General features, agricultural techniques for the cultivation of irezin at home, recommendations for reproduction, pest and disease control, interesting facts, types. Iresine (Iresine) belongs to the genus of plants attributed to the Amaranth family, or as it is also called the Shchiritsevs (Amaranthaceae). The representatives of the flora that are included in this family are dicotyledonous plants - that is, their two cotyledons, which are in the embryo, have opposite placement (opposite each other). Basically, such samples of nature grow in the form of annual or perennial grasses and like to settle in open areas. They can also grow as shrubs or, in rare cases, take the form of trees. The very same irezine takes all sorts of forms: climbing grass or shrubs, as well as a half-shrub or a low tree. The native area of its distribution falls on the territory of the continents of both Americas, and also this "green inhabitant" of the planet is found on the lands of the Australian continent, in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The genus includes up to 80 varieties of such plants.
Its name "rastuha" is due to the translation of the Greek word "eiros" or "eirion", which means "wool". Such a name was given to irezina for the abundant pubescence of flowers and resulting fruits.
In height, its shoots can vary within 20-60 cm. Branches are often painted in reddish or purple tones. The same shade is present in leafy cuttings. Shoots grow erect, extend over the surface of the soil, or branch out.
The pride of this plant is the highly decorative color of the leaf plates, most often there is a green, purple, bright crimson or golden hue, depending on the variety. That is, a sheet plate may have a purple color scheme, and a pattern of veins painted in a bright crimson tone goes over the entire surface. The outlines of the leaf also vary - it can be elliptical, broad-lanceolate or lanceolate outlines. At the apex, there is either a strong sharpening or a heart-shaped notch. The arrangement of leaves on the branches is opposite, they are whole-edged or with sharp serration at the edge.
During flowering, completely uninteresting flowers are formed, which are often collected in a spike-shaped or capitate inflorescence. The size of the flowers is very small, the color is yellowish-whitish. After flowering, the fruit ripens in the form of a box.
The plant is a real rarity and is not often found on the shelves of flower shops, so here are tips for the care and propagation of this highly decorative bush.
Growing irezine, caring for a flower at home
- Lighting and location selection. For growing this bush with brightly colored leaves, window sills of all windows are suitable, except for the northern orientation. But even there irezine will be nice if you carry out illumination with the help of fluorescent lamps or special phytolamps for at least 14 hours a day. The same will have to be done during the entire autumn-winter period in any other location of the flowerpot. However, having placed the plant on the sill of the south window, you should take care of shading in the hottest midday hours so that direct sunlight does not cause sunburn to the foliage. If you teach such direct descendants of ultraviolet radiation, then this should be done gradually, but the slightest frost will lead to the rapid death of this unusual bush. It is curious that the color of the foliage changes with the degree of brightness of the illumination; in the shade it becomes more green and dim.
- Temperature with the content of irezine, it must be kept within the range from 15 to 25 degrees in the spring-summer months, and with the arrival of autumn, the heat indices can be reduced so that they do not go beyond the range of 15–20 degrees. If the thermometer shows a mark below 12 units for a long time, then the plant will start to rot, the deciduous mass will be dumped and the irezine will die. But when in the summer heat the heat indices increase greatly, the leaf plates will lose their turgor. And to resume decorativeness, you will need to rearrange the flowerpot with a bush to a cooler place.
- Air humidity when growing a plant, it does not play a big role, since irezine perfectly tolerates low humidity levels in rooms. However, she will be grateful for spraying in the summer heat and will answer with the richness of the color of the leaves. Use only warm and soft water.
- Watering. In order for irezine to feel comfortable, the signal for moistening should be the state of the substrate on the soil surface, as soon as it dries out (if you take it in a pinch, it easily crumbles) - it is worth watering. In winter, watering is reduced, but complete drying of the earthen coma should not be allowed. If the heat indicators in the autumn-winter time approached the level of 16 degrees, then it is generally better to refuse humidification. In this case, only soft water at room temperature (about 20-24 degrees) is used. You can use rain or river water, then in a city it is often polluted. In this case, you can take distilled water, or tap water is passed through a filter, boiled and allowed to settle for several days. Then it is carefully drained from the container, trying to leave a sediment.
- Fertilizers irezine are applied year-round, but from the beginning of the activation of vegetation processes (from spring to early autumn), the regularity of dressings is carried out once a week, with the use of mineral and organic preparations - they should be alternated. With the arrival of winter, this brightly colored bush should be fertilized only once a month (not more often) and the dosage of drugs should be halved.
- Transplantation and selection of soil. If irezin is grown as an annual, then it does not need transplants. Otherwise, frequent transplantation will still not be needed, since the root system will reach its maximum volume by the age of three. It is recommended to pour a layer of drainage material on the bottom of the new container to prevent root rot. Medium expanded clay or pebbles, crushed brick are used as drainage. When transplanting, a substrate with a low or neutral acidity level is used. You can independently prepare a soil mixture by combining a sod substrate, deciduous soil, humus, peat soil and river coarse sand in a ratio of 4: 4: 2: 1: 1.
- Carrying out pruning of the bush. Since the plant grows its branches quite quickly, irezin can easily be given the forms that are necessary for the owner. This is done by pinching overgrown shoots. The operation is carried out at any time of the year, since this brightly colored beauty tolerates the molding of its crown without any problems.
Rules for self-breeding irezin
When propagating this brightly colored bush, cuttings or sowing of seed material is carried out.
The method of planting cuttings is the fastest and most frequently used. In the period of early spring (in February-March), as soon as the plant begins to wake up, cut the cuttings from the tops of the shoots, so that the length of the branch is about 10 cm. It is advisable to use young bushes for cutting, which have not yet deteriorated decorative signs. Cuttings should be treated with a root stimulant, such as Kornevin or heteroauxin, and planted in pots filled with sand. At the same time, it is important to maintain heat indicators around 20 degrees. As a rule, cuttings take root after 9-10 days. Then they are planted in several pieces in pots, at the bottom of which the substrate is laid and the soil more suitable for further growth is poured (for example, leaf, humus and sod soil in 2 parts). As the irezine plants grow, it is recommended to pinch to stimulate branching, otherwise young specimens will begin to shed their foliage.
Seed material is sown in early spring in a container filled with sand or sandy-peat substrate. Then the container is covered with a polyethylene bag or placed under glass to create greenhouse conditions with high humidity and heat. The temperature during germination is maintained within the range of 20-22 degrees. It is important not to forget to ventilate and moisturize the substrate. As soon as sprouts appear, the shelter is removed and after the formation of a real pair of leaf plates, young specimens of irezine dive in separate pots, 2-3 pieces each. When their height reaches 10-15 cm, pinching is carried out to form the subsequent outlines of the bush.
Tips for controlling pests and diseases of the irezine flower
Often, of the problems that are encountered when growing irezine, there are:
- dumping of deciduous mass and exposing the stems in young plants occurs when the pruning of the shoots was carried out at the wrong time or an unworthy level of lighting in the room where the irezine is kept, if the bush is adult, then there is no reason for excitement - this is a natural process of renewing the deciduous mass;
- if the shoots began to stretch ugly and become thinner, then this indicates that the plant does not have enough lighting - the pot with a bush is transferred to a brighter place or they begin to illuminate with special phytolamps;
- if watering in the summer period is insufficient or, on the contrary, the substrate has been flooded, then the leaves of irezine may also begin to fall off - it is important to level the moisture regime.
Of the pests that infect this representative of the flora, thrips, spider mites, scale insects, aphids, whiteflies and mealybugs are isolated. To begin with, brightly colored foliage must be washed under streams of warm shower, covering the soil in the pot with plastic wrap. Then, the leaves are rubbed with non-chemical preparations:
- Soap solution, which is prepared from grated laundry soap (200 grams of soap is dissolved in a bucket of water), or you can dilute any dishwashing detergent. The liquid is infused for 2-3 hours, then filtered and ready for use. It is important during the treatment to cover the soil with a plastic bag, preventing the product from getting on the roots, otherwise the death of the plant will be inevitable. The saponified foliage is left in this state for 3-4 hours, then the product must be washed off, and the irezine must be covered with a plastic bag and kept there for 24 hours at high humidity.
- An alcoholic solution made on the basis of a pharmacy alcoholic tincture of calendula, diluted with water, since the smell of this drug repels pests.
- An oil solution that is prepared from 2-3 drops of rosemary oil, diluted in a liter of water.
- You can use tinctures of garlic or onion peels when 30 grams of crushed garlic is insisted in a bucket of water (within 24 hours) or 200 grams of onion peels (for 12 hours). Then the product is filtered and wiping or spraying of the irezine foliage is carried out.
If sparing non-chemical agents cannot cope with harmful insects, then they use so-called "heavy artillery" - insecticidal preparations, such as "Aktellik", "Aktara" or "Fitoverm".
Interesting facts about irezine
It is customary to use the plant in landscape design when decorating borders or ground cover glades of beautifully shaded foliage in winter gardens. Also used to create flower arrangements. Young specimens of irezine are most valued, since the color of their foliage is more saturated. To date, many varietal varieties have been bred, which differ in the size of the leaf plates and their color.
In culture, irezine has been known since 1737 and at that time it was very popular. Often, with the help of brightly colored foliage, it was customary to decorate park beds or country gardens of landowners and aristocrats. Often, such bushes were planted in stone vases, placed along paths or lawns. But over time, the addiction to this representative of the flora gradually faded away and at this time this half-forgotten exotic is just beginning to gain the ranks of admirers from florists and gardeners.
Types of irezine
Irezine lindenii (Iresine lindenii) is a herbaceous perennial, in which places of natural distribution occur in the rainforests of Ecuador. In height, the stem with a red-brown tint can reach up to half a meter. The leaf plates have a dark red tint and their surface is pierced by thin veins of a bright crimson color. The shape of the leaf is lanceolate or oval-lanceolate, the length of the leaf often reaches 6 cm, there is a strong sharpening at the top. When flowering, nondescript flowers are formed with petals painted in yellowish-whitish tones. Against the background of bright foliage, they are hardly noticeable.
If timely pruning is carried out, then the trunk begins to actively branch, releasing young shoots, completely covered with leaves. These branches grow very quickly and soon you can get a real blanket of red-raspberry deciduous mass near the house.
There are quite popular garden forms:
- Iresine lindenii emersonii has stems and leaf petioles of red color, and the leaf blades themselves are deep green in color with a pattern of yellowish veins;
- Iresine lindenii Formosa has red leaves with a bronze tone, varieties with green leaf plates and red veins have also been bred.
Iresene Herbsta (Iresine herbstii) also has a herbaceous form of growth and a long life cycle. In the old days, the variety was practically the most popular in this genus. Most often, in natural conditions, it is found in Brazil in tropical moist forests. The height of reddish shoots can fluctuate between 20-40 cm. The leaf plates are rounded, in the upper part they resemble a heart with their outlines - notched (or, as they say, bipartite) at the apex. The color of the foliage is dark purple, along the surface there is a pattern of veins of bright red color.
There are also garden forms with a different color of foliage:
- Iresine herbstii aureoreticulata, in which the shade of shoots and leaf stalks is red, and the leaf plates themselves are with a beautiful green tone, along which there is patterning with veins of golden and reddish color;
- Iresine herbstii wallisi has leaves of a fairly small size, but, despite the low height of the bush, branching is highly developed, the leaf plates are shaded with a red-metallic color;
- Iresine herbsti acuminate differs in foliage with a pointed tip and a bright red tint;
- Iresine herbsti brilliantissima possesses inherent notched tops, as the parent variety, the color of the foliage is very bright purple-red, with bright crimson veins on the surface.
Iresine acuminata is distinguished by leafy plates with a strong sharpening at the top in the form of peaks. The color of the foliage is intense - dark purple. All veins are set off by a bright crimson color scheme. The taper of the foliage is slightly less than that of Iresine Linden, but this species is more similar to the variety Iresine herbsti acuminate. In horticulture, these varieties are used with equal success.
See more about growing irezine and caring for a flower in the following video:
