Room Alyssum - "pillows" Of Flowers And Honey Aroma. Home Care. Photo

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Room Alyssum - "pillows" Of Flowers And Honey Aroma. Home Care. Photo
Room Alyssum - "pillows" Of Flowers And Honey Aroma. Home Care. Photo

Video: Room Alyssum - "pillows" Of Flowers And Honey Aroma. Home Care. Photo

Video: Room Alyssum - "pillows" Of Flowers And Honey Aroma. Home Care. Photo
Video: Proven Winners Supertunia Priscilla. 2024, March
Anonim

The lush blooming clouds of alyssum look inimitable in the spring garden. It is one of the easiest cushion plants to grow and flower without much maintenance. And definitely one of the most fragrant. The enchanting honey cloud above the lace of the alyssum can be enjoyed not only in parks and gardens. After all, even those who do not have their own garden can grow alissums at home - and not only on balconies. Slightly changing its character, alyssum, nevertheless, remains a non-capricious plant and rather hardy. But you still have to take care of him carefully.

Room alyssum - "pillows" of flowers and honey aroma
Room alyssum - "pillows" of flowers and honey aroma

Content:

  • Indoor alissum - plant description
  • Types and varieties of indoor alissum
  • Growing conditions for indoor alissum
  • Alyssum care at home
  • Diseases, pests and problems in the cultivation of alissum
  • Reproduction of alissum

Indoor alissum - plant description

Despite the fact that alyssums have long been reclassified into another genus of plants - lobularia - their old name is still the most popular. It is not overshadowed by even modest folk nicknames, from the "beetroot" that is completely unsuitable for such a lush plant to the "stone-stone" that directly indicates the love for light soils.

Alyssum, or Sea Lobularia (Lobularia maritima, Alyssum maritimum) are very beautiful pillow, abundantly flowering perennials, which are most often grown in garden culture as summer plants, but are quite capable of wintering in open ground in a mild climate or stored indoors.

The rapid degeneration of alyssum is the main reason that the plant is abandoned. But the status of one of the easiest plants to reproduce, alissums received not by chance. New plants are so easy to grow that replacing the bushes is not difficult.

In a room culture, with proper care and keeping conditions, alissum can be grown as an annual, but if kept cool for the winter, it can act as a perennial, delighting for 2-3 years.

Alyssum bushes are very dense, consisting of hundreds of straight, densely leafy shoots. They expand like pillows and they are exactly what they resemble - spreading, voluminous, very bright.

In windy places and when planting on slopes, shoots can lie down, bend over, creating the effect of a "combed" bush. This property is used in rooms when planting in mixed compositions and growing in flowerpots with legs, when alissums seem to flow from the edges of the pots. The maximum height of alyssum is limited to 30 cm, indoor plants are often much more compact.

The leaves of alyssum are lanceolate, in some species they are lanceolate-ovate, with a pointed tip. They sit very densely on the shoots. Small, dark green, most often with a light bluish bloom and edge, which can be either almost invisible or rather fluffy on young leaves, they seem to attract light to themselves and create a dark rich background for abundant flowering. In a potted form, foliage is no less a decoration of a plant than its flowering.

Alyssum, or Lobularia maritima
Alyssum, or Lobularia maritima

Alyssum bloom

Alyssum inflorescences are racemose, very dense, apical. Due to the number and density of the location of the shoots, they merge into a single continuous cap above the greenery. It is difficult to see individual flowers on alyssum - small, almost inconspicuous, they surprise with their simplicity and elegance.

The flowers are regular, with four petals sitting crosswise, for the most part they look festive, elegant and almost wedding. Snow-white alissums give the impression of white foam or lace, but this effect is typical for colored species and varieties to the same extent. In pots, curly, like flowering clouds, seem especially spectacular and elegant.

The color scheme of indoor alissums repeats the garden one. They can be snow-white, pink, and lilac, and quite dark purple. Light alissums seem to beat off sunlight on the windowsills, but purple ones calm, refresh, expand the space.

Alyssums bloom at the beginning, and with late sowing - in the middle of summer and delight until the end of the brightest and hottest season. Even in rooms, they rarely change habits and bloom at traditional times. If flowering stops, then the bushes can always be cut off by starting a second wave.

Aroma is the main pride of alyssum. They literally wrap the space around them in a trail of surprisingly sweet, sugary-bitter and honey aroma. Alissums smell more intense during the day.

Types and varieties of indoor alissum

Despite the fact that sea alyssum remains the most popular type of plant for indoor culture, another type of alyssum, rock alyssum, can be transferred to pots. By the irony of this plant according to the botanical classification is also far from alyssum and Aurina rock (Aurinia saxatilis, the old name Alyssum saxatile).

This is a very beautiful dwarf shrub, somewhat taller, often developing in the form of an almost spherical pillow with broadly lanceolate, larger leaves with a grayish color. Its main advantages are winter greenness and dazzling yellow color of flowers, which create a charming lace over the greenery and sit in loose inflorescences.

Alyssum marine has many very interesting varieties that differ in shades of color. Usually the name of the variety already indicates the shade of future flowering or the nature of growth - from a special bushy dwarf variety 'Tiny Tim' to pink-apricot 'New Apricot', snow-white 'Snow Crystal', pink-salmon 'Salmon', watercolor-cream 'Paletta ', purple' Oriental Night ', purple' Violet Konigin ', candy pink' Easter Bonnet Pink 'and dark raspberry' Easter Deep Rose '.

Alyssum rocky, or Aurinia rocky (Aurinia saxatilis)
Alyssum rocky, or Aurinia rocky (Aurinia saxatilis)

Growing conditions for indoor alissum

Like all garden plants, alyssum moves into rooms reluctantly, requiring certain conditions. He prefers stable coolness and cold wintering, is extremely demanding on lighting. But there is nothing impossible in the list of requirements of this plant.

Alyssums in indoor format can be grown as annuals, replacing them with new bushes (keeping mother plants for spring or growing new seedlings from seeds) or as perennials with a winter dormant period and several pruning per year. Alyssums will still not please for decades, but they are able to hold out for several seasons.

Lighting and placement

Alyssum requires the brightest possible lighting. Plants can be damaged by the midday sun, but it is still best to expose them in the most illuminated places in the house. In the room, alissum cannot be used to decorate the interior; they can find comfortable lighting only on the windowsill. If there is no way to provide them with optimal lighting, it is better to move them to a balcony or loggia, veranda, terrace, garden for the summer.

Alissums grow well on western, partly southern windows and southern windows.

Alyssums grow equally well both as a potted groundcover with spreading shoots and as an ampelous plant, which can be used for hanging pots and cascades, decorating shelves and multi-level compositions. They do a good job with the role of "substrate" for large trees and shrubs.

Alissums feel great in the kitchen and in spacious rooms, where bright seasonal accents are lacking. They perfectly complement greenhouse plants as long as they maintain optimal lighting.

When placing alissum, you should think about their aroma: the rooms in which they rest are not very suitable for a plant with such an intensely sweet aroma. Fortunately, alyssum is not a night flower.

Plants do an excellent job of aromatizing space in rooms, creating a festive atmosphere, setting a special mood, but nevertheless, it is better to choose a place for them carefully. When deciding to bring alissums to the interior or to the balcony, it is worth checking whether everyone at home will like their smell.

Indoor alissum will be happy to spend the summer outdoors
Indoor alissum will be happy to spend the summer outdoors

Temperature regime and ventilation

Alyssums are thermophilic plants that, during the period of active growth, feel better in temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius. They are not afraid of heat, but the more stable and milder the temperature, the longer the alissums will bloom.

Room temperatures for alyssum are more suitable throughout the entire period of active growth, from early spring to late autumn. During the period of abundant flowering, it is best to lower the temperatures to 18 degrees and expose the alissums in the coolest place at home, if possible.

When the temperature rises to 25 degrees, an increase in air humidity is necessarily introduced into the care program. But all the same, high temperatures will affect the duration of flowering of alyssum.

If they want to give the bushes a try to bloom again next year, it is worth organizing the coolest winter possible for them. Alissums keep well at temperatures around 5 degrees. The maximum permissible wintering rates are 10 degrees.

Even if the plant does not actively grow and loses its decorative effect, spring shoots can be used to quickly root a new generation of indoor alissums. Despite the fact that alyssums are able to withstand negative temperatures, it is better not to expose indoor plants to such stress.

Alyssums are one of the plants that do not like disturbances in free air circulation around the bushes. Plants are best placed at some distance from walls and other crops, so that the air evenly penetrates along the entire perimeter of the bushes.

Alissums love airing and grow very poorly without it, but strong drafts with temperature drops are also contraindicated for them. When exposed to the balcony or garden for the summer, it is better to take care of choosing a protected place.

Indoor alissums can change their status at any time and can easily move to balconies and even to open soil.

If you feed alyssum regularly, but not in large quantities, it will delight with flowering all summer
If you feed alyssum regularly, but not in large quantities, it will delight with flowering all summer

Alyssum care at home

Protecting alyssum from waterlogging with fairly frequent watering is the main difficulty that can be encountered in growing alissum in a new format. They are very sensitive to a lack of nutrients and to excessive feeding, they react extremely badly to a lack of trimming and sanitization.

Alissums can be advised for those who like to constantly “communicate” with plants and surround them with care. It is better to grow them as a room culture only with the experience of transferring them to other summer rooms.

Watering and air humidity

Alyssums in a pot format require even more accurate watering than garden ones. They fully inherit their drought tolerance and will not be affected if the substrate dries out completely for a short time. But they are vulnerable to waterlogging and dampness. Too abundant, frequent watering, stagnant water lead to the death of the plant.

When watering alissums, it is worth letting the substrate dry at least half. During flowering, you can change watering by drying the soil in the top layer. It is better not to allow the water in the pan to stagnate. Drought shortens flowering time. But the lethargic appearance of the shoots should not be scary: usually, after watering, the plant quickly restores turgor.

Alissums in summer quite actively use moisture reserves and may require daily watering. The degree of drying of the substrate should be checked more often.

For a dormant period, if alyssums are kept as perennials, watering is slowly reduced, allowing the substrate to dry out almost completely and focusing on the temperatures of the content.

For indoor alissum, only boiled, melted, rain or filtered water is suitable.

Watering for alyssum must be done very carefully. Wetting greens and shoots in indoor conditions will quickly lead to a loss of decorative plants.

Air humidity is not important for alyssum. But not when keeping them in the heat. In the summer months, you need to take care of additional water procedures, compensating for uncomfortable temperatures by mist spraying, installing pallets and containers with moistened decorative materials. In autumn, winter and early spring, any moisture measures should not be taken.

Top dressing and composition of fertilizers

Despite its abundant flowering and dependence on the quality of the soil, the indoor alissum does not like too active dressing. For him, fertilizers are applied in liquid form, along with water for irrigation, in half the concentration compared to the manufacturer's recommendations.

The optimal frequency of feeding is once every 3 or 4 weeks. More active fertilizing can be carried out at the beginning of flowering, more rare - before its beginning and from the second half of summer.

Feeding is carried out for alissum only from the beginning of active growth until the end of flowering.

For alyssums, universal full mineral fertilizers are suitable. In indoor conditions, organic fertilizers for the plant will only benefit. But it is worth choosing high-quality products with controlled characteristics from among biofertilizers and humus mixtures. During the flowering period, the composition of fertilizers can be changed by starting to apply fertilizers to beautifully flowering crops.

Room alissum looks inimitable in ampel form
Room alissum looks inimitable in ampel form

Pruning and shaping alyssum

Alyssums look better the more regularly wilting inflorescences are removed. After all, a sloppy look with the effect of a continuous covering of flowers with lace spoils the overall impression too much.

Pinching the tops of the shoots at an early stage of development accelerates the thickening and growth of the plant. On alissum, several haircuts can be done over the summer, especially if indoor plants bloom less abundantly. They not only recover well, but also bloom quite quickly again.

The standard pruning level for this houseplant is 1/3 of the height. Removing damaged or drying shoots, dry leaves allows you to keep the bushes neat. And the removal of the lateral, most spreading shoots around the perimeter of the bush stimulates more lush flowering of the bulk of the branches on the bushes.

If the alissums are kept for the winter, the bushes are pruned more strongly in early spring, after transplanting, leaving short stumps or 1/3 of the height to stimulate their renewal.

Transplant, containers and substrate

The need for alissum transplant directly depends on the quality in which they are grown. If the alissums are kept as perennials, then the plants are transplanted at the first signs of the beginning of growth in the spring, carefully transferring them into new containers after pruning.

If the plants are saved for spring cuttings or will be replaced with new bushes, considering them as an annual, then there is no need to transplant and the rules are enough to follow when planting seedlings and rooted cuttings in permanent containers. One of the features of alyssum is that they tolerate transplanting well, even when flowering, but only if they are carefully transferred.

This garden and indoor plant is completely undemanding to the soil. It is enough to choose a universal, water- and air-permeable substrate, consisting of several components and necessarily including sod soil and sand.

Alissums love perlite, vermiculite and other loosening additives, which are best added to any, even the highest quality substrate. The optimal pH value for alissum is from 5.5 to 6.5.

Alissums can be grown in automatic irrigation systems or with the introduction of a hydrogel to create a stable moisture content. They are not very suitable for hydroponics. But otherwise they demonstrate amazing adaptability to alternative cultivation methods.

Alissums are not very fond of deep containers, preferring to grow in well-drained containers that are wider than tall. A very high drainage layer is laid at the bottom of the tanks, mainly from pebbles, shards, crushed stone or large expanded clay.

When transplanting alissums, it is important to ensure that the same level of deepening is maintained. The plant does not like dropping shoots and can quickly die from rot if watering is inaccurate. It is advisable not to destroy the earthen lump during transplantation and keep it intact. Otherwise, there are no tricks in planting a plant. It is enough to take care of high-quality watering and maintenance in "average" conditions after planting and transplanting.

Alyssum is one of the easiest plants to propagate
Alyssum is one of the easiest plants to propagate

Diseases, pests and problems in the cultivation of alissum

Alyssums are not always easy to grow in rooms. At the slightest violation of the stable moisture content, the plant can shed its buds, and the wrong selection of top dressing leads to an excessive build-up of green mass or to a too sloppy appearance and poor growth of pillows.

Alissums very often suffer from rot, which threaten them not only with improper watering, but also with inaccurate watering and water ingress on the stems. They can become infected with powdery mildew, rust, leaf mosaics and late blight, especially when kept outdoors.

If damaged by rot, you can try to save the bushes by quickly correcting the conditions and applying fungicides. In other cases, it is easier to replace the bushes with new plants than to fight diseases.

Pests on this culture in a room format are extremely rare. Indoor alissums are the favorites of mealybugs. But insect problems threaten plants only in infected collections when they are adjacent to already diseased plants.

Reproduction of alissum

It is one of the easiest plants to propagate. Alyssums are propagated by seeds, do not require any tricks, standard sowing is quite suitable for them. The ease of germination can be judged by the fact that alyssums very often self-seeding in open soil.

Sowing seeds of alissum is best done together with the first annuals - in the third decade of February or the first decade of March, if possible, organize constant supplementary lighting - in January.

Sowing is carried out in medium-sized and shallow containers with drainage holes, scattering seeds as rarely as possible. The soil should be nutritious and loose. It is pre-moistened by scattering the seeds over the leveled surface and covering them with only a few millimeters of substrate or sand.

Under a film or glass, in good lighting and at a stable temperature above 20 degrees, shoots appear very quickly. Diving is carried out by several seedlings in one pot, after the release of the 4th-5th leaf. The sooner the bushes begin to form, the better. A simple pinch allows plants to create dense cushions faster.

Alyssums can be propagated vegetatively. If the bushes persist until spring, then young shoots can be used for cuttings. Plants will develop very quickly and will create beautiful pillows earlier than competitors grown from seeds.

Rooting of alissum cuttings can be carried out in water, sand or substrate, without a hood. Plants are also planted in several pieces in one container, following the general transplantation rules.

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