraying, but dry air is not a problem for the plant. When the heat readings rise above 20 degrees, it is recommended to spray with soft warm water. To reduce dryness, you can place the pot on damp moss or expanded clay, laid in a deep pan with water. The bottom of the flowerpot should not touch the liquid.
- Watering. The substrate in the pot should always be moist, but stagnant moisture threatens to rot the roots. When the wintering is cool, the moisture is reduced (once every 7 days, when the soil on top dries up). The water should be soft and warm. Often, liquid is poured into the funnel of the leaf outlet, but if the temperature is not lower than 20 degrees. When the flowering is over, moisture should not get into the funnel, as this will lead to rotting of the bush.
- Fertilizers brought in in the spring-summer months every 2 weeks. Use feeding for bromeliads or flowering indoor plants, only halve the dose.
- Transplanting and soil selection. Any universal soil is suitable for growing bilbergia. You can also mix leafy soil, high-moor peat, humus and add river sand and chopped sphagnum moss.
You will have to change the pot when the bush grows strongly or the roots begin to creep out of the container. A good drainage layer is laid at the bottom. The pot needs a wide, but not deep one. Since the plant is epiphytic, it can be grown on driftwood or tree bark.
The possibility of self-propagation of bilbergia
You can get a new plant by planting seeds or root rosettes (children or offspring).
Before sowing the seeds, they must be washed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and slightly dried. Seed material is sown into a peat-sandy substrate. The container with crops is covered with a piece of glass or wrapped in a plastic bag. The germination temperature is maintained at about 21 degrees. You will need to regularly ventilate and moisten the soil from a spray bottle if necessary. As soon as the leaves develop on the sprouts, the airing time is increased, accustoming the plant to the air in the room. As soon as 2-3 leaves develop on young bilbergia, the sprouts are transplanted in separate pots with suitable soil.
When a plant is transplanted (it is better to do this in March), then there is the possibility of separating root suckers. As soon as the lateral shoots and babies of Bilbergia reach 20 cm in height, they can be broken off (cut off) from the mother bush. The slices are powdered with crushed activated charcoal or charcoal, and the cuttings wither for several hours, in a place with a low temperature and good ventilation.
Children are planted in soil based on leafy soil, humus and river sand (in proportions 1: 1: 2) or a substrate of coarse sand, fine expanded clay or gravel, perlite with long-fiber peat soil. You can take soil suitable for planting adult specimens and mix coarse sand into it. The temperature for rooting is maintained within the range of 22-26 degrees, and bottom heating of the soil is required. The cuttings are covered with a glass jar or plastic bag - this will create conditions with high humidity. The main thing is that the shelter does not touch the leaves of the baby, otherwise decay from drops of moisture may begin. The pot with plants is placed in a well-lit place, but without direct sunlight, with high levels of humidity and heat. It is possible to carry out heating and supplementary lighting with fluorescent lamps. You will need to arrange daily ventilation (10-15 minutes) and moisten the soil if it dries out, avoiding drying and flooding. Rooting takes place within a month. A sign of the successful appearance of the roots will be new leaves that have appeared from the center of the leaf outlet.
You can also divide the rhizome of the old Bilbergia bush during transplantation by carefully cutting the root system. Such delenki are planted in prepared pots with a substrate suitable for adult plants. The new bushes obtained in this way begin to bloom the next season.
Problems when cultivating a plant at home
All problems with the cultivation of bilbergia are associated with a violation of the conditions for caring for a flower, while the following troubles can be distinguished:
- with a sunburn, pale brownish spots appear on the foliage, you will need to rearrange the plant away from direct sunlight or arrange shading;
- if you water the bilbergia with hard water or moisture stagnates in the funnel of the leaf outlet, then the tips of the foliage will turn brown;
- when the plant has not yet bloomed (and we remember that when the inflorescence withers, the rosette dies) and began to show signs of withering away, then the soil in the pot was overmoistened;
- the leaf rosette becomes loose and falls apart in all directions when the illumination of the bilbergia is not enough.
Damage by harmful insects also happens: scale insects, mealybugs, aphids or spider mites. These pests settle on leaves, which begin to turn yellow, deform and die off. On the sticky sugary secretions of insects, a sooty fungus parasitizes. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully inspect the flower and if the specified symptoms are noticed, then treatment with an insecticidal agent is carried out (for example, karbofos or actellik, 15-20 drops of the drug are taken per liter of water).
Interesting facts about bilbergia
Bilbergia has the property of releasing volatile substances from its foliage, which have a phytoncidal effect. That is, with their help, a number of pathogenic microorganisms are destroyed. There is also an active enrichment of the entire environment with organic and mineral substances. All this contributes to the negative ionization of the air in the room, there are more ions that are so useful to the human body. This creates a healthy "electrostatics". The plant helps to absorb strong and loud sounds while creating a cozy and comfortable environment.
The energy of belbergia tends to spread from the bush in the form of concentric circles, which help to neutralize negative and negative aura and emotions. The plant is recommended to grow for people who have a lack of perseverance, the ability to concentrate on one, the most important thing in time, as well as those who have a hard time remembering new information. Bilbergia helps to eliminate these shortcomings, helps to develop logic in oneself and maintain mental alertness, stimulates the owner and all those present to fully develop and seek new knowledge. Even according to Feng Shui, the plant is a symbol of spirituality and life wisdom.
Types of bilbergia
- Bilbergia pyramidal (Billbergia pyramidalis) is a species that grows on the soil surface. A rosette in the form of an elongated funnel is formed from a small number of leaf plates. The leaf plates are distinguished by broad-linear outlines and having a sharpness at the top. Their length reaches 60–80 cm with a width of 5–6 cm. The color of the leaf surface is bright green. The inflorescences practically grow straight up, have a pink tint and a strong dense curl at the very base of the inflorescence. The inflorescence group is distinguished by straight or almost straight growth, it can be pyramidal, corymbose or short-cylindrical in shape. Its length does not exceed 15 cm, it casts a white-tomentose dense pubescence. Bracts are small enough. The flowers are attached to short pedicels. At the buds, the sepals are fused, painted in pale red tones, the petals are shaped like tongues of a bright carmine-red color, their length is much greater than the size of the stamens. The flowering process stretches from mid-spring to July.
- Bilbergia drooping (Billbergia nutans). It is a plant with an epiphytic form of growth, in which an elongated leaf rosette is also formed. Only in this variety, the leaf plates have narrow outlines. They are linear in shape with tapering towards the apex. In length, their parameters vary in the range of 60–70 cm with a width of only 1–2 cm. The edge is decorated with thorns. The shade of the foliage is green, but if the lighting is too strong, then a reddish or bronze tint is mixed in. The flowering stem is thin and long, drooping. The inflorescences are pink. The flowering process occurs in the winter.
- Bilbergia magnifica has an elongated outlet. The outlines of the leaves are linear with a pointed tip at the top. The surface of the leaf plate is dense and rigid, the edge is decorated with spikes. The length of the leaf reaches 70–80 cm with a width of 6–8 cm. The color of the foliage is bluish-greenish, along the entire surface from the outside there is a pattern of transverse stripes of a light tone. The inflorescence is loose, drooping, reaching a length of 20–30 cm. The flowering stem (axis) has strong pubescence. The leaves on the peduncle and the bracts of the lower buds are large, oval or slightly elongated. They are asymmetrical in appearance and have slight pubescence. Flower petals are linear; during flowering, they can twist in the form of a spiral. In length, their dimensions reach 7 cm. At the very top, they are painted in a blue tint, the anthers are the same. The fruit ripens in the form of a berry. The flowering process takes place in the summer.
- Bilbergia green-flowered (Billbergia viridiflor) - a large epiphyte, in which the leaf rosette is thicker than that of the above-described variety. Linear-elongated leaves have a pointed tip and a serrated edge. Their length is 60–70 cm with a width of up to 5–6 cm. The color of the foliage is bright green, the entire surface is covered with small gray scales. The inflorescences are painted in bright pink tones, grow straight. The petals of the bud are up to 4–5 cm long, and their color is green. Flowering lasts from early spring to late summer months.
- Bilbergia zebra (Billbergia zebrina). The leaf plates of this flower, under the bright rays of the sun, begin to gradually acquire a purple-bronze color with a beautiful pattern of transverse silver stripes. Flowers are collected in a loose racemose inflorescence. The flowering stem has a pink color and bright pinkish bracts.
- Bilbergia tape (Billbergia vittata) The flowers are dark blue in color, located on a pink flowering stem, it is decorated with bract petals with a rich bright pink color.
- Bilbergia Saundersii. The height of the rosette is 30 cm. The color of the leaves is green-bronze above, below it is reddish-brown, there are also yellowish-pink spots, specks and stripes.
More information about Bilbergia in this video:
